ED21C-0073 0800h
The ERESE Project: Interfacing with the ERDA Digital Archive and ERR Reference Database in EarthRef.org
To bridge the gap between Earth science teachers, librarians, scientists and data archive managers, we have started the ERESE project that will create, archive and make available "Enduring Resources in Earth Science Education" through information technology (IT) portals. In the first phase of this National Science Digital Library (NSDL) project, we are focusing on the development of these ERESE resources for middle and high school teachers to be used in lesson plans with "plate tectonics" and "magnetics" as their main theme. In this presentation, we will show how these new ERESE resources are being generated, how they can be uploaded via online web wizards, how they are archived, how we make them available via the EarthRef.org Digital Archive (ERDA) and Reference Database (ERR), and how they relate to the SIOExplorer database containing data objects for all seagoing cruises carried out by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The EarthRef.org web resource uses the vision of a "general description" of the Earth as a geological system to provide an IT infrastructure for the Earth sciences. This emphasizes the marriage of the "scientific process" (and its results) with an educational cyber-infrastructure for teaching Earth sciences, on any level, from middle school to college and graduate levels. Eight different databases reside under EarthRef.org from which ERDA holds any digital object that has been uploaded by other scientists, teachers and students for free, while the ERR holds more than 80,000 publications. For more than 1,500 of these publications, this latter database makes available for downloading JPG/PDF images of the abstracts, data tables, methods and appendices, together with their digitized contents in Microsoft Word and Excel format. Both holdings are being used to store the ERESE objects that are being generated by a group of undergraduate students majoring in Environmental Systems (ESYS) program at the UCSD with an emphasis on the Earth Sciences. These students perform library and internet research in order to design and generate these "Enduring Resources in Earth Science Education" that they test by closely interacting with the research faculty at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Typical ERESE resources can be diagrams, model cartoons, maps, data sets for analyses, and glossary items and essays to explain certain Earth Science concepts and are ready to be used in the classroom.
http://earthref.org/ERESE/
ED21C-0074 0800h
The ERESE Project: Modeling Inquiry-Based Plate Tectonic Lessons
The Enduring Resources for Earth Science Education (ERESE) project is a collaborative effort between earth scientists, educators, librarians and data archive managers. Its goal is to develop and maintain a persistent online research and education archive in a digital library environment that supports earth science education in plate tectonics. A key to the library's effectiveness as an educational tool is the efficiency with which educators can access, use and contribute to the library. We have created a master template that educators use to develop inquiry-based curriculum. The central components of the master template include a teacher log, a student log and resource matrices. The teacher's log is divided into stages that reflect our approach to inquiry. This approach was used during a workshop as scientists worked with the teachers to model a reasonable pedagogical analog to scientific inquiry. The student log is similar in structure to a scientific method lab report. There are currently 17 resource matrices that directly access canonical education objects in the digital library, 3 of which relate to expedition planning and 14 to plate tectonics. The structure of the resource matrices allows teachers and students to traverse manageable packets of information relating to a specific topic by expert level (rows) and information type (columns). Teachers download and customize the master template using any web composer and are then invited to upload their lessons through a simple interface at Earthref.org. Once uploaded the lessons become part of the ERESE digital library collection. The upload process allows teachers to define keywords and metadata to allow useful searches by topic, concept or educational standard. The use of a single master template for inquiry lesson design means library contributions will share a common format as well as exploit identical plate tectonic resources.
ED21C-0075 0800h
The ERESE Project: Enactment of Digital Library Inquiry-Based Plate Tectonic Lessons
The Enduring Resources for Earth Science Education (ERESE) project is a collaborative effort between earth scientists, educators, librarians and data archive managers. Its goal is to develop and maintain a persistent online research and education archive in a digital library environment that supports earth science education in plate tectonics. A major contribution from educators has been the development of inquiry lessons included in the digital library. Fourteen middle and high school teachers from across the country participated in the ERESE Workshop in July 2004. The goal of the workshop was three-fold: to provide the teachers with a research experience based on the digital library materials, to model an inquiry process and to support teachers as they develop inquiry lessons for their students. This process was led by a team of scientists and expert educators. The team used a master template to facilitate the teacher's lesson development. The pedagogical approach outlined in the template reflects a model of scientific thinking the goal of which is to shift from direction by the teacher at the onset of a lesson to a self-directed experience on the part of the student as they engage in the inquiry process and complete the lesson. Two examples of inquiry lessons produced as part of the workshop are reported here. The first investigates the symmetry of magnetic stripes at the northern East Pacific Rise using real marine geophysical data from the digital library. The second inquiry lesson was developed by a participant teacher and has been implemented this academic year by a high school marine science teacher. The lesson investigates the evidence that supports plate tectonics on the basis of the Pangea model. Having already been implemented in the classroom this lesson provides a rigorous testing of the inquiry process and the robustness of the scientific content of the digital library.
