‘INQUIRY INTEGRATION’: THE USE OF INQUIRY-BASED INSTRUCTION THROUGHOUT THE MITEP EXPERIENCE TO SUPPORT K-12 EARTH SCIENCE EDUCATION

The Michigan Teacher Excellence Program (MiTEP) is a NSF funded MSP project that offers a multi-year Earth Science professional development experience to cohorts of K-12 teachers in public school districts in Grand Rapids, Jackson and Kalamazoo (MI). The overarching goal of the program is to increase earth science content knowledge and improve pedagogical skills of teachers, many of whom may have a limited earth science background. Through their 3-year MiTEP participation, teachers from a variety of grade-levels and content areas are involved in professional development experiences such as summer institute field camps, in-service pedagogy-content days, on-line course work through Michigan Technological University and summer internships in National Parks located throughout Michigan. Inquiry-based instruction is integrated as a theme throughout this diverse array of experiences and is promoted as a strategy for teachers to utilize in their own classrooms through the development of earth science based lessons and activities. This unique, multidimensional approach gives the MiTEP participant a holistic experience in inquiry-integration as they are exposed to inquiry-based teaching and learning through their role as the student.