CREATING AN ENVIRONMENTALLY LITERATE PUBLIC THROUGH THE AMS DATASTREME PROJECT

Since 1996, more than 20,000 teachers have completed a DataStreme course. The American Meteorological Society (AMS) DataStreme Project is a free professional development program for in-service K-12 teachers. DataStreme Atmosphere, Ocean, and Earth’s Climate System (ECS) are offered each fall and spring semester by Local Implementation Teams (LITs) across the country in coordination with AMS Education Program scientists and educators who develop instructional materials, provide logistical support to the LITs and administer the project. Teachers may receive 3 tuition-free graduate credits through State University of New York’s The College at Brockport upon completion of each DataStreme course and construction of a Plan of Action for educational peer-training.

DataStreme courses closely align with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and assist teachers in designing classroom activities primarily for the Earth and Space Science discipline area though some DataStreme concepts also focus on the Physical Science and Life Science disciplinary areas. Further, NGSS and DataStreme focus on progressive learning. For example, DataStreme ECS participants explore electromagnetic radiation followed by more advanced concepts such as the stratospheric ozone shield and climate change.

Key to the NGSS is that students learn disciplinary core ideas in the context of science and engineering practices. For teachers to successfully apply this principle, the AMS believes that teachers need to be taught in this manner. Therefore, DataStreme participants use current, real-world data to draw conclusions while employing models to understand the concepts. For example, the AMS Climate at a Glance App is used to distinguish climate variability from climate change on different time scales and locations.

Finally, the NGSS stresses the integration of content and application. DataStreme participants not only learn about the interconnectedness of Earth’s atmosphere, ocean and climate but their impact on these systems. This is the cornerstone of DataStreme. The AMS believes that highly trained teachers are key to an environmental and geoscience literate public.

As the NGSS shape science education in the years to come, DataStreme courses will continue to be an excellent resource for teacher professional development.