HR: 0800h
AN: ED51B-0426    [Abstracts]
TI: Survey of Teachers' Use of Planetary Data for Authentic Research in K-12 Classrooms
AU: Parker, S J
EM: sparker@as.arizona.edu
AF: University of Arizona, 933 N. Cherry Ave., Tucson, AZ 85721, United States
AU: Slater, T F
EM: tslater@as.arizona.edu
AF: University of Arizona, 933 N. Cherry Ave., Tucson, AZ 85721, United States
AU: Shipp, S
EM: shipp@lpi.usra.edu
AF: Lunar Planetary Institute, 3600 Bay Area Blvd., Houston, TX 77058, United States
AU: * Lowes, L
EM: Leslie.Lowes@jpl.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Dr., Pasadena, CA 91011, United States
AB: Science education reform documents universally call for students to have authentic experiences using real data in the context of their science education that mimic actual research. In order for planetary scientists to provide the most useful data or professional development for K-12 teachers, a survey was undertaken to determine how teachers are currently using planetary science data and, if not, why not. A national survey collected data from 320 teachers from 42 states. Teachers targeted for this survey were those who are most likely to be knowledgeable in the ins and outs of using online planetary data. When asked to identify the ESS online resources that they access five or more days per year the three more commonly used websites were USGS.gov (28%), GoogleEarth (23%), and Volcano World (12%). However, at this time, the use of online data for inquiry and analysis in the classroom is actually quite rare. Survey results indicate that 41-24% of teachers use student collected data and teacher- produced hard copies of data for the bulk of any inquiry or analysis that is conducted in class. Most often (52%) teachers' primary use of the internet in ESS involves the downloading of images to share with students. Only 25- 32% of these teachers report that they use online data, in the forms of large WWW data sets real time data, or virtual online data, to engage students in inquiry or data analysis. The most noteworthy finding is that 89% of teachers report that they rarely use the most open and authentic forms of inquiry when instructing students. Data shows that the types of inquiry always or usually used by teachers are confirmation activities (38%) or structured inquiry (46%), in which students investigate the teacher-provided question, using a prescribed procedure. 81% of ESS teachers stated that the amount of time allocated to inquiry in their classrooms is either not enough, or wholly insufficient. Teachers did not perceive that inquiry increases students' assessment scores on state tests. When questioned about barriers to using inquiry in the classroom, 51% of respondents stated that the number of topics covered by state assessments is a great or immense barrier as is the perceived amount of time required to inquire using real data.
UR: http://www.lpi.usra.edu/education/score/pdec/
DE: 0800 EDUCATION
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting