PAVING THE WAY TO A GEOSCIENCE CAREER: PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR K-12 TEACHERS THAT INCLUDES CAREER INFORMATION FOR THEIR STUDENTS

Science Teaching for Ohio’s New Economy (STONE) is a professional development collaboration that includes Wright State University, the Ohio Aggregate and Industrial Minerals Associations and the Ohio Board of Regents. The goals of STONE are to improve Middle and High School Earth science teaching, connect teachers with resource people from industry, regulatory agencies and academia and provide STONE participants with information regarding geoscience careers for their students. According to data compiled by the American Geoscience Institute there will be a substantial increase in total number of careers in the geosciences due to a large increase of newly minted careers in geoscience in areas such as energy supply, concurrent with a loss of present day geoscience professionals due to retirement. To address these issues in Ohio, project STONE recruits teachers from across the State to participate in a summer workshop featuring field trips to quarries, natural areas and the Ohio Geological Survey Core Repository. They meet geoscience professionals and learn first hand what geoscientists do, what careers are available and what skills and competencies entry-level applicants should have. There is a final inquiry-based geoscience activity that capstones the summer workshop. During the academic year, teachers prepare inquiry lessons for their students modeled on what they did in the summer workshop and share their experiences with other STONE participants in an on-line setting. In addition, the contacts they made in the summer are often called upon to provide classroom resources and field trips, be expert speakers and to serve as career day representatives. Because research suggests that career choices are likely to be made in the teenage years, programs such as STONE that develop middle and high school students practical skills and competencies in a geoscience context and also inform students of their potential career paths in the geosciences are critical to developing a future geoscience workforce.