K-20 educator collaboration effective at conveying EarthScope science to middle school teachers

Teachers on the Leading Edge (TOTLE) program has developed an innovative model for middle school teacher professional development workshops that has proven effective at improving teacher knowledge of Pacific Northwest plate margin hazards and EarthScope science as well as leading to high rates of subsequent curriculum implementation. The key elements which appear to have led to the successes are: 1) facilitation team with broad content and educator expertise from K-12 master teachers and community college instructors to university and research scientists; 2) regional team format which encourages development of learning communities to continue past the workshop end; and 3) extensive “kit” of teaching materials for easy transfer to the classroom. The 1-week workshops were conducted during the summers of 2008-2010 and included 35 Pacific Northwest middle school teachers and 5 community college (or similar) regional team leaders each year. Content sessions and field trips were conducted by geoscientists from universities and research institutions (USGS, IRIS, UNAVCO, etc.). Teaching implementation sessions were conducted by K-12 master Earth science teachers. Approximately 10% of workshop costs were devoted to teaching material “kits” for all participants. Teacher confidence on workshop content topics increased on a 4-point scale (1 = “not at all confident”; 4 = “very confident”) from 2.7 to 3.2 to 3.7 on pre, immediately-post, and 8-month follow up surveys, respectively. Teacher performance on a content test improved an average of 19% after the workshop. Greater than 75% of teachers implemented at least 6 of the curricular elements in the year following the workshop. More concrete linking of the most complex topics (Ex. Cascadia GPS) to simpler elements led to improved implementation of those difficult curricular topics between 2008 and 2009 (Ex. from 28% to 40% implementation).