HR: 14:55h
AN: ED43A-06    [Abstracts]
TI: Laboratory Earth: Connecting Everything to Everything Else Online for Pre-college Educators
AU: * Gosselin, D
EM: dgosselin2@unl.edu
AF: School of Natural Resources University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 602 Hardin Hall, Lincoln, NE 68583-0996, United States
AU: Bonnstetter, R
EM: rjb@unl.edu
AF: Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 211A HENZ, Lincoln, NE 68588-0355, United States
AU: Yendra, S
EM: syendra@lps.org
AF: School of Natural Resources University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 602 Hardin Hall, Lincoln, NE 68583-0996, United States
AU: Slater, T
EM: tslater@as.arizona.edu
AF: Astronomy Department University of Arizona, 933 N Cherry Ave, Tucson, AZ 85721, United States
AB: The Laboratory Earth professional development series, which has been funded by NASA, consists of three, three- credit hour, graduate level, distance-delivered, online courses designed for K– 8 (and above) educators. Currently, we have delivered two module-based courses, Laboratory Earth I: Earth and its Systems and Laboratory Earth II: Earth's Natural Resource Systems. A third course tentatively titled, Laboratory Earth: Earth's Changing Environments, is under development. Our objectives are to deliver a high quality professional development experience, improve participant's ability to understand and apply Earth system science concepts in their classroom, and to increase teacher's sense of belonging to a community. Each course consists of four modules that engage students using multiple strategies to meet a variety of learning styles. To document learning, content questions are used to focus the student on the concepts they will be learning throughout the course. These questions are also used to assess the progress the student has made toward learning the concepts from the beginning to the end of the course. Analysis of the responses to the content questions from Lab Earth I demonstrates significant knowledge gains from the beginning to the end of the course. Preliminary data also suggests that the extent of learning is higher in the 8-week version than it is in the 16-week version of the course. An implicit goal of the courses is to help participants focus on learning, not grades. Unfortunately, grades have to be issued. Our grading strategy has evolved to a system that uses the ability of students to master course content along with active participation and the on-time, quality completion of the grading elements in the course. Course content mastery can be demonstrated in a variety of ways and it is up to the student to choose the method that they would like to use. Methods include writing essays, creating presentations, preparing an oral journal, and developing concept maps. If tasks that a student submits are not complete, they are asked to revisit the assignment. The goal is for the student to be intrinsically motivated to learn the material and reduce the need for grades as a motivator and distract from their learning. We want everyone to work until they have the required concept knowledge and understanding. The combined results from STEBI-A (teacher efficacy for teaching science scale), LEO, (scale to assess teacher's sense of community within the course), and BES (Beliefs About Earth Science to assess the degree to which teachers enjoy teaching science) demonstrate statistically significant growth in teachers' sense of cohesion of the course and the value they place on teaching Earth science. The Laboratory Earth series is a key component of an initiative to create a collaborative online, distance delivered, masters degree program at UNL.
DE: 0805 Elementary and secondary education
DE: 0830 Teacher training
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting