I love the earth and all the intricate processes which sustain the variety of species and ecosystems it supports. As with most people, we educators wish to live their lives such that the world is improved by our having been in it. We educators have a great advantage in this because we have the opportunity to multiply our efforts through the inspiration and knowledge we give to our students. We teachers of teachers have the distinct priviledge of seeing our efforts exponentially extended through the teachers we teach.
Minnesota State University Mankato's (MSU) Department of Chemistry and Geology provides criticial service courses to a large education program, general education students in the university at large and specific content courses for a small geology minor. As a broadly trained earth system scientist with high school science teaching experience my work at MSU focused on the first two of these directives.
MSU offers programs leading to teacher licensure in elemetary education with concentrations in and out of science and secondary science education in physics, chemistry, biology and earth science. The Department of Chemistry and Geology supports these programs by provinding required content courses for pre-service elementary educators NOT concentrating in science (Earth Science for Elementary Educators) and the science core for preservice elementary educators obtaining the 5-8 science licensure and all pre-service secondary science teachers (Earth and Space Systems). In addition, pre-service earth science teachers also receive their teaching methods course (Earth Science Teaching Methods and faculty advising from within the department.
The preservice elementary educators NOT concentrating in science represent the largest population with well over 100 passing through the program each year. Generally speaking these students have little background in math and science and tend to be quite afraid of these subjects. Destined primarily for grades K-4, they will give the children their first impression of science. They form the front line for teachers who will introduce children to the joys, or horrors, of science. With the intense pressure to focus on reading and math in the primary grades, teachers can and will avoid or minimize science if they perceive it as unpleasant or difficult to teach. My objective with these preservice teachers is to insure that they choose to bring the JOY of science into the tight curricula they face so that their peers in middle and high school can work with children bearing a favorable, I CAN do this and I WANT to do this, attitude toward science. I challenge the students to unravel the basic workings of the observable world around them. These observations are approached through a series of "kid questions", questions relating to earth and space science that an elementary school child might ask. While the content, concepts and language used ultimately are what one would expect in a junior level introductory content class, the approach is less intimidating to the science phobic and instructional on HOW this material must ultimately be taught. This integration of the teaching of the science with the content taps into the passion for teaching young people that the preservice teachers bring to the table. With the "kid" questions in place, the preservice teachers are guided through a series of hands-on inquiry based activities, supported as necessary by explanatory lectures, to guide them to an answer that both they and an elementary student could understand. Each investigation proceeds through the process of scientific inquiry, thereby clarifying and reiforcing the scientific method. Parallel to this inquiry the historical evolution of the science behind the topic in question is tracked for comparison. For example, the observational basis for the geocentric model of the solar system and its evolution into the helocentric Copernican system is used to show the results of past application of scientific inquiry in astronomy. The more modern evolution of continental drift into plate tectonic theory through advances in technology provides an example of ongoing scientific inquiry in geology. The current investigations into the causes of climate change as competing theories for glacial cycles provides the final example from meteorology to remind the students that science is as much an ongoing process as the body of knowledge gained by that process. Since all our field trips examine glaciated terrains, the students are challenged to explain how their own environment came to be the way it is. Combined with their own successes in mastering the content, these future educators walk away from the course with a positive impression of science and of the need and ability for ALL people to be engaged in it.
I engage the pre-service elementary educators seeking the 5-8 science license and their secondary science counterparts in a manner similar to that described above. The task is to help them integrate the more advanced science content they are mastering into a unified interdisciplinary body of knowledge by examining how the sciences collectively explain the observable landscape. Hands-on projects, models and extensive field trips form the core activities. In each case, content specific pedagogical techniques are modeled and assessed by instructor and students. The pre-service teachers examine evidence for ancient convergent and divergent plate boundary processes recorded in the bedrock of the southern Minnesota region. The overlying sedimentary rocks allow for examination of past riverine and oceanic depositional processes and of the stratigraphic relationships which allow us to tell the geologic story of this region of North America. As part of this study, the assumptions underlying the geologic time scale and practical approaches on how best to teach controversial topics in today's diverse classrooms are provided. Controls on climate at a global to regional scale are examined as we attempt to explain the massive effects of glaciers on the region. The modern analogs to all these processes are observed in the field where possible and through extensive comparison with features beyond our local area though detailed landscape analysis of alpine glaciers in Alaska, river systems in New York, the Rio Grande Rift in New Mexico, convergent plate margins in Japan and Maine and the Chesapeake Bay impact structure. The role of climate in determining the surface environment of earth is placed in context through study of the atmospheres, structures and evolution of other planets and satellites in the solar system since their formation. A special focus is placed on the requirements for life that may be met in a number of environments throughout the solar system. The scaling of scientific concepts from the sorting of elements in the nebula during solar system formation to the planetary scale of the rock cycle and crustal evoluton by plate tectonics down to the atomic scale processes which formed Minnesota's banded iron formations are all examined. The breadth of topics covered in this course necessitates a large reading list based on primary and secondary sources found in the popular scientific literature. Readings from vetted sources such as Science are used to open discussions and projects to instill the habit of perusing and utilizing quality literature in the students' on-going teaching and professional development.
The last area of pre-service teacher development I provide comes in the science teaching methods class. Less than a dozen earth science teachers are prepared by our institution annually. These students focus on integrating the practical day to day activities of an earth science class into a meaningful, effective, standards-based high school course. Students are given an overview of the challenges facing science education and reform efforts nationwide to get a vision of how an "ideal" science classroom might function. Preparing for the "real" classroom provided by the local environment of a school remains the primary focus, however, as the pre-service teachers are given techniques to bridge today's reality with a tomorrow's "improved reality". The students observe practicing teachers with earth science students as they begin designing courses they might be asked to teach. Over the course of the semester as the students design model units, demonstrations, assignments and assessments they are afforded opportunities for peer review of their work before enactment with actual K-12 students. In support of this work the students also focus on techniques for developing student skills specific to geology. By the end of the course each student has a fleshed out skeleton of a course that they could implement with success on very short notice, a strong aid as they student teach the following semester.
General education students present a different array of challenges and opportunities than preservice teachers do. The variety of interests and life callings they bring represent their greatest strength and the chief challenge for an instructor. I choose to use this strength to teach the general education student about the geologic underpinnings of the environment around us. My introductory geology course for non-majors covers the same fundamental topics as traditional courses, but does so through the lens of a semester long individual analysis of special places chosen by the students. The Special Place Project asks each student to select and describe in an essay a place that is meaningful to them at the start of the semester. The students are asked to hypothesize about how the place came to be the way it is and how it is changing by natural and anthropogenic processes. At this stage most students do not know too much about geology so their writing is full of questions - a great place to begin! As we move through the course, the students examine how each topic might help to explain the past or future evolution of their special place. The students begin to realize the great length of time over which geologic processes operate and how interconnected the world is as they find that almost all geologic topics have played a role in the development of their special place at some point in the past. To assist in analyzing their special place and improving their writing, the each student participates in peer writing group which reviews the papers of all its members prior to having a one on one meeting with the instructor regarding their project. While this does represent a significant time investment on the part of the instructor, it changes the entire dynamic of the class as the student realizes that their exploration is truly of interest to and being guided by the instructor. The level of trust this builds in the students displays itself when the students "revisit" their special place at the end of the semester in an essay focused on how their place came to be and continues to evolve, even under proposed climate change, today. This serves as an excellent post assessment of student learning. The benefits of this project appear to be equally great for students. Numerous students have returned years after the fact, names long lost to my memory, who come to share their latest experience visiting their special place. The depth of understanding and evidence for continued interest in geology is remarkable. Most importantly, they see themselves as vested in the future of not only their special place but in the entire world around them.
The last course area in which I have worked has been in the development of several field geology classes. The objective of the North Shore-Iron Range field class is to introduce students to the diversity of rock types and geologic structures observable in the heavily glaciated granite/greenstone, iron range and mid-continental rift geologic provinces of northeastern Minnesota. For many of the students this is their first experience examining bedrock types other than the flat lying sedimentary beds and glacial deposits which blanket much of the midwest. The course provides and overview of the interconnected geologic features for use in future work or study in geography, geology, natural resources or outdoor education/recreation. Since the course requires only introductory level experience in geology, it is an excellent way to draw new students into the earth sciences as majors or minors attached to other plans of study. I have also developed a second field course to the Rio Grande Rift system of New Mexico and Colorado to serve as a counterpart to the North Shore-Iron Range field class. The former course focuses on the geology of a 1 billion year old rift system that is heavily eroded and altered by subsequent erosion especially glaciation. The latter is designed to give students a comparison to a modern rift system that is still evolving. When fully implemented students would have the opportunity to attend both trips providing a holistic look at the evolution of divergent plate boundaries within a continental environment.
Beyond developing and teaching courses, I have also been involved in supporting practicing teachers by assisting in professional development programs. Every summer Minnesota earth science teachers have the opportunity to participate in the Minnesota Mineral Education Workshop, supported by the state Department of Natural Resources and Minnesota Geological Society. This workshop gives participating teachers up to date examples of best practice activities for classroom instruction on various earth science topics before providing extensive field trips exploring the local geology of the host region. Over the course of several years participants have the opportunity to visit all significant geologic outcrops in the state. I have assisted by providing workshops on field trip planning and implications of climate change for Minnesota. I will also be the designer of the field geology program focusing on pre-cambrian basement geology and other features the Minnesota River Valley and south central portion of the state. Continued development and support of practicing teachers is at least as important as preparing pre-service teachers in this exciting time of major geologic discoveries both on earth and on our neighboring planets and satellites.
I have also had the priviledge of contributing to national curriculum development efforts as an "expert scientist" for NASA's Astroventures program (http://astroventure.arc.nasa.gov/). Astroventures is a web based space science educational curriculum designed for teachers and students in grades 5 - 8. Students explore fundamental issues in astronomy, geology and atmospheric science as they seek to find habitable planets in our region of space. In the process, they learn the basics of how a terrestial planet like earth functions and how changes in fundamental variables and processes feedback into the conditions necessary for life. Extensive lesson plans and activities available to teachers support the core web base activities giving teachers tremendous flexibility in meeting the particular needs of their curriculum.