THE DLESE NEW YORK REVIEWED COLLECTION OF LABS, LESSONS, AND ACTIVITIES

Many newly certified Earth Science teachers in New York State have expressed a need for classroom materials that relate directly to content and standards in the NY Core Curriculum in Earth Science. Supported by a grant from the Digital Library for Earth Science Education (DLESE at www.dlese.org), the authors convened a group of 18 members of the New York earth science teaching community at a June 2005 workshop to begin the development of a collection of labs, lessons, and activities addressing that need. The group met at SUNY College at Oneonta and included respected high school and college educators who have contributed materially to Earth Science education efforts in New York State, particularly through participation on the NYS ESPRIT list serve for Earth Science teachers. Each participant was required to submit a minimum of 3 original standards-based activities for thorough and rigorous evaluation of science content and pedagogy by the other workshop participants. Over the course of 3 days, the group presented, revised, reviewed, and submitted more than 50 such activities to DLESE's internal review process. The result of this work is the DLESE New York State Reviewed Collection – a library of peer- and scientist-reviewed earth science classroom lessons, labs, and activities available in both .pdf and editable .doc formats. Each activity in the DLESE catalog is briefly described and linked to the standards it addresses. While the collection was designed by and for New York geoscience educators, the collection will be useful to earth science teachers anywhere. Further details on the workshop structure (that can be modeled by others), as well as sample materials and “how to” DLESE information will be provided at the poster.