Enhancing earth system science and stem education in high schools the proposed project will provide targeted professional development and a research experience for two cohorts of secondary math and…

Enhancing earth system science and stem education in high schools the proposed project will provide targeted professional development and a research experience for two cohorts of secondary math and science teachers from the. Project activities encompass innovative strategies to strengthen educator skills in teaching hands-on NASA-related stem content. In collaboration with graduate students, teachers will engage in earth system science research and design innovative inquiry-based earth science teaching modules that are aligned with the north carolina k-12 curriculum and that solicit high levels of student interest and engagement. There are four objectives for the proposed project. First, the proposed project activities will provide experiences and training that improves educators' abilities to engage their students and enhance student learning. Second, the proposed project activities will increase educator's capacity to teach stem content. Third, the proposed project activities will help teachers to develop and implement projects, activities, modules and approaches that benefit high school and middle school learners. Fourth, the proposed project activities will improve educators access to and comfort level in using NASA-related stem materials. The proposed project activities are designed for sustained implementation over a two year period. Teachers will be selected to participate in two cohorts. Cohort a includes 20 high school math and science teachers and cohort b includes 20 middle school and high school math and science teachers. The project has four distinct phases. In phase one, cohort a, high school participants, will engage in an intensive summer university experience. While participating in classroom and laboratory-based experiences, they and will be exposed to cutting-edge research in NASA-related earth system science. This will help the teachers to teach global environmental change and its implications. In collaboration with university faculty, graduate students and a professional development team of master teachers, cohort a will systematically develop NASA-related stem k-12 teaching modules for secondary students. The summer experience will end with a symposium in which participants will present their research findings. Cohort a will extend their learning during phase two. They will implement their newly developed teaching modules at their home schools with direct support from the professional development team. This support will include CO-teaching, observation, and conferencing. University engineering and education graduate students will provide additional support by serving as classroom assistants. Cohort a participants will have the opportunity to reflect on their work by attending quarterly teaching and learning seminar. In phase three, cohort b middle school teachers will mirror most of the activities of high school teachers in cohort a. The only exception is that each cohort b participants will be paired with cohort a teachers. During all four phases, teachers, university faculty, and graduate students will participate in an online learning community to share ideas and module related products. The online learning community will serve as a vehicle to share materials with the broader community. The major implication of this proposed project is that IT is designed to impact teacher effectiveness and student learning in secondary schools.