Collaborative Research: The Cross-Rock Collaborative--Science Teachers for the New Millennium

St Thomas Aquinas College, Sparkill NY

Investigators

Abstract

This project develops a curriculum and supporting infrastructure to recruit, train and retain a cadre of skilled, versatile, technology-adept, standards-oriented teachers certified to teach Earth Science and other science topics. It includes adapting curricular materials and software tools developed at a national laboratory to create an exemplary earth science course at the lower lever for all prospective teachers. The focus on the Earth is motivated by an acute teacher shortage in this area and knowledge of the importance of educating the citizenry about this suite of topics. The activities include recruiting students while they are still in high school or community college through existing outreach and enrichment programs; educating them through a model curriculum built around our pooled understanding of Earth processes and learning processes; and nurturing them with teacher-mentors and teaching and research opportunities from high school through the first year of teaching. The students served are predominantly first-generation college educated, and a large fraction are from minorities under-represented in science. This proposal represents a collaboration between a college which is a regional center of excellence in science education and teacher preparation, a distinguished scientific research laboratory, and an open-admission two year community college serving an economically and ethnically diverse population.