USING THE DEVELOPMENT OF VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS AS MOTIVATION TO STUDY ACTUAL ENVIRONMENTS

ReaL Earth System Science is a project of the Paleontological Research Institution and its Museum of the Earth that helps teachers teach Regional and Local Earth system science using an inquiry-oriented approach, grounded in the idea of using the local environment to understand the global environment. We are using a three-pronged approach to meet our goals: 1) The development of a national series of regional Teacher-Friendly Guides to geoscience (teacherfriendlyguide.org/geo); 2) Teacher professional development programming that focuses on building the technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge necessary for place-based, inquiry-oriented teaching geoscience (virtualfieldwork.org); and 3) The development of a national collection of ‘Virtual Fieldwork Experiences’ (VFEs) that facilitates comparison of field sites from around the country.

This session will focus on how authoring VFEs is an effective educational approach grounded in place-based educational practices and that nurtures the special set of skills and knowledge needed for teaching Earth system science in the 21^st century. Participants synergistically build knowledge of Earth system science content, technology, and pedagogy through a place-based approach.

Teacher participants in the program author their own VFEs that are virtual representations of sites near their schools. In order to create VFEs, teachers must study the local environment with an eye toward engaging students in actual fieldwork. Minimally, the teachers must themselves engage in fieldwork to complete the project, but it is hoped that the VFEs will be used to prepare students for visiting a field site and in analyzing the site during and after actual visits. In the ideal outcome, students will collaboratively create VFEs, use them to teach others in the community about local natural science, and use these understandings of the local environment to better understand the global environment. Engaging teachers and students in the development of VFEs also exploits our unique place in human history, where--for the first time--a large percentage of youth possess valuable expertise (in communications technologies) that their elders often do not have. This holds promise for using technology to motivate students to explore their natural world rather than to draw them away from it.