HR: 08:45h
AN: ED21A-04    [PDF]
TI: Leveraging Exceptional Teachers as Trainers in Geoscience Education: The National Center for Atmospheric Research Model for K-12 Teacher Professional Development
AU: * Henderson, S
EM: sandrah@ucar.edu
AF: University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, PO Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307
AU: Johnson, R M
EM: rmjohnsn@ucar.edu
AF: University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, PO Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307
AU: Foster, S
EM: susanf@ucar.edu
AF: University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, PO Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307
AB: At the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), we have developed a model for educator professional development that builds upon the existing knowledge base of educators, their training experience, and the support of their educational institution. NCAR hosts two professional development workshops for middle and high school educators each summer - the NCAR Climate and Global Change Workshop and the NCAR Modeling in the Geosciences Workshop. Both of these workshops provide advanced science content, requiring that we select participants that already have significant background in one of the geosciences. In addition, participants are selected based on their demonstrated experience and success in peer training, courses taught, the support of their institution, their geographic distribution, plans for dissemination and outreach to underrepresented groups, and the populations served by their institution. Successful applicants are required to provide training to a minimum of 40 educators in their region in the year following the workshop. Our best practices come from formal program evaluation as well as informal interactions and observations. Ranging from big concepts to minutiae, careful planning and successfully taking care of the details can make the difference between a successful workshop and a disaster. Methodologies include leadership and content training, field experiences, hands-on inquiry-based activities, computer modeling, experience in presentation, preparation for local training sessions, and discussion. Reflection on relevance to national education standards is a necessary underlying theme of a successful workshop. Likewise, involving scientists not only in lecture presentations but also in some of the more informal components of a workshop such as hands-on activities and social events provides additional opportunities for scientists and teachers to get to know each other and build on-going relationships. Follow-up evaluations assess the impact of the training provided to workshop participants, in addition to evaluations of the workshops held by participants in their own communities. Throughout the year, we remain in contact with workshop participants to provide support in their continuing educational efforts. Our goal is to build a network of trained geoscience educators across the country that can work collaboratively to improve the training of their colleagues.
UR: http://www.ucar.edu/educ_outreach/k-12.html
DE: 1620 Climate dynamics (3309)
DE: 3344 Paleoclimatology
DE: 3367 Theoretical modeling
DE: 6319 Institutions
DE: 6605 Education
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting