EARTH SCIENCE ACTIVITIES DESIGNED TO IMPROVE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT COMPREHENSION

According to collegefactual.com, who retrieves information from the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center of Education Statistics, graduates in geological and earth sciences have lower numbers of yearly graduates than other science areas, yet average a higher starting salary. Geology is a difficult subject to actively engage students. The Projects are educational resources specially designed to engage student in the K-12 classroom. Founded by educational councils seeking to develop an unbiased, educationally sound programs, Project WET, Project Wild and Project Learning Tree offer educators a range of hands-on, investigative activities that promote higher order thinking and problem solving skills. Although these projects embrace all areas of science, finding activities related to earth science is challenging. I became a certified facilitator of the Projects to gain an understanding of the activities. I will use the Projects template to create an activity and/or modify a pre-existing Project activity to meet the needs of improving the students’ comprehension. Using my understanding of the Projects, my goal is to highlight the importance of both hands-on science and earth science education, while compiling earth science activities. Topics covered will include: the rock cycle, plate tectonics, groundwater filtration, glaciers, sea-floor spreading/paleomagnetism, and the nitrogen cycle.