YOU CAN TEACH EARTH SCIENCE, RIGHT? PREPARING HIGH SCHOOL BIOLOGY, CHEMISTRY, AND PHYSICS TEACHERS TO TEACH EARTH SCIENCE IN TEXAS

After several decades of effort, The Texas State Board of Education approved High School-level Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) standards for Earth and Space Science (ESS) in March of 2009. With the first classes planned for Fall 2010 implementation, there was an imminent need to prepare teachers to offer the class; a challenge because High School-level Earth Science certification has become uncommon in Texas. In an innovative partnership, the North Texas Geological Society, the Geosciences faculty at Midwestern State University and administrators and teachers within Wichita Falls ISD developed a focused in-service teacher short course designed to prepare local High School Science teachers with the needed content knowledge and understanding of the ESS TEKS; of five scheduled to teach the class, only one was trained in Earth Science.

The short course, which was first offered in June of 2010, was designed specifically around the TEKS; extensive teaching resources were funded by the NTGS and the WFISD. These included laboratory materials; the prospective textbook; a laboratory notebook; geoscience DVDs developed by GSA; classroom visual aids; USGS videos and teacher guides; mineral, rock, and fossil kits. The five-day short course involved lectures (notes provided in PowerPoint form); hands-on lab activities; opportunities to evaluate online resources; a field trip; and a course evaluation.

Evaluation results led to modifications including more opportunities to search for and evaluate online resources and more hands-on laboratory exercises. The short course was offered again in August 2010 at the Ellison Miles Geotechnical Institute in Dallas, Texas. Teachers from across the State attended and evaluations supported redesigned course elements. Future State-wide short course opportunities are under development. The short course has also been implemented in an online format, available to current and potential Earth and Space Science teachers in Texas.