Events
- Annual Convention
- Great Teaching Round-up
- Leading from the middle
- fall conference for faculty leaders
- The Texas Network
"I think there is something more important than believing: Action! The world is full of dreamers, there aren't enough who will move ahead and begin to take concrete steps to actualize their vision."
Events: 2012 Geology Schedule
Geology Summary
Friday, 11:15 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
"The AMS Education Program: 20 Years of Contributing to Earth Science Literacy"
Speaker: James A. Brey, Director of the Education Program, American Meteorological Society
Friday, 12:00 - 12:45 p.m.
"Partnering for Success: The Texas Earth and Space Science (TXESS) Revolution Model of Professional Development"
Speaker: Kathy Ellins, Program Manager, The University of Texas Institute for Geophysics
Saturday, 9:00 - 10:15 a.m.
"Preparing High School Science Teachers to Teach Earth and Space Science (ESS) in Texas"
Speaker: Rebecca L Dodge, Associate Professor of Geosciences, Midwestern State University
Friday, March 2nd, 11:15 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
"The AMS Education Program: 20 Years of Contributing to Earth Science Literacy"
Speaker: James A. Brey, Director of the Education Program, American Meteorological Society
A goal of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) is that all teachers become earth science literate. To achieve this, the AMS Education Program offers content-rich, professional development courses and training workshops for precollege teachers in the geosciences.
During the Fall and Spring semesters, AMS partners with NOAA, NASA, NSF, and SUNY Brockport to offer DataStreme Atmosphere, Ocean and Earth’s Climate System. These courses are delivered to small groups of K-12 teachers through Local Implementation Teams (LITs) in nearly all 50 states, with twice-weekly online study materials, weekly mentoring, and several face-to-face meetings, supplemented by a provided textbook and investigations manual. Upon completion of each course, teachers receive three free graduate credits from SUNY Brockport.
The DataStreme courses have been completed by more than 16,500 teachers, increasing their knowledge of online geoscience resources and their confidence in understanding dynamic Earth systems. Through courses modeled on scientific inquiry and fashioned to develop critical thinking skills, these teachers become a resource for their classrooms and colleagues.
With the additional partnership of NSF, the NWS, and the U.S. Navy, AMS also runs two, two-week long, summer residence workshops, Project Atmosphere on the fundamentals of meteorology and the Maury Project on physical oceanography. Alumni of both workshops peer-train teachers in their local communities and at various conferences, using topic modules provided by AMS. They also assist in offering DataStreme courses.
AMS has also worked to increase students’ earth science literacy through AMS Weather Studies, AMS Ocean Studies, and AMS Climate Studies. While typically used as an introductory Earth Science course at the undergraduate level, high schools are also beginning to implement these courses. The courses engage students in relevant topics in the geosciences by utilizing real-world, current, environmental data.
Training of faculty, especially at Minority Serving Institutions, who implement AMS Weather, Ocean, and Climate Studies is also of utmost importance to AMS. AMS Weather Studies and AMS Ocean Studies Diversity workshops, supported by NSF, have trained and mentored faculty at more than 200 institutions, reaching more than 16,000 students.
With the support of NSF and NASA, and a partnership with Second Nature, the organizing entity behind the American College and University President’s Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), the newest professional development workshop, AMS Climate Studies Diversity Project will follow the framework of the prior two workshops and will begin in early summer 2012.
AMS is dedicated to increasing the scientific literacy of both teachers and students. AMS precollege programs have trained more than 17,000 teachers, in turn reaching more than one million students. AMS Weather, Ocean, and Climate Studies have already been adopted by more than 600 colleges and universities across the United States. For more information, please visit http://www.ametsoc.org/amsedu.
Biography:
Dr. James A Brey has been the Director of the Education Program of the American Meteorological Society since May, 2008. Prior to that he was a Professor of Geography and Geology at the University of Wisconsin Fox Valley, where he was a leader in the development and offering of AMS Weather Studies and AMS Ocean Studies. He successfully used the AMS Weather Studies course in both online, on-campus, and blended lecture/laboratory settings for 8 years at the University of Wisconsin Colleges Online Program, where it is still offered. He considers himself to be a broad field earth system scientist and geographer. Brey is considered an expert in progressive educational delivery methods and the latest in pedagogical and technical innovation. He also is committed to further development of the AMS Education Program’s weather, ocean, and now climate studies workshops for faculty of minority serving institutions. His research interests include new education and training approaches, workforce development in STEM fields, effects of climatological hazards on subtropical agricultural production systems, paleoclimate of the Great Lakes region just after the Pleistocene, and the use of Geographical Information Systems in hazard mitigation, telecommunications and agriculture. Brey obtained his Bachelors, Masters, and Ph.D. degrees in geography from the University of Wisconsin - Madison.
Friday, March 2nd, 12:00 - 12:45 p.m.
"Partnering for Success: The Texas Earth and Space Science (TXESS) Revolution Model of Professional Development"
Speaker: Kathy Ellins, Program Manager, The University of Texas Institute for Geophysics
Funded by NSF’s Opportunities for Enhancing Diversity in the Geosciences program, the TXESS Revolution has provided high quality professional development to more than 170 minority-serving Texas science teachers from rural, suburban, and urban school schools to prepare them to teach a new Earth and Space Science capstone course. Our analysis shows these teachers have taught at least 21,000 students of which 69% are minorities underrepresented in STEM disciplines. In addition, teachers have conducted project-related outreach to more than 5,000 other teachers.
