EXPLORING GOOGLE EARTH AND GOOGLE MARS WITH IN-SERVICE TEACHERS THROUGH THE NSF-MSP-FUNDED RITES PROJECT

The Rhode Island Technology Enhanced Science (RITES) Project works to build community across institutions and individuals involved in STEM education and to design and present guided inquiry experiences in Rhode Island science classrooms, buttressed by efficient, effective content-based professional development events. In Spring 2012, we teamed in presenting a 2.5-day short course entitled Thinking Like a Scientist to two groups of multidisciplinary RITES teacher-participants, which involved discussion of inquiry-rich pedagogical strategies and examples of how to infuse science practices into G6-12 classroom experiences. Google Earth and Google Mars were employed as tools in assessing landscape-scale geomorphological structures for comparison with stream table experiments, with the goal of evaluating the likelihood of water passage recorded as durable geomorphological forms on planetary surfaces. Teachers acted as students in the image analyses and experiments and considered utility to classroom practice. The short course was well received and is anticipated to be repeated in the coming year.