SUPPORTING NGSS IMPLEMENTATION EFFORTS BY EXPANDING THE EARTH2CLASS APPROACH TO PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Strategies to provide Professional Development support for precollege teachers and districts implementing the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) will, without doubt, be myriad and diverse. Target audiences will vary greatly in their acceptance of potential changes, understanding of science content, competing factors in their individual situations, and many other ways. Those seeking to provide successful PD must keep these and additional factors in mind as they develop strategies. Examples of what works or does not work will be valuable. We will provide some guidelines based on the Earth2Class Workshops for Teachers at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University. E2C is a long-running program bringing research scientists, teachers, students, and others together in monthly weekend programs. It has been very effective for wider dissemination of cutting-edge investigations. The E2C website, www.earth2class.org/site, shares archived versions of presentations for those not able to attend in person. It also provides a wide variety of educational resources for students and educators, and is one of the more widely accessed online resources for K-12 Earth Science Education. Challenge now iinvolve enhancement and expansion of the E2C approach to assist implementation of the NGSS. Topics of LDEO research cover nearly all of those in the NGSS Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs), especially: ESS1.C: The History of Planet Earth; ESS2.A: Earth Materials and Systems; ESS2.B: Plate Tectonics and Large-Scale System Interactions; ESS2.C: The Roles of Water in Earth’s Surface Processes; ESS2.D: Weather and Climate; ESS2.E: Biogeology; ESS3.B: Natural Hazards; ESS3.C: Human Impacts on Earth Systems; and ESS3.D: Global Climate Change. Real-life examples are provided of the Nature of Science, Crosscutting Concepts, and science and engineering practices of K-12 Science Classrooms. Future E2C sessions will foster collaboration to develop examples of classroom-ready activities with an NGSS approach. During Summer 2015, we tested this through three small-scale projects with themes of “Minerals, Rocks, and Resources,” “Weather and Climates,” and place-based activities about the local “Hackensack River Past, Present, and Future.”