BALANCING ACT: A STUDY IN HIGH SCHOOL EARTH SCIENCE EDUCATION

The realities of evolving state education standards, tight education budgets, teacher allocation formulas, and the limited availability of qualified personnel has led to many grade 9-12 science educators being placed in Earth Science teaching assignments without having been given the preparation and training to fully understand and convey to their the students the intricacies of the Earth System. This directly impacts what the educator is comfortable teaching, and may subsequently affect the quality of the educational opportunity for the students in that classroom.

As a geoscience professional who is teaching high school Earth and Environmental Science as a third or fourth career, the author has experienced these issues first-hand and has seen how they can prevent both the teacher and the student from achieving a reasonable level of literacy in the broad categories of study that make up geoscience. These knowledge gaps can be addressed through formal and informal mentoring, implementation of school-based curricular teams, selection of targeted learning opportunities from professional organizations, and other teacher education programs. Each of these pathways provides a unique opportunity for guiding a newly assigned teacher toward a strong foundation in the basic elements of geoscience and helps to insure the academic success of the students.