AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY ASER ACTIVITIES AND LONG DURATION TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE FLUID EARTH SCIENCES

The American Meteorological Society (AMS) has demonstrated commitment to fostering Atmospheric Science Education Research (ASER). ASER was included in the last several AMS Education Conferences and an ASER Short Course was held during the 2018 Annual Meeting. Several short course participants developed a survey for the AMS community which revealed that while many highly value ASER, barriers to greater involvement include lack of visibility, and lack of direct funding for ASER. In 2019, a collaborative team submitted a proposal to create the “AMS ASER Institute” to foster DBER in the atmospheric and related sciences. While unsuccessful, the group continues to be very interested in supporting ASER. Progress has been made toward increasing visibility and establishing community; recently, the AMS created the online “ASER Community” to enable discussion, and a group of ASER leaders delivered a well-received ASER webinar to AMS members and friends in May 2020.

For those more familiar with the solid Earth community, the AMS Education Program has a 30-year history of offering teacher professional development programs in the fluid Earth sciences, and also makes available curriculum packages to undergraduate institutions. AMS K-12 programs, offered for graduate credit in cooperation with California University of Pennsylvania (Cal U), include semester-long, online DataStreme courses: Atmosphere, Ocean, and Earth’s Climate System, and summer courses: Project Atmosphere and Project Ocean. At the introductory undergraduate-level, AMS makes available Weather, Ocean, and Climate Studies curriculum packages well suited for instructor-lead online delivery. Courses focus on real environmental data, undergo evaluation, and have benefitted from support from NOAA, NASA, NSF, and the U.S. Navy. Combined the courses have directly impacted more than 22,000 K-12 educators, 7 million K-12 students, 1000 college faculty, and 180,000 college students.

The AMS Education Program, others including SERC/NAGT, universities, and more would benefit from progress in ASER activities via continued cooperation and dialogue amongst current and future ASER researchers. AMS will continue to look for opportunities to promote these efforts and leverage knowledge gained in its K-12 PD and introductory undergraduate courses.