Teaching Science Teachers about Masters of Disaster in Socioeconomically and Climatologically Vulnerable Counties of Georgia

University Of Georgia Research Foundation Inc, Athens GA

Investigators

Abstract

This project seeks to strengthen K-8 geoscience education in the state of Georgia through the use of an innovative but underutilized weather science and safety curriculum, the Red Cross Masters of Disaster (MoD) curriculum. The principal investigators are conducting a series of week-long professional development workshops in the summer of 2011 and 2012 for approximately thirty (30) science teachers in each of three selected county groups (Bibb, Brantley/Glynn, and Calhoun) of Georgia that are socio-economically and climatologically vulnerable to severe and extreme weather conditions. The workshops focus on teaching teachers about the Red Cross MoD weather science and safety curriculum for K-8 students. Evaluation of the effectiveness of the workshops will determine impact on teacher learning, and eventually on what students learn, how much they learn, and what knowledge they take home with them when teachers deliver the MoD curriculum after attending the workshop. Smaller scale versions of these workshops, offered for the past two years at the University of Georgia with support by a Teacher Quality grant, have indicated that these workshops have much promise in increasing science teacher's weather and climate literacy. It is expected that this project will provide useful data on the effectiveness of the MoD curriculum to increase students' knowledge of weather science and safety and to promote a culture of weather safety in students and their families.