TEACHING THE NGSS AND COMBINING REAL-WORLD EARTH SCIENCE CONCEPTS THAT CAN RESULT IN A NEW MINDSET FOR THE NEXT GENERATION OF SCIENTISTS

During the summer of 2018, I participated in National Science Foundation-funded geologic fieldwork to Nevada and Utah that investigated important changes in the Earth system occurring around 400 million years ago (Devonian Period). In collaboration with my research mentor (NSF PI), I subsequently conducted a laboratory study investigating the chemical composition of the marine limestones we collected. After my field and lab experience, I better understand the scientific process and concepts such as climate change, stratigraphy, geologic time, and the rock cycle. I have concluded that elementary-age students would also benefit from exposure to how Earth scientists conduct research and detect major changes in Earth’s climate and environments in the geologic past.

During the current school year as a 5^th-grade teacher in a bilingual classroom, I will work with my research mentor to establish an Earth science focus for the science units that includes the rock cycle, sedimentary layering and geologic time, and the human impact on the landscape and ecosystems of New Mexico. My students will receive 45 minutes of daily science instruction using the NGSS as a guide and will include hands-on activities, classroom discussions, writing reflections, a public radio broadcast, and students will interview members of the local scientific community. The interviewed scientists will be able to describe to my students the paths they followed to arrive at their current professions and to help communicate to the students that they, too, can pursue these professions. For the final project, students will create a clay or wood model that represents the general stratigraphy, fossils, volcanism, and modern landscape of New Mexico to understand the basic geologic history of New Mexico. In this final project, students will have to consider local human activity, such as the use of agricultural chemicals that have altered our soils and ecosystems, and other human-caused changes to the landscape such as clear-cutting, mining, or urban development. I want my 5th grade students to realize early in their education, the potential of pursuing exciting careers in the sciences.