GEOSCIENCE FIELD COURSES FOR IN-SERVICE TEACHERS: REFLECTING ON PLACE AND PROCESS

Most geoscientists would agree that geoscience concepts are best taught in the field, however many K-12 teachers have never had the opportunity to learn in a field context. In fact, it is difficult to imagine that teachers can convey the uniqueness of the geosciences (e.g. reconstructing events over geologic time) without some field experience. Since 2005, SEIS (the Science Education Institute of the Southwest) has offered a total of 5 summer field science courses for K-12 teachers that focus on delivering placed-based science content and explicitly teaching the process of science through the lens of the field scientist. The place-based aspect of our courses is crucial. By learning about nature in their home state, quite literally in their own backyards, teachers collect knowledge, materials, and skills that are more personally meaningful to both the teachers and their students. In full-day, week-long field science courses for K-12 teachers, we integrate field and laboratory investigations with daily reflective writing. Reflective writing has been an important tool in SEIS courses for many reasons – it is a useful formative assessment tool and fosters deeper, more critical thinking about course content.

As an example, our Watersheds and Rivers course is conducted in the Jemez River watershed, in the Jemez Mountains and Valles Caldera. The watershed contains evidence of both the rich human history (modern and ancestral Pueblos, Spanish missions, logging camps, etc.) and fascinating geologic history, including Paleozoic sedimentary rocks deposited in ancient fluvial environments, late Cenozoic volcanic rocks representing caldera formation, and Quaternary terraces that document volcanic and fluvial events. Qualitative observations are used to reconstruct the geologic history of the watershed and quantitative field measurements allow teachers to calculate discharge, which they compare to a USGS stream gage. We find that fostering reflection of teachers’ thinking process and the process of science, while focusing on important differences between field and laboratory investigations of the natural world, improves teachers' self-confidence and competence in 1) conducting scientific investigations with their students and 2) relating geoscience concepts with a local, and more culturally relevant, focus.