Teacher Development at Western Washington University

Teacher Preparation

Courses

• Investigative Science: Course Description and Role in the Program
  Investigative Science serves as an interdisciplinary capstone course for pre-service teachers who have completed the year-long Matter and Energy in Earth Systems, Physical Systems and Biological Systems sequence.
• Matter and Energy in Earth Systems: Course Description and Role in the Program
  This course is the earth science component of a series of courses designed to teach K-8 pre-service teachers fundamental content while modeling inquiry-based learning through an in depth understanding of the scientific method.
• Investigating the Flow of Matter and Energy in Earth Systems: Course Description and Role in the Program
  This course is an inquiry-based survey of Earth Science designed to give a basic understanding of the energy transfers occurring in solid Earth and the processes by which they occur.

Teacher Professional Development Programs

• North Cascades and Olympic Science Partnership
  NCOSP is a large, regional partnership between a university, four community colleges, 26 school districts, and other regional education agencies with the goal of reforming science education in grades 3-10.
• Learning Resource Center
  The LRC is a large on-campus facility that houses state-of-the-art classrooms, teaching materials, over 15,000 books on science education and pedagogy, and hosts an extensive website.
• Washington Earth Science Initiative
  The Washington Earth Science Initiative was an intensive three-week summer institute that assisted Earth Science teachers in developing inquiry-based, environmental research projects for their students.
• Science, Mathematics and Technology Education
  The Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education program is responsible for the science pedagogy training of all preservice teachers at Western Washington University.
• NCOSP Summer Academy
  This professional development institute is used to train Teacher Leaders associated with the NCOSP program.
• M.S. Degree in Science Education
  This is an example of a masters student in a geoscience department who did her research on a geoscience education topic.
• GK-12 Catalyst for Reform Fellowship Program: In this program, graduate students and advanced undergraduates are paired with middle school educators to act as resources.

Other Resources

• Essay by Susan DeBari on Teacher Preparation at WWU from the 2003 Workshop.

Science Teacher Preparation Contacts

Dr. Susan DeBari (homepage )
Department of Geology
Western Washington University
516 High Street
Bellingham, WA 98225-9080
360-650-3588 (work)

Dr. Scott Linneman (homepage)
Department of Geology and SMATE
Western Washington University
516 High Street
Bellingham, WA 98225-9080
360-650-7207 (work)