BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM FOR GEOSCIENCE EDUCATORS: IT TAKES A VILLAGE – THE GSA GEOTEACHERS PROGRAM (Invited Presentation)

The geoscience community is confronted with preparing future generations for life on a finite planet. In our highly technical, increasingly specialized society, the task of building geoscience literacy has been delegated to a small minority of K-12 teachers, college faculty assigned lower division courses, informal educators and home-school parents. Many of those assigned this important task must work from a base with minimal geoscience training beyond their own primary schooling, especially training related to the specific landscapes their students come from. From this base, how can the geoscience community better insure that future generations grow into informed, scientifically literate and engaged citizens in our rapidly evolving field where the specifics of place and circumstance play such crucial roles?

The Geological Society of America is addressing this challenge by building a professional development system that hearkens back to the village where education was primarily experiential, focused on locally observable places/processes and insights were drawn from diverse sources and perspectives in the community. GSA’s GeoTeachers program draws on the experience of practicing geologists from industry, geoscientists from academia and government as well as master educators and cultural experts from the formal and informal education sectors to tell the story of the landscape to their less experienced peers in field settings ranging from world famous sites such as the Garden of the Gods, Grand Canyon and Petrified Forest to quarries, road cuts and hiking trails known only to local scientists, educators and outdoor enthusiasts. GSA members volunteer to share their wisdom, experience and stories of the landscape with participants in the manner elders mentor junior colleagues.

This presentation shares insights from the first round of GeoTeachers workshops based out of Flagstaff, Arizona and Colorado Springs, Colorado in the summer of 2018, which served 38 educators supported by 16 GSA members. Workshop activity in 2019 will be introduced. The process used to build the program including successful strategies, on-going challenges and prospects for the long-term success in sustaining a national professional development program from within a professional society will be the primary focus of discussion.