TONS OF LEARNING: ENGAGING PK-8 STUDENTS IN EARTH SCIENCE

The national science standards and the Ohio Academic Content Standards for K-12 science both emphasize learning science content in an inquiry-based environment, using materials and topics that engage students' interest and model the processes of the scientific method. The science standards for grades K-8 include investigating variations that exist among individuals of the same kind of plant or animal, being able to relate animal structures to specific survival functions, and using evidence to develop explanations of scientific investigations.

Although best teaching practices recommend using concrete experiences to support the teaching of these science concepts to young learners, it is sometimes difficult for classroom teachers to obtain teaching materials that are engaging, available at low cost and available in a quantity that provides students with an array of specimens.

A solution to this dilemma appeared during a Wright State University summer teacher professional development program that brought classroom educators from across Ohio to the North Carolina coast to study the changes in the Earth system through time. Teachers in that program visited a potash mine and collected an array of fossils from the middle Miocene and Pliocene Pungo River and Yorktown formations.

When school reopened in September 2011we called mine company officials and asked if we could return to get a large amount of sediment and fossils. They encouraged us to come and get “all we wanted.” Parents built a box structure large enough to hold about four tons of sediment and fossils. K-3 teachers prepared age appropriate study units for their classes. The return trip to North Carolina netted approximately eight thousand pounds of fossiliferous sediment.

Students immediately became engaged in the study and even spent free time picking through the sediment and trying to identify the material they found. Formative assessment of the activities indicate that students are asking questions that indicate they are in engaged in higher order thinking skills such as analysis and synthesis.

Future plans include engaging every grade level K-8 in the project, extending project based learning into other subject areas and including lessons learned from this activity into science classes for pre-service teachers at Wright State University.