The professional development program comprised eight professional development academies and optional summer institutes. Teachers committed to attending four academies over two years (minimum of 96 hours), allowing them to assimilate and integrate what they learned into their classrooms, and share experiences with colleagues. The content of each academy was designed to increase the teachers’ knowledge, not to demonstrate student activities. Teachers use active learning strategies in their classrooms; putting them as learners in an active environment demonstrates good pedagogy and helps them see how they can use their knowledge in their classrooms. Ongoing evaluation tracked teachers’ gains in content knowledge, confidence and enthusiasm, and helped shape the format and content of each subsequent academy.
Key to the success of the TXESS Revolution was the partnership with a state-funded teacher network and the involvement of large geoscience consortia and programs. Teachers were recruited for the TXESS Revolution primarily from the Texas Regional Collaboratives for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching. Visiting scientists from organizations such as NAGT, IRIS, UNAVCO, EarthScope, IODP, and Ridge2K were involved in the delivery of professional development.
The TXESS Revolution has helped to improve earth science education in Texas by providing a pool of highly qualified earth science teachers for Earth and Space Science. The project has also and demonstrated a model of earth teacher science professional development that can be implemented within, and beyond, Texas.
Biography:
Dr. Katherine Ellins is the program manager at UTIG where she specializes in Geoscience Education. Dr. Ellins is the lead PI on the TXESS Revolution project (NSF-OEDG, the Texas Earth and Space Science (TXESS) Revolution, 2007 – 2012; www.txessrevolution.org) and on the Texas Water Development Board, Water Exploration project (http://water.j3web.net). She is a co-PI on a three-year NASA grant entitled, Earth System Science: A Key to Climate Literacy and an NSF DR K-12 grant entitled, Confronting the Challenges of Climate Literacy, both of which are led by Tamara Ledley at TERC. Active in national earth science education reform, Dr. Ellins served on the US Science Advisory Committee (USAC) for the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) and has been involved in IODP strategic planning, including education and outreach, for fifteen years. She has also served on the IRIS Education Committee, the Earth Science Literacy Initiative Writing Workshop, and was involved in EarthScope education and outreach planning. She has provided K-12 science professional development in Texas for twelve years.
Saturday, March 3rd, 9:00 - 10:15 a.m.
"Preparing High School Science Teachers to Teach Earth and Space Science (ESS) in Texas"
Speaker: Rebecca L Dodge, Associate Professor of Geosciences, Midwestern State University
After several decades of effort, The Texas State Board of Education approved High School-level Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) standards for Earth and Space Science (ESS) in March of 2009. With the first classes planned for Fall 2010 implementation, there was an imminent need to prepare teachers to offer the class; a challenge because High School-level Earth Science certification has become uncommon in Texas. In an innovative partnership, the North Texas Geological Society, the Geosciences faculty at Midwestern State University and administrators and teachers within Wichita Falls ISD developed a focused in-service teacher short course designed to prepare local High School Science teachers with the needed content knowledge and understanding of the ESS TEKS; of five scheduled to teach the class, only one was trained in Earth Science.
The short course, which was first offered in June of 2010, was designed specifically around the TEKS; extensive teaching resources were funded by the NTGS and the WFISD. These included laboratory materials; the prospective textbook; a laboratory notebook; geoscience DVDs developed by GSA; classroom visual aids; USGS videos and teacher guides; mineral, rock, and fossil kits. The five-day short course involved lectures (notes provided in PowerPoint form); hands-on lab activities; opportunities to evaluate online resources; a field trip; and a course evaluation.
Evaluation results led to modifications including more opportunities to search for and evaluate online resources and more hands-on laboratory exercises. The short course was offered again in August 2010 at the Ellison Miles Geotechnical Institute in Dallas, Texas. Teachers from across the State attended and evaluations supported redesigned course elements. Future State-wide short course opportunities are under development. The short course has also been implemented in an online format though the American College of Education.
Biography:
Dr. Rebecca L. Dodge has worked in the field of applied remote sensing for many years. She received her Masters and PhD from the Colorado School of Mines; her research concerned the mapping and dating of active faults in northwestern Nevada. Her early professional career continued this focus, and involved airborne and spaceborne photography and imagery. She spent over a decade in the oil exploration business, applying remote sensing technology for both exploration and environmental purposes. Her petroleum exploration career began at Exxon Production Research, where she applied remote sensing to structural interpretation, international and domestic frontier play analysis, and environmental impact analysis. She continued these applications for Hunt Overseas Oil Company and Eastward Oil Company, participating in frontier exploration programs in Argentina, Ethiopia, Portugal, and China. She continues to consult and to provide training in the applications of remote sensing for mapping and exploration. Dr. Dodge also continues to be active in the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, having served as a Visiting Geoscientist by visiting over 25 University campuses in the past 20 years, and by serving as President of both the Energy Minerals Division and the Division of Environmental Scientists. Since joining academia 15 years ago she has been researching and teaching the uses of remote sensing from satellite platforms, for resource and environmental management applications. She currently teaches geology and environmental science courses at Midwestern State University. In addition, she is deeply committed to training and educating future science teachers in geosciences, earth system science, and environmental observations techniques, with an emphasis on the integration of field observations and geospatial technology.
Geology Section Co-chairs:
Don Hellstern, Eastfield College
Lynn Millwood, Mountain View College