A MODEL FOR LONG-TERM TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: REFLECTIONS FROM TWENTY-THREE YEARS OF THE BAY AREA EARTH SCIENCE INSTITUTE

The Bay Area Earth Science Institute (BAESI), housed in the Geology Department at San Jose State University (SJSU), was founded in 1990 to improve the quantity and quality of Earth Science instruction in San Francisco Bay Area schools. BAESI has since reached more than 2,500 teachers of grades 4-12 with a flexible program of Saturday and summer workshops scaled to available resources and funded by the National Science Foundation, NASA, Chevron, the Clarence E. Heller Charitable Foundation, Intel and other partners. According to an external evaluator, BAESI’s professional development “received high marks, from participants for quality, interest, usefulness and appropriateness” and BAESI training “is needed, used, and valued.”

Although BAESI has evolved and diversified through the years, several key components remain at the core of the program : 1) a blend of about equal parts science content and standards-based, classroom-ready teaching activities; 2) a collegial, supportive atmosphere in which teachers are valued as part of SJSU’s Earth Science education team; 3) preferential recruitment of teachers from schools with high percentages of underserved students; 4) ongoing support from the Geology Department Chair and Dean of the College of Science; 5) flexibility to match current needs and resources; and 6) collaboration with scientists and science educators drawn from across the SJSU campus and from the Bay Area’s vibrant geoscience research and education community.

Earth and space science enjoy a prominent role in the Next Generation Science Standards, and teachers will need continuing support to implement these new standards, which explicitly address how humans interact with and impact the Earth system. BAESI continues to offer workshops and field excursions addressing fundamental Earth Science topics such as plate tectonics, rocks and minerals, and earthquakes, but is also exploring connections among natural and human systems with new climate change and sustainability education initiatives being developed in collaboration with SJSU’s Green Ninja Project (www.greenninja.org/), and Creative Change Educational Solutions (http://www.creativechange.net/).