HR: 1340h
AN: ED13C-0618
TI: Graduate student involvement with designing inquiry-based Earth science field projects for the secondary-level classroom
AU: * McDermott, J M
EM: jill.mcdermott@unh.edu
AF: University of New Hampshire, Complex Systems Research Center Morse Hall, Durham, NH 03824, United States
AU: Scherf, L
EM: lscherf@sau3.org
AF: Berlin High School, 550 Willard Street, Berlin, NH 03570, United States
AU: Ward, S
EM: sward@orcsd.org
AF: Oyster River Middle School, 1 Coe Drive, Durham, NH 03824, United States
AU: Cady, P
EM: pcady@kitteryschools.org
AF: Shapleigh Middle School, 43 Stevenson Road, Kittery, ME 03904, United States
AU: Bromley, J
EM: jbromley@orcsd.org
AF: Oyster River High School, 55 Coe Drive, Durham, NH 03824, United States
AU: Varner, R K
EM: ruth.varner@unh.edu
AF: University of New Hampshire, Climate Change Research Center Morse Hall, Durham, NH 03824, United States
AU: Froburg, E
EM: erik.froburg@unh.edu
AF: University of New Hampshire, Climate Change Research Center Morse Hall, Durham, NH 03824, United States
AB: In a secondary-level Earth System Science (ESS) curriculum, the most authentic learning is achieved through the inquiry-based application of real-world research methods in the context of modern understanding of the interconnected components of the Earth System (e.g. lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere). Following the intensive ESST-1 summer institute at UNH, during which teachers enhance their ESS content knowledge via interactions with UNH faculty, staff, and graduate students, each participating teacher is paired with one graduate student fellow for the duration of the school year. This graduate fellow provides a continuing link between the secondary-level school teaching environment and university resources, facilitating the implementation of new content knowledge and current scientific research methodology into the classroom setting. According to the National Science Education Standards (1), scientific inquiry is the central strategy for teaching science. "In successful science classrooms, teachers and students collaborate in the pursuit of ideas... Students formulate questions and devise ways to answer them, they collect data and decide how to represent it, they organize data to generate knowledge, and they test the reliability of the knowledge they have generated. As they proceed, students explain and justify their work to themselves and to one another, learn to cope with problems such as the limitations of equipment, and react to challenges posed by the teacher and by classmates." To speak to these goals, an ongoing local wetland field study has been conceptualized and implemented in three example classrooms (seventh grade general science, ninth grade physical science and tenth grade biology) in two school systems (Oyster River Middle School in Durham, NH and Berlin High School in Berlin, NH). These field studies were conducted using authentic scientific equipment to collect data, including a Li-Cor 840 infrared CO2 analyzer and handmade sediment coring devices. Students utilized GPS and Google Earth technology both to facilitate the generation of research questions and for accurate geographic location during their field studies. An emphasis was placed on maintaining organized records of observations and data using field notebooks. Every site visit was followed by teacher-guided data analyses, and students communicated their results through a variety of formats, including posters, written reports, and oral presentations. These authentic research experiences create an initial data set which may be referenced in future classroom studies, while effectively engaging students in ESS topics that meet national and state educational standards. (1) National Research Council, 1996.
DE: 0800 EDUCATION
DE: 0805 Elementary and secondary education
DE: 0820 Curriculum and laboratory design
DE: 0825 Teaching methods
DE: 0850 Geoscience education research
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: 2008 Fall Meeting