HR: 0800h
AN: ED51A-0127    [Abstracts]
TI: Geoscience Education Opportunities: Partnerships to Advance TeacHing and Scholarship (GEOPATHS) in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area
AU: * Niemi, T M
EM: niemit@umkc.edu
AF: University of Missouri-Kansas City, Department of Geosciences, Kansas City, MO 64110, United States
AU: Adegoke, J
EM: adegokej@umkc.edu
AF: University of Missouri-Kansas City, Department of Geosciences, Kansas City, MO 64110, United States
AU: Stoddard, E
EM: stoddarde@umkc.edu
AF: University of Missouri-Kansas City, Department of Physics, Kansas City, MO 64110, United States
AU: Odom, L
EM: alodom@umkc.edu
AF: University of Missouri-Kansas City, School of Education, Kansas City, MO 64110, United States
AU: Ketchum, D
EM: dketchum@kcmsd.net
AF: Kansas City Missouri School District, 1211 McGee, Kansas City, MO 64106, United States
AB: The GEOPATHS project is a partnership between the University of Missouri Kansas City (UMKC) and the Kansas City Missouri School District (KCMSD). The goal of GEOPATHS is to raise enrollment in the Geosciences, especially among populations that are traditionally underrepresented in the discipline. We are addressing this goal by expanding dual-credit and Advanced Placement (AP) opportunities for high school students and also by serving teachers through enhancing their understanding of geoscience content and inquiry teaching methods using GLOBE resources and protocols. Our focus in the first two years of the project is to increase the number of teachers that are certified to teach AP Environmental Science by offering specially designed professional development workshops for high school teachers in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area. The structure of the workshop for each year is divided into two weeks of content knowledge exploration using the learning cycle and concept mapping, and one week of inquiry-based experiments, field projects, and exercises. We are also supporting teachers in their use of these best-practice methods by providing materials and supplies along with lesson plans for inquiry investigations for their classes. The lesson plans include activities and experiments that are inquiry-based. The last two years of the project will include direct engagement/recruiting of promising minority high school students via paid summer research internships and scholarship offers.
DE: 0830 Teacher training
DE: 0845 Instructional tools
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting