BRINGING EARTHSCOPE SCIENCE INTO THE MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL EARTH SCIENCE CLASSROOM: CENTRAL UNITED STATES EARTHSCOPE TEACHERS WORKSHOP

We share our experience with an intensive professional development workshop that provides an opportunity for middle- and high-school earth science teachers to bring EarthScope science into the classroom. As the USArray moves into the Midwest, EarthScope provides an opportunity for place-based education related to state-of-the-art geological and geophysical research. We hosted twenty-eight teachers from the region (primarily Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and Missouri) for an intensive 10-day workshop and field course focused on seismological and geological issues in the North American craton. The workshop is a collaborative effort of Illinois State University, Indiana University, Purdue University, The University of Illinois, the Illinois State Geological Survey, and Indiana Geological Survey and is directly connected with the NSF-sponsored Ozarks-Illinois-INdiana-Kentucky (OIINK) regional EarthScope experiment. The presentation team included seven university faculty, two research scientists, three graduate students, and four master teachers. The first week of the workshop consisted of on- campus presentations, exercises, and curricular activities focused on EarthScope science, earthquake physicss, seismogramic interpretation, Earth structure, Earth and plate tectonics, and GPS geodynamics. The exercises made use of data collected by the USArray and Plate Boundary Observatory components of EarthScope. During the first week, the teachers visited the Backbone Seismic Station and Plate Boundary Observatory GPS station HDIL. The second week was a field trip to southern the Illinois Basin, eastern the Ozark Domes, and the New Madrid Seismic Zone. As part of the field trip the teachers took part in the installation ofed two new Flex Array seismic stations as part of the OIINK. The teachers will return for weekend follow up sessions in November and February.The success of the workshop is being examined in part though the use of pre- and post-workshop assessment tools