HR: 11:35h
AN: ED42A-06    [Abstracts]
TI: Making the Most of a Limited Opportunity: Empowering our Future Earth Science Educators by Engaging Them in Field-Based Inquiry.
AU: * Levy, R
EM: rlevy2@unl.edu
AF: Department of Geosciences, 214 Bessey Hall, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68588 United States
AU: David, H
AF: Department of Geosciences, 214 Bessey Hall, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68588 United States
AU: Carlson, D
AF: Nebraska Methodist College, 8501 W. Dodge Rd., Omaha, NE 68114 United States
AU: Kunz, G
AF: Nebraska Center for Research on Children Youth Families and School, 235 Teachers College Hall, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68588 United States
AB: Geoscience courses that engage students in our K-12 learning environments represent a fundamental method to increase public awareness and understanding of Earth systems science. K-12 teachers are ultimately responsible for developing and teaching these courses. We recognize that it is our role as university instructors to ensure that our future K-12 teachers receive a high-quality and practical Earth science education; unfortunately many education majors at our institution receive no formal exposure to geoscience. Furthermore, for those students who choose to take a geoscience course, the experience is typically limited to a large introductory lecture-lab. While these courses are rich in content they neither provide opportunities for students to experience `real' Earth science nor address the skills required to teach Earth science to others. In 2002 we began to develop a field-based introductory geoscience course designed specifically for education students. Our major goal was to attract education majors and provide a field-based geoscience learning experience that was challenging, exciting, and directly applicable to their chosen career. Specific objectives of our project were to: (1) teach geoscience concepts and skills that K-12 teachers are expected to understand and teach to their students (outlined in national standards); (2) provide students with an opportunity to learn through scientific inquiry; (3) enhance student confidence in their ability to teach geoscience in the K-12 classroom. We piloted a two-week field course during summer 2004. The field excursion followed a route through Nebraska and Wyoming. Instructors focused on exposing students to the Earth systems concepts and content outlined in national education standards. The primary instructional approach was to engage students in inquiry-based learning. Students were provided many opportunities to utilize science process skills including: observation, documentation, classification, questioning, formulation of hypotheses and models, and interpretation and debate. Evening `classes' on effective teaching practices were conducted at camp. A mobile library, comprising a range of K-12 Earth science curricular materials and activities, was provided for students to utilize, examine, and critique. Students were given sample boxes so that they could collect and curate Earth materials to build their own `teaching set'. Digital cameras were used to record images of natural phenomena. Each student will receive a DVD of the images to use in their future classroom activities. Near the end of the course students were asked to generate a series of lesson plans to teach plate tectonics. Evaluation of our pilot project comprised a series of pre and post instruments to measure: geoscience content knowledge, science process skills, confidence for teaching science related courses, self-efficacy for self-regulation, and student perceptions of classroom knowledge-building. Results indicate significant gains in all measures. The course instructors have also spent time reflecting on instructional approach and associated activities and will use student feedback to modify and improve the course for the future. We are currently applying the evaluation instruments to education majors taking a large lecture-lab course in order to compare outcomes between the two course models. Results will help guide future geoscience education course development.
DE: 0800 EDUCATION
DE: 0825 Teaching methods
DE: 0830 Teacher training
DE: 0840 Evaluation and assessment
DE: 0850 Geoscience education research
SC: Education and Human Resourcese [ED]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting