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Earth Science Literacy - Partnering and producing Professional Development Opportunities and Resources for Teachers and Student Teachers - continuation | ||||
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Progress to date Earth Science Professional Development Opportunities for Teachers-in-Training With David Blades, Faculty of Education I. An 'Education Lab' for student teachers taking a first year course offered by the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences - EOS 120 Introduction to the Earth System II, was developed and run for the first time in Fall 2005. Twenty students intending to pursue a career in teaching were enrolled. This represents a remarkable collaborative effort between the Faculties of Science and Education to encourage student teachers to teach earth science using a hands-on, learning cycle approach. Many of the activities and demonstrations used in this lab section were developed by teachers and scientists working together in prior EdGEO workshops. Teaching resources that will be of use in their future classrooms were provided to each student. Value of each resource package, including rock, mineral and fossil kits, books and posters, was ~ $180. The impact of this new approach was measured using pre and post course surveys of the entire class, student group interviews and course grades. Preliminary results show that students in the 'Education Lab' had greater significant gains in knowledge and elimination of misconceptions, as well as a significant positive change in attitude to earth science compared with the rest of the EOS 120 class. The Lab was offered for a second time in 2006. 2. CETUS earth science workshops Two workshops were offered in 2005 for Students in the Education program at UVic, by request of CETUS, on November 21st and 23rd. Hands-on activities and interactive learning of Grade 7 curriculum topics focused on "Rocks, fossils and earth history" and "Plate tectonics, earthquakes and volcanoes". Classroom teaching resources to a value of $95 were provided to each of the 11 attendees. The workshops were offered again in Fall 2006 to 20 and 27 students respectively. Outreach Opportunities for Teachers 2005 and 2006 September 28th 2006 Southern Vancouver Island Family Child Care Assoc. May 6th 2006 Making Tomorrow Conference, Vancouver Island Cooperative Preschool Assoc. April 22nd 2006 UBC-HRMacmillan Space Centre Course for Teachers April 19th 2006 UVic Child Care Kindergarten April 13th 2006 Rogers Elementary March 8th 2006 Chemainus Community School - Three classes February 20th 2006 CRD Parks interpreters Sooke Potholes January 15th 2006 1st Belmont Sparks November 18th 2005 Journey Middle School November 8th 2005 Gonzales Cooperative Preschool September 28th 2005 Cedar Hill Middle School September 28th 2005 Cedar Hill Middle School Topics include water, earthquakes, plate tectonics, volcanoes, and earth materials Development of teaching resources for participatory science
'Field Guide to the Identification of Pebbles' published in November 2005. 10,000 copies were distributed to teachers in Ontario in early 2006 through PDAC (Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada) Mining Matters. The original print run of 2100 was sold out in less than a year and the Pebble Guide, now published through Harbour Publishing is consistently Number 1 Children's Bestseller in BC, as well as on the national bestseller list for Canadiana, and Non-fiction.
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