NEOGEO (NORTHEAST OHIO GEOSCIENCE EDUCATION OUTREACH): PROVIDING EFFECTIVE TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES

As part of Kent State University's NSF-funded GK-12 Program, the NEOGEO (NorthEast Ohio Geoscience Education Outreach) project, we offer a three-workshop professional development series for teachers in NE Ohio. The workshops center on the theme of terrestrial, aquatic, and atmospheric interactions and the use of geospatial technology. They are: 1. SATELLITES (Students And Teachers Exploring Local Landscapes to Interpret The Earth from Space), a geospatial technology workshop offered in collaboration with OhioView; 2. Integrated Earth System Science, focusing on geological, chemical, physical and biological processes and how these interact in the Earth system; and 3. A four-day field experience to the Lake Erie Islands and surrounding localities that emphasizes the relationships between the local geology and the physical processes that have shaped northern Ohio.

Each of these workshops may be taken in succession or independently. All three have at least two NEOGEO faculty and six NEOGEO Fellows as the teaching team. Each team develops and presents inquiry-based activities designed and aligned with their own research expertise and the Ohio Academic Content Standards. For example, teachers in the SATELLITES workshop design and execute a project surrounding weather data and satellite observations. They continue this project in their classrooms with their own students. Teachers in the Earth System Science workshop explore interactions between ecology and the physical environment. They sample a local marsh revealing the degree to which a few keystone species can structure both the physical and biological aspects of the ecosystem. Teachers in the Field experience workshop measure the size and orientation of glacial grooves and striations in bedrock formations of differing lithology. They are asked to develop hypotheses to explain the different expression of these features on Kelleys Island and the Marblehead Peninsula.

We have found that a large teaching team is crucial to the success of the workshops as this provides a differential knowledge base and high student to instructor ratios. This approach significantly increases teacher satisfaction and retention of new material. Our poster will present an overview of the organization, the activities, and the evaluation of the workshop outcomes.