(Page prepared for SERC by Jennifer L. B. Anderson, Ph.D.)

Professional Development Institute

25 Practicing Teachers
Grade level: primarily grades 7-12

Susan DeBari, Ph.D.

Principal Investigator (website )
Department of Geology and SMATE Program at Western Washington University

Two main thrusts motivated the development of the Washington Earth Science Initiative: (1) a renewed emphasis on environmental issues within the geology profession as well as by the general public, and (2) new national and state science education standards that focus on hands-on learning. Earth Science classrooms are a natural place to get students involved with hands-on activities surrounding their local environments; however, teachers are not necessarily prepared to teach such a course, in both content and pedagogy. Environmental management and other issues are constantly evolving and most likely were not part of the typical Earth Science teacher's original science content courses. In addition, effective inquiry-based courses can be difficult to design and implement. For these reasons, the Washington Earth Science Initiative was designed to work with and support Earth Science teachers in the process of developing environmental curricula.

The Washington Earth Science Inititative is an intense three-week summer institute that has been offered during the summers of 1997 through 2000 at Western Washington University.

• Week 1 focusses on Earth Science content. Teachers participate in a number of local field trips led by various members of the community in order to show the wide range of organizations with potential resources to teachers. Teachers also work on group projects, participate in presentations, and interact with local scientists, engineers, and organizations. During this week, teachers also develop ideas for long-term inquiry projects that they could design and implement during the school year.
• Week 2 focusses on the computer skills necessary to develop and implement their projects. In the mornings, teachers learn about various computer techniques such as the internet, Earth Science software, images, databases, obtaining data from the internet, and making web pages. In the afternoons, teachers participate in more field trips as well as further develop their ideas for class projects.
• Week 3 is devoted entirely to helping the teachers develop their inquiry-based curricula so that they may use this curricula in the coming year with their students.

Two geoscience faculty from Western Washington University act as instructors and leaders throughout the institute.

Between 20 and 30 teachers from various backgrounds, but primarily 7th through 12th grades, have participated each year.

Other scientists, engineers, and environmental specialists from the community assist in presentations, field trips, and act as resources and examples for the teachers throughout the institute.

This program is evaluated by many methods inluding a post-institute survey, weekly follow-up surveys during the academic year, ongoing interactions, and follow-up discussions with the teachers.

Funding for this program came from various Eisenhower Professional Development Grants:

• Office of the Superintendant of Public Instruction (Eisenhower Professional Development, 2002): Washington Earth Science Initiative. (S.M. DeBari, PI)
• Office of the Superintendant of Public Instruction (Eisenhower Professional Development, 2000): Washington Earth Science Initiative. (S.M. DeBari, PI; $34,190)
• Office of the Superintendant of Public Instruction (Eisenhower Professional Development, 1999): Washington Earth Science Initiative. (J. Field and S.M. DeBari, Co-PIs; $31,896)

From J. Field et al., 2003:
Evaluations revealed "a number of hurdles that teachers face in interacting with community members and conducting research with them. Some recurring problems we heard about include:

• limited funding for field excursions
• difficulties with scheduling large blocks of time for research activities
• dificulty coordinating with community leaders
• reassignment to a different school or grade level
• vandalism of research
• school or district curriculum changes inconsistent with the focus of the developed project
• lack of administrative support or permission

When limitations to authentic research were recognized prior ro the institute we worked with teachers to develop projects that would engage students in research activities but generally partnerships with community agencies were sacrificed in such instances. In other cases, the problems cannot be planned for in advance."

• Dr. Susan DeBari wrote an essay about this program and other science education programs at Western Washington University as part of her participation in the SERC Developing the Earth Science Teacher Workforce Workshop.
• Field, J, S. M. DeBari, M. Gallagher, 2003, Promoting K-12 Community Research and Service throuth the Washington Earth Science Initiative, Journal of Geological Education, v. 51, no. 1, p. 54-63. (Download full pdf article)