ED21C-0076 0800h
ESTREAMS and EarthScapes: Integrating Teacher Professional Development Into a Science and Technology Center
The National Center for Earth-surface Dynamics (NCED) has developed three inter-locking programs to integrate Teacher Professional Development into the Center. These programs address teachers at two stages of professional development: post-baccalaureate pre-service teachers enrolled in masters programs and in-service teachers. Formal and informal methods are used to involve teachers in NCED research and in NCED's informal public education programs, exhibits and outdoor park at the Science Museum of Minnesota. This session will present the methods we are developing and our results to date. It will also introduce materials we currently make available through our online Education Portal.
http://www.nced.umn.edu/Education.html
ED21C-0077 0800h
Experiences and Results from the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Teacher at Sea Program, Expedition 301
The IODP US implementing organization began a Teacher at Sea Program (TASP) during Expedition 301 to the eastern flank of the Juan de Fuca Ridge. The main scientific objectives of this expedition were to establish borehole observatories as part of a series of multidisciplinary experiments that will help evaluate the hydrogeologic properties of the oceanic crust, including the distribution of fluid pathways within an active hydrothermal system as well as the linkages between fluid circulation, alteration, and microbiological processes. The goals of the U.S. sponsored IODP TASP were to provide the participant with seagoing research experiences, working side-by-side with scientists, using current state-of-the-art approaches to solve scientific problems pertinent to this expedition, and gaining first-hand knowledge of the results of seagoing science. In addition, the participating teacher will use these experiences for translating scientific results into useful teaching resources, such as expedition information materials and help disseminating these resources into classrooms across the country. During IODP Expedition 301, the participating teacher spent 2 months working with shipboard scientists in processing core data and learning the different techniques used for the shipboard laboratory analyses. Several laboratory briefs targeted for middle to high school student audiences were developed during the cruise including the microbiology, chemistry, paleomagnetics, and physical properties laboratories and educational classroom activities are currently being developed. In addition, other laboratory briefs and educational activities for the underway geophysics, core, downhole measurements, and paleontology laboratories are being developed as part of the post-expedition curriculum development initiatives. The teacher also kept a daily journal detailing life at sea experiences as well as all the science and operational developments that took place during the expedition. The journal entries can be found at http://iodp.ldeo.columbia.edu/EDU/TAS/. Interaction with other middle school and high school educators while at sea was successful via a conference call where experiences and general daily operations were shared.
ED21C-0078 0800h
Teachers engaging in Authentic Education Research as They Engage Students in Authentic Science Research: A Collaboration Among Scientists, Education Researchers and Practitioners
The ITS Center for Teaching and Learning (http://its.tamu.edu) is a five-year NSF-funded collaborative effort to engage scientists, educational researchers, and educators in the use of information technology to enhance science teaching and learning at Grades 7 - 16. The ITS program combines graduate courses in science and science education leadership for both science and education graduate students with professional development experiences for classroom teachers. The design of the ITS professional development experience is based upon the assumption that science and mathematics teaching and learning will be improved when they become more connected to the authentic science research done in field settings or laboratories. The effective use of information technology to support inquiry in science classrooms has been shown to help achieve this objective. In particular, the professional development for teachers centers around support for implementing educational research in their own classrooms on the impacts of using information technology to promote authentic science experiences for their students. As a design study that is "working toward a greater understanding of the "learning ecology," the research related to the creation and refinement of the ITS Center's collaborative environment for integrating professional development for faculty, graduate students, and classroom teachers is contributing information about an important setting not often included in the descriptions of professional development, a setting that incorporates distributed expertise and resulting distributed growth in the various categories of participants: scientists, science graduate students, education researchers, science education graduate students, and master teachers. Design-based research is an emerging paradigm for the study of learning in context through the systematic design and study of instructional strategies and tools. In this presentation, we will discuss the results of the formative evaluation process that has moved the ITS Center's collaborative environment for professional development through the iterative process from Phase I (the planned program designed in-house) to Phase II (the experimental program being tested in-house). Phase II highlighted learning experiences over two summers focused on the exploration of environmentally-related science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) topics through the use of modeling, visualization and complex data sets to explore authentic scientific questions that can be integrated within the 7-16 curriculum.
http://its.tamu.edu
ED21C-0079 0800h
Mathematical Modeling: An Integrated Algebra, Physics and Chemistry Workshop for Teachers as a Tool for Recruiting Science, Technology and Mathematics Students.
Based on the philosophy that there exists an artificial boundary between mathematics and the sciences, we have developed a series of workshops and modules on mathematical modeling suitable as teaching examples in secondary schools. The workshops is a 60-hour workshop held on the campus of Texas Southern University during the summer months, followed by a series of follow-up workshops on Saturdays during the academic year. Texas Southern University is a Historically Black University devoted to urban programming. The workshops use experimental and observational data from various fields with particular emphasis on chemistry, physics, earth and space sciences. The data is used to construct mathematical models. In the process of constructing the model, the student learns the appropriate mathematical and scientific concepts. We have studied linear, exponential and logarithmic functions, and using planetary data, derived and discussed Kepler's laws. We have learned how to balance chemical equations as a solution to a system of equations. We have studied and modeled electromagnetic waves using ham radio as our launching pad. Judging from participant evaluations, follow up workshops and classroom visits; teachers who participated in this workshop have been re-invigorated in their teaching. They have incorporated our examples in their teaching. They have reported increased attentiveness and excitement regarding science and mathematics from their students. It appears that this approach have caused some students to think seriously about pursuing science and engineering careers. An added benefit of this program is that the teachers have invited us and affiliated scientist into their classrooms for demonstrations. This gives the students an opportunity to interact with actual scientist and engineers. These interactions have resulted in several of the students being invited to serve as summer interns in our laboratories. For the past three years, almost all of the interns have chosen to go on to college and pursue majors in a science, technology, engineering or mathematics fields. Because the teachers have been presented with an alternative and perhaps more exciting way of presented the topics, they have become more excited and are better able to communicate this excitement to their students, and as a consequence, they serve as effective recruiters for science and technology majors.