EARTHQUAKE EDUCATION WORKSHOPS IN N.C.: A POTENTIAL MODEL FOR SCIENCE EDUCATION WORKSHOPS

In September 2014 the North Carolina Geological Survey (NCGS) successfully conducted a series of three one-day earthquake education workshops in the state. These workshops, funded by a grant from the FEMA Earthquake Program EMA-2012-GR-5283-001, and were administered by the N.C. Division of Emergency Management. The NCGS provided organization and expertise. The workshops were led by two winners of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers Outstanding Earth Science Teacher (OEST) Award. These teachers had also participated in the two-day Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) workshop. The OEST teachers determined the agenda, materials and hands-on activities that would be directly useful in the classroom, and all materials were correlated to the N.C. Essential Standards curriculum. The participants included both formal K-12 teachers and non-formal educators such as N.C. State Park Rangers. Each participant received a notebook of activities, education kit materials, Continuing Education credits and Environmental Education credits. The NCGS subsequently made available all materials for free download through our geoscience education webpage.

One of the main tenets of this workshop was to have award winning teachers teach the participants. This workshop was not a content workshop lead by an expert scientist presenting in-depth information on a particular subject for the teacher to then digest, develop and institute programming in their classroom. The experience of these veteran teachers informed the entire workshop planning process keeping in mind the realities of the classroom and expectations put on teachers. A seismologist was involved to fact check and provide expertise but did not dictate the content of the workshop. The agenda was built to be a cohesive set of activities that could literally be used the next day in the classroom. The lead teachers were able to discuss characteristics of demonstrating each activity and how to teach the information to all types of learners. In turn the participants were able to ask the lead teachers about their experience in presenting the information and demonstrations. All three workshops went very well and participants appreciated the usefulness of the information, materials and the curriculum correlation.