HR: 0800h
AN: ED41A-0247    [Abstracts]
TI: Earth Systems Science in an Integrated Science Content and Methods Course for Elementary Education Majors
AU: * Madsen, J A
EM: jmadsen@udel.edu
AF: Department of Geology, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716 United States
AU: Allen, D E
EM: deallen@udel.edu
AF: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716 United States
AU: Donham, R S
EM: donham@udel.edu
AF: Center for Mathematics and Science Education Resource Center, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716 United States
AU: Fifield, S J
EM: fifield@udel.edu
AF: Education Resource and Development Center, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716 United States
AU: Shipman, H L
EM: harrys@udel.edu
AF: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716 United States
AU: Ford, D J
EM: djford@udel.edu
AF: School of Education, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716 United States
AU: Dagher, Z R
EM: zoubeida@udel.edu
AF: School of Education, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716 United States
AB: With funding from the National Science Foundation, we have designed an integrated science content and methods course for sophomore-level elementary teacher education (ETE) majors. This course, the Science Semester, is a 15-credit sequence that consists of three science content courses (Earth, Life, and Physical Science) and a science teaching methods course. The goal of this integrated science and education methods curriculum is to foster holistic understandings of science and pedagogy that future elementary teachers need to effectively use inquiry-based approaches in teaching science in their classrooms. During the Science Semester, traditional subject matter boundaries are crossed to stress shared themes that teachers must understand to teach standards-based elementary science. Exemplary approaches that support both learning science and learning how to teach science are used. In the science courses, students work collaboratively on multidisciplinary problem-based learning (PBL) activities that place science concepts in authentic contexts and build learning skills. In the methods course, students critically explore the theory and practice of elementary science teaching, drawing on their shared experiences of inquiry learning in the science courses. An earth system science approach is ideally adapted for the integrated, inquiry-based learning that takes place during the Science Semester. The PBL investigations that are the hallmark of the Science Semester provide the backdrop through which fundamental earth system interactions can be studied. For example in the PBL investigation that focuses on energy, the carbon cycle is examined as it relates to fossil fuels. In another PBL investigation centered on kids, cancer, and the environment, the hydrologic cycle with emphasis on surface runoff and ground water contamination is studied. In a PBL investigation that has students learning about the Delaware Bay ecosystem through the story of the horseshoe crab and the biome that swirls around this remarkable arthropod, students are exposed to interactions between the hydrosphere, atmosphere, and geosphere and they examine ways in which climate change can affect this ecosystem.
DE: 0805 Elementary and secondary education
DE: 0820 Curriculum and laboratory design
DE: 0830 Teacher training
SC: Education and Human Resourcese [ED]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting