PROMOTING GEOSCIENCE SKILLS AND CONTENT KNOWLEDGE BY INTEGRATING FIELD-BASED EARTHCACHES INTO TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

The solutions to many of societies energy, water and climate dilemmas will only be achieved through creativity and an understanding of complex Earth System processes by all the nation’s citizens. These Earth processes are complicated because they require the knowledge of multiple STEM subject areas, geologic time and 3D geo-spatial skills. One method that has been shown to effectively increase knowledge and attitude towards Earth Science in k-12 students is to connect classroom content to local sites that are familiar to students and which provide observable evidence of Earth System phenomena. However, many of today’s teachers have little or no formal background in Earth Science concepts and are unaware of the presence of ‘geo-significant’ places in their communities.

The Michigan Teacher Excellence Program (MiTEP) is a NSF funded MSP teacher professional development program for urban school educators. The program’s goal is to increase the content knowledge and pedagogical skills of educators with limited Earth Science training. As part of the three-year program teachers participated in the MiTEP-EarthCache model to promote place-based Earth Science education. An EarthCache is an outdoor place found throughout the region that provides visitors a lesson on “how the Earth works.” Each EarthCache is accompanied by a set of coordinates, an explanation of the natural processes responsible for the formation of the geo-significant feature, and questions to evaluate what the visitor has learned during their visit. Information for each EarthCache can be found at www.earthcache.org which is maintained by the Geological Society of America and Groundspeak. The MiTEP-EarthCache model requires participants to visit EarthCache sites established in Michigan and subsequently develop their own EarthCache to be reviewed by GSA and published on the website for use by the general public.

A mixed methods study has been conducted to evaluate the program’s effectiveness to develop teachers’ 1) field based geoscience skills, 2) earth science content knowledge 3) awareness of regional geological features and 4) Earth Science pedagogical skills.

This talk will provide an overview of the MiTEP-EarthCache program, discuss program outcomes and effectiveness as a profession develop tool in STEM education.