Resources for Preparing Pre-service Teachers to Teach the NGSS

Friday 11:30am-1:30pm UMC Aspen Rooms

Authors

Anne Egger, Central Washington University
Molly Kent, Carleton College
Monica Bruckner, Carleton College
Over 100,000 students obtain a bachelor's degree in education every year; these students most commonly encounter the geosciences through a general education course, and it may be the only geoscience course they ever take. However, the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) contain much more Earth science content than previous standards. In addition, the NGSS emphasize science and engineering practices (SEP), and future teachers need to experience learning science as a scientist, through a hands-on, activity-based learning process, in order to give them the skills they need to teach science that same way in the future. In order to be successful at teaching the NGSS, both current and future teachers will need more than a single course in geoscience or science methods. As a result, there is now a key opportunity for geoscience programs to play a vital role in strengthening teacher preparation programs, both through introductory courses and beyond.

To help programs and individual faculty take advantage of this opportunity, we have developed a set of web-based resources, informed by participants in the InTeGrate program as well as by faculty in exemplary teacher preparation programs. Web pages address the program-level task of creating engaging and effective courses for teacher preparation programs, with the goal of introducing education majors to the active pedagogies and geoscience methods they will later use in their own classrooms. Examples of activities, courses, and professional development programs highlight effective methods for integrating content and pedagogy, getting students into the field, and preparing future teachers for the STEM classroom of the future.

Learn more on the InTeGrate web site about preparing future teachers:
serc.carleton.edu/integrate/programs/teacher_prep.html
and submit your own example activities, courses, and programs http://serc.carleton.edu/integrate/programs/teacherprep/submit_tpprogram.html