EARTH SCIENCE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR K-12 TEACHERS: LEARNING FROM OVER 7 YEARS 2004-2010

The Earth System Science for Teachers Project has entered its 7^th year of funding and training of K-12 teachers. It is a project that has offered 4 different Earth Science courses, and has been an evolving partnership between Minnesota Public School Districts, a metro area community college and university. The Earth Systems Science for Teachers courses are designed for the continued mentoring and professional development of Elementary, Middle School and High School Grade Science teachers and teachers in related disciplines (where interdisciplinary curriculum teaching is done). The courses emphasize Earth systems science analysis of events and active learning techniques with a special focus on urban Earth Science education with outdoor field sites and investigations. It includes small group projects, lab assignments, and field activities at multiple sites in the Twin Cities and regional areas of Minnesota. It offers instruction in the development of Earth Science methods and lessons with an intensified emphasis on comparing rural, suburban and urban Earth Science resources, issues and related environmental quality. We highlight the comparison of urban, suburban and rural conditions, noting their uniqueness and relative differences. We recruit from high needs districts: school teachers from the Minneapolis and St. Paul districts and from across the State of MN. There is a special focus and assistance in developing contextualized Earth systems science curriculum and instruction for urban students and other areas of MN where there are students of high needs as defined by The MN Office of Higher Education under the Federal No Child Left Behind Act. The courses have evolved over 7 years to include more diverse geographic environments and geologic locations within Minnesota, a greater emphasis on outdoor field investigations using guided inquiry techniques, increased efforts to mentor teachers during the school year, and an effort to reach across disciplines in training over 150 K-12 teachers. Formative evaluation studies of this course showed that there are positive teacher development as the impact of the course.