NSF-GeoTeach
AGI/Jackson School-Pending
Operation Geoscience--AGI/Jackson School Partnership
The American Geological Institute (AGI), a national umbrella organization representing 44 geoscience societies, proposes to establish a national center for geoscience teacher education with regional components housed and tested at AGI and at four university-based regional centers around the United States. Operation Geoscience is designed to strengthen the position of geoscience education in the United States by: increasing the numbers of highly qualified secondary school teachers; improving the access these teachers have to exemplary geoscience educational materials for their students, and advocating for school districts and colleges to accept geoscience courses as science credits for high school graduation and college admission.
The four major goals of the program will be to (1) Identify, analyze, and nationally disseminate components of model pre-service and in-service geoscience programs for secondary teachers; (2) Develop an online support system, housed at AGI, for the regional centers' geoscience teacher education programs with ready access to curricular materials, coursework for in-service teachers, and workshop support; (3) Establish a clearinghouse and online catalog of print and video geoscience educational resources not yet available in digital format; and (4) Expand AGI's existing annual report on the status of Earth Science Education in the United States to include data such as: state-by-state analyses of Earth Science standards, grades in which Earth science is taught, state graduation requirements, presence of earth science in state standardized tests, and teacher certifications in Earth science and textbook adoption cycles.
