HIGH SCHOOL GEOLOGY FOR UNIVERSITY CREDIT – FROM THE TEACHER’S PERSPECTIVE

The NSF-OEDG award, Collaborations for Building Michigan Geology Talent, is designed to increase the number and quality of high school geology classes by providing enough professional development to high school geoscience teachers so that they can teach an advanced class. An exam is administered at the end of the advanced high school course; if the students pass the exam, they can apply for university credit in Michigan. This program provides the field of geoscience with a new opportunity to elevate the stature of the field by reaching a new generation of students, thereby potentially increasing the number of students selecting geoscience careers; it also has the potential to add some much-needed diversity to the geoscience workforce.

The second year of the three-year award has been completed. Results indicate that high school teachers can teach the High School Advanced Geology class (HSAG) at the level of an introductory college course, but it was difficult to find interested teachers. Teachers who agreed to participate required only a modest amount of professional development and support to raise their existing course(s) to the college level with the result that their students were able to pass our college-level exam. As the teachers gained more experience teaching the advanced courses, their students’ pass-rates increased. Through teacher interviews, queries such as “Did you go outside with your class?” and “Tell me about your favorite teaching methods” were analyzed and will be discussed.