HR: 0800h
AN: ED11C-1109    [Abstracts]
TI: Space Science for Middle School Teachers: Integrating CINDI E/PO into a Long-Term Professional Development Program
AU: * Urquhart, M L
EM: urquhart@utdallas.edu
AF: Department of Science/Mathematics Education, University of Texas at Dallas PO Box 830688 FN33, Richardson, TX 75083-0688 United States
AU: * Urquhart, M L
EM: urquhart@utdallas.edu
AF: Center for Space Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas PO 830688 FO22, Richardson, TX 75083-0688 United States
AU: Hairston, M R
EM: hairston@utdallas.edu
AF: Center for Space Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas PO 830688 FO22, Richardson, TX 75083-0688 United States
AB: Education and Public Outreach (E/PO) targeting pre-college education can be focused on teachers or students, but is ultimately only effective if it impacts classrooms. A challenge in the teacher workshop model is tracking the impact we have actually made. Teachers may be excited by our offerings, and rate workshops highly, but is our E/PO actually making a difference with pre-college students? In June 2005 we ran our second four-day teacher workshop for the joint NASA/U.S. Air Force sponsored ionospheric instrument package, the Coupled Ion Neutral Dynamics Investigation (CINDI) with a new twist. We experimented with the integration of our workshop into a long-term professional development program for 6th and 7th grade teachers at UT Dallas. Immediate direct benefits to the CINDI E/PO program included knowledge of teacher backgrounds prior to the workshop, a narrow target grade level range, and the elimination of the need for separate recruiting efforts. More importantly, by working within a year-long program supported by a Teacher Quality Grant we have been able to better assess teacher learning and the impact our outreach efforts is having on the middle school students of participants. The 20-contact hours our workshop contributed to the Teacher Quality Summer Institute were specifically designed to meet Texas standards for middle school science, and made connections between space weather, Earth systems, basic physics, technology, and communications. Participants were able to interact with members of the science team in formal settings and over casual lunches. We will present our motivations for this experiment, participant feedback, and lessons learned. In addition, we will give an update on our CINDI Educator Guide, and the newly completed Cindi in Space comic book. For the latest on CINDI E/PO, curriculum materials, and the comic book in pdf format, go to http://cindispace.utdallas.edu/education/.
UR: http://cindispace.utdallas.edu/education/
DE: 0805 Elementary and secondary education
DE: 0815 Informal education
DE: 0830 Teacher training
DE: 0840 Evaluation and assessment
DE: 2499 General or miscellaneous
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005