THE EARTH SCIENCE LITERACY INITIATIVE (ESLI): A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE COMMUNITY-DRIVEN EFFORT TO IDENTIFY THE BIG IDEAS IN THE EARTH SCIENCES

The Earth Science Literacy Initiative was an NSF-sponsored effort to identity the underlying concepts that are important in Earth science. A community-driven approach to developing the Earth Science Literacy Principles (ESLP) was modeled after successful efforts to establish the Ocean Literacy Principles and the Climate Literacy Principles to address gaps in science education standards frameworks and public understanding of the early 2000’s. An organizing committee of twelve scientists and educators led an asynchronous virtual workshop to establish the main themes. The resulting collection of themes were edited into a draft by 36 scientists and educators at an in-person writing workshop. Participants in this effort represented diverse disciplines ranging from geophysics and structural geology to hydrogeology and community-based decision making, and diverse roles including K-12 science educators, museum educators, and academic professors. Following an extensive community comment and revision period, the first version of the ESLP was released in May 2009. Since then they have been used to guide the development of teacher professional development and informal science education programs, to provide context for geoscience education research studies, and to call scientists to engage in advocacy for earth science education in their states. Most importantly, the Big Ideas and Supporting Concepts served as the backbone for the Earth and Space Science Core Concepts in the Framework for K-12 Science Education, cementing the importance of the Earth sciences in public education nationwide. The definitive stance on climate change and sustainability in the ESLP persisted through to the final version of the 2013 Next Generation Science Standards, which has been challenged in several state-level battles. What began as a geoscience community consensus-building series of workshops, has laid the foundation for a mighty tool for science educators across the country to ensure accurate science is represented in their state standards. This talk will focus on the process by which the ESLP were developed and some of the ways they have been utilized by the geoscience community since their development.