A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A K-12 TEACHER: BROADENING IMPACTS THROUGH EFFECTIVE PARTNERSHIPS

As part of the broader impacts criterion for research grants, many researchers create professional development opportunities for K-12 teachers and geoscience education projects for students. This highly meritorious activity can be thwarted due to the constraints of the K-12 teaching environment. Having sufficient awareness of the operating context of K-12 teaching and teachers’ professional needs will assist researchers in developing more effective partnerships with teachers and facilitate richer classroom implementation of their broader impacts and geoscience education projects.

Several considerations can be made when developing programs to include K-12 teachers that will maximize the efficacy of the broader impact component. Researchers can incorporate time to help teachers integrate the content into their curricula, provide inter-disciplinary ideas for those teaching out of their area, and ensure that necessary financial resources are available for teachers to participate. Teachers are eager to learn but may need practice with new content before implementation in their classrooms. Many teachers seek opportunities to earn credits to meet continuing education requirements or build credits for salary incentives. Although one-time professional development activities are often funded, longer-term sustained partnerships with teachers and school districts have proven to be more effective over time. Specific strategies for forging high-quality partnerships with K-12 educators are provided in this presentation by expert K-12 geoscience teachers.