Earth Links: Using Scientific Inquiry to Teach Geoscience and Mathematics

Temple University, Philadelphia PA

Investigators

Abstract

Earth Links: Using Scientific Inquiry to Teach Geoscience and Mathematics Leonard 0331154 This grant allows researchers at Temple University in Philadelphia two years to implement an program to teach geosciences and mathematics to teachers of inner city elementary grades. The program helps ten prospective elementary and middle grade teachers per year to implement a geoscience curriculum and to use it as a springboard to investigate Earth science problems. Preservice teachers at Temple University investigate Earth Systems with minority at-risk populations, implement the curriculum in 5th to 8th grades, take a field-based course, and are mentored over the course of the program. Year one involves a field-test by student interns of the "Investigating Earth Systems" inquiry-based curriculum elements in out-of-school programs for minority populations. The students will then take this experience with them into local 5th to 8th grade classrooms during their student teaching experience. The preservice students are also required to take a field-based Earth sciences course during this period. During year two, these teachers will be followed through their own classroom implementation of the materials, and the project will be externally evaluated for effectiveness. This grant exposes a subset of minority populations to a strongly community-based program in science, and provides an introduction to geosciences to both the school children and a set of strongly motivated young teachers.