Brainstorming Report outs

Friday May 16, 3:20 pm

Recruiting Geoscience Students for K-12 Teaching Careers: Warming the Climate and Recruiting the People

Developing Knowledge of Instructional Materials

• Using the web
• Provide exemplary good best-practice materials available as an online offering for K-12 teachers
• Rely on exemplary existing materials
• Build concept course based on materials
• Classroom
  • Using classroom curricular materials in K-12 ES content courses
  • DLESE
  • NASA matrix linking materials standards -- materials need review
  • Summer programs need to be open to pre-service teachers -- they have both time and need; problem with funding not making it open to this group

Mentoring/Advising

• Keeping students in college in the first place
• Look at what historically black colleges are doing
• Foster learning groups and peer groups, cohort groups of all kinds
• Involve pre-service teachers and science majors in outreach programs like open houses.
• Must have institutional support and connections between science and education departments
• Get students to consider geology
• Get beyond geology=rocks stereotype
• Variety of things students need to know
• They are adults now
• How to make a lesson plan
• Classroom management
• Good contact on site between science, education, and students
• Private universe -- what are misconceptions

Co-curricular activies

• Important because they provide important knowlege that students don't get in curriculum that is necessary to succeed
• Expose pre-service to in-service activities
• National meetings
• Workshops with in-service
• Science fairs/after school/Saturday field trips (museums)
• Critical aspects
• Developing unit plans
• Standards base (ES and other)
• Web-based data sets
• Demonstrate "hands-on" using simple tools (play dough)
• Put in contact with people who run high tech equipment
• Conditions
• Partnerships are essential

Working with Teachers after they leave the Department

• Why:
• Networking
• Need for credit
• Remain part of profession
• Despairable need for content
• Teachers can be involved in research, department or professional development
• Evidence it's important
• Mass required for higher level of certification
• Assessments show PD affects teaching
• Critical aspects: conditions for success
• Funding, evaluation, follow-up
• Blend of content and pedagogy
• Involve master teachers

Why are pre-service teachers important to departments?

Critical that they be active members of department to change second class status

• Ideas:
• TAs (give priority so can practice methods)
• Outreach coordination (school visits to department, classroom contacts, recruitment tool for majors, give academic credit)
• Research assistants in action research for faculty teacihng or on traditional research
• Criterion 2 consultants for faculty
• High quality peer mentors
• Teaching freshman lab as components for graduation