Northeastern Section - 42nd Annual Meeting (12–14 March 2007)

Paper No. 17
Presentation Time: 1:00 PM-4:45 PM

TRANSFORMING EARTH SYSTEMS SCIENCE EDUCATION THROUGH TEACHER AND HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTION PARTNERSHIPS


BRYCE, Julia1, GRAHAM, Karen2, VARNER, Ruth3, JOHNSON, Joel1, BROWN, David4, VON DAMM, Karen5, FINKEL, Liza6, DARWISH, Abdalla7, PORTER, William8 and FURMAN, Tanya9, (1)Dept. of Earth Sciences, University of New Hampshire, 121 James Hall, Durham, NH 03824, (2)Joan and James Leitzel Center for Mathematics, Science, and Engineering Education, University of New Hampshire, 138 Parsons Hall, 23 College Rd, Durham, NH 03824, (3)Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space, University of New Hampshire, Climate Change Research Center, Morse Hall, Durham, NH 03824, (4)Dept. of Geography, University of New Hampshire, 127 James Hall, Durham, NH 03824, (5)Complex Systems Research Center, University of New Hampshire, Morse Hall, Durham, NH 03824, (6)Dept. of Education, University of New Hampshire, Morrill Hall, 62 College Rd, Durham, NH 03824, (7)Dept. of Physics, Dillard University, New Orleans, LA 70112, (8)Dept. of Geological, Environmental, and Marine Sciences, Elizabeth City State University, Campus Box 971, Elizabeth City, NC 27909, (9)Department of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University, 333 Deike Building, University Park, PA 16802, julie.bryce@unh.edu

A project led by the University of New Hampshire with its partners, Dillard University, Elizabeth City State University, and Pennsylvania State University is investigating ways to improve middle and high school education in Earth Systems Science. This NSF funded effort (GEO-0631377) is designed to 1) enhance the geoscience content knowledge of current and future teachers; 2) provide future teachers with authentic research experiences in the geosciences; 3) establish a partnership, where university graduate and undergraduate students in geosciences work with teachers in the classroom; and 4) provide teachers with best-practice teaching methods and strategies (e.g., hands-on, inquiry-based) for the classroom environment. The program's main components include a two-week intensive summer institute for current and future teachers; an eight-week research immersion experience that pairs future teachers with faculty mentors; and a scientist-in-residence program that utilizes graduate students and future teachers working in partnership in the classroom with current teachers. During the course of the project we will investigate the growth of participating teachers' content and pedagogical content knowledge, comfort level teaching specific earth system science topics, and ability to teach specific skills in the earth system sciences. In addition, the project provides the opportunity to investigate the potential of this program to serve as a national model for producing Highly Qualified Teachers in earth sciences.