HR: 16:00h
AN: ED32E-01 INVITED     [PDF]
TI: Facilitating Participant Success: Teachers Experiencing Antarctica and the Arctic Program
AU: * Shipp, S S
EM: shipp@lpi.usra.edu
AF: American Museum of Natural History, Department of Education, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY 10024 United States
AU: Bruccoli, A
EM: arlynb@amnh.org
AF: American Museum of Natural History, Department of Education, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY 10024 United States
AU: Porter, M
EM: marjorie.a.porter@snet.net
AF: Somers High School, Ninth District Road, Somers, CT 06071 United States
AU: Meese, D
EM: dmeese@crrel.usace.army.mil
AF: Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, 72 Lyme Road, Hanover, NH 03755 United States
AB: Through the NSF-funded Teachers Experiencing Antarctica and the Arctic (TEA) Program K-12 science teachers participate as members of polar field projects. Objectives of the program include: immersing the science teacher in the experience of research; 2) leveraging the research experience of the teacher to better inform teaching practices; and 3) sharing the experience with the broader educational and general community. The polar field experience is an exciting opportunity accompanied by a daunting number of responsibilities. In addition to preparing for field research, TEA teachers bring their experience to colleagues, classrooms, and communities. Before going into the field, they give presentations, help plan how students can connect to the polar regions, and share the expedition with the public. In the field, the TEA teacher is a team member and educational liaison, responding to questions by e-mail, and posting e-journals describing the research experience. Upon return, the TEA again shares the experience broadly with the community. In addition, they work closely with 3 colleagues for 140 hours to bring the experience of research into classrooms. Formative evaluation of the TEA Program underscores the need to support teachers in accomplishing their responsibilities; this support is necessary to achieve program objectives. TEA teachers are responsible for sharing the science content of their research. While many broadcast the excitement of the experience, they may not have the scientific background to convey the content. This is due, in part, to many teachers having to be generalists in their classrooms. Shifting into the role of specialist can be challenging. In the year of preparation before the field experience, TEA teachers attend orientation, meet with their research teams for several days, and are encouraged to learn more about their science topic. Understanding builds through the field experience. It may take two or more years after the field work for the science content to solidify. This is illustrated by the changing emphasis of presentations. Presentations after the field season progress from being "experience" based to being "content" based as the teacher continues to develop understanding through interactions with researchers and teaching colleagues. The participants bring a wide array of skills to the program; rarely is one individual accomplished at every responsibility. Some participants are gifted speakers, others are talented writers, and others are exemplary mentors. The TEA Program has attempted to put into place support mechanisms to help build skills, and to leverage the strengths of the participants by providing opportunities for them to collaborate. Presentations are practiced within the TEA community before being presented at conferences. Classroom resources are identified, analyzed, and/or developed by teams of teachers in collaboration with curriculum writers at workshops. The mentoring requirement, considered the most challenging responsibility, is supported by bi-monthly conference calls that include several TEA teachers. Through these mechanisms, TEAs share successes, brainstorm solutions, and help each other with challenges. Facilitating the interaction and support of TEAs by each other is, perhaps, one of the strongest mechanisms for achieving success.
UR: http://tea.rice.edu
DE: 6605 Education
DE: 6699 General or miscellaneous
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting