Teaching inquiry using NASA earth-system science (TINES) is a comprehensive proposal to train and support pre-service and in-service K-12 teachers, and to provide them with an opportunity to use…

Teaching inquiry using NASA earth-system science (TINES) is a comprehensive proposal to train and support pre-service and in-service K-12 teachers, and to provide them with an opportunity to use NASA earth science mission data and global learning and observations to benefit the environment (GLOBE) observations to incorporate scientific inquiry-based learning in the classroom. Using an innovative professional development model known as a backwards-faded scaffolding (BFS), as developed by slater ET AL. (2008), this project seeks to provide professional development for pre- and in-service teachers in which inquiry is presented as a process for developing participant competencies in analyzing data, asking scientific questions about those data, strategizing about which additional observations could answer those questions, and only then presenting tools with which to make the necessary observations and/or access NASA mission data relevant to those questions. While this approach has been successfully applied to planetary science and deep-space science, this project will demonstrate that BFS is ideal for delivering inquiry for earth system science using NASA earth science missions and GLOBE observations related to inquiry in the atmospheric and hydrologic sciences. Through ongoing peer mentoring with an online learning cohort, support from project personnel, and grants to encourage participating teachers to employ inquiry regardless of the resources available to buy equipment, we feel that this will serve as a sustainable approach for delivering NASA educational resources. In the end, the primary goal is to engage teachers that will both encourage and support them to remain active in engaging earth science inquiry in their classrooms. And finally, this project is an ideal test bed for this model of professional development because of the experience of the personnel with NASA data, GLOBE protocols, and he cloudsat educational network and because the partner institutions are recognized as excellent programs for training pre-and in-service earth science educators.