Scientists and Teachers: seize the opportunity to promote your classroom research!
Date: 09/05/2006
An invitation to SCEC scientists and educators from Connie Walker, NOAO:
Dear Colleague,
Seize the opportunity to submit abstracts for contributed papers to an exciting educational session at the December AGU meeting in San Francisco: Session ED17 "Teacher Professional Development Programs Promoting Authentic Scientific Research in the Classroom."
The session will focus on research experiences for teachers, the roles of scientists and education specialists, and authentic scientific research in the classroom. Specifically we are interested in soliciting contributions from scientists, education specialists, and teachers who are or have been directly involved with teacher research experiences. (Abstracts submitted electronically are due: September 7, 2006 at 2359UT.)
--Do you have a program you want to tell us about? We would enjoy hearing from professional development programs that incorporate authentic scientific research.
--Do you have an internship program? We would value shared experiences from industry; from NSF-supported programs; from other teacher-scientist partnerships. The perspectives of people from other countries would add further dimension to the session.
--We have a keen interest in hearing from exceptional teachers who can share their experiences and how they have successfully transferred the research experience to their classrooms.
--We are planning to span a broad range of disciplines, institutions, agencies, and projects.
The description of the session is listed below. We hope you can join us in making this a successful session for a third year in a row. The on-line submission form for abstracts is available from the AGU WWW site at http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm06/.
AGU policy allows one "education" abstract to be submitted in addition to a "science" abstract.
Here are the policies for submitting abstracts.
Policies for Submitting AGU Abstracts
* Abstracts submitted electronically are due on-line no later than 2359 UT on September 7, 2006. At 2359 UT the local times will be: Boston 19.59h; New Orleans 18.59h; and Seattle 16.59h. Abstracts must be accompanied by submission fees. The abstract submission fee is nonrefundable.
* Abstracts can be submitted only when the first author is an AGU member in good standing (as of 15 August 2006) or a nonmember whose abstract submission is sponsored by an AGU member in good standing (as of 15 August 2006, e.g., co-convener Connie Walker). Click here if you would like to renew or to join.
* An AGU membership number is required for each First Author in order to submit an abstract. If the First Author is not an AGU member, the submission must be sponsored by an AGU member who has agreed to do so. The sponsor's membership number must be supplied. Connie Walker’s membership number is 30086978.
* Only 1 contributed paper is allowed by the same first author, unless submitting to an Education or Public Affairs session.
Detailed instructions for submitting and managing abstracts are provided at http://submissions4.agu.org/submission/entrance.asp.
It is highly recommended that you read through all of the instructions before you begin.
If you have additional questions, please contact fm-help@agu.org.
The AGU Fall Meeting will be held December 11-15 in San Francisco. For more information, please feel free to contact the session conveners listed below. If you would like to view last year's two oral sessions and one poster session, visit http://www.noao.edu/education/agu/.
Sincerely,
Connie Walker, National Optical Astronomy Observatory, 520-318-8535, cwalker@noao.edu
Steven K. Croft, National Optical Astronomy Observatory, 520-318-8495, scroft@noao.edu
Véronique Robigou, University of Washington, 206-543-9282, vero@ocean.washington.edu
Gail Scowcroft, University of Rhode Island, 401-874-6486, gailscow@gso.uri.edu
AGU Session ED17: "Teacher Professional Development Programs Promoting Authentic Scientific Research in the Classroom"
The session will focus on informing scientists, educators, education researchers, evaluators and funding agency program officers on efforts to provide K-12 teachers with authentic research experiences in science and engineering. Presentations should highlight best practices for the “Teacher Research Experience” (TRE) model. Presentations by those who design, facilitate, evaluate, and fund TRE programs are especially encouraged, as well as presentations by teachers and scientists who have participated in such programs.
Suggested areas for presenters to address include but are not limited to:
• the transition of the educational environment into an authentic research center
• how best to prepare teachers to become part of scientific research teams
• the use of “online learning in teacher professional development”, “support systems for teacher researchers”, “research community collaboration” and “program assessment and evaluation”.
• examples of the value to the scientific community of involving teachers in research
• recommendations for designing and implementing research experiences that aligns with national, state, and/or local reform efforts in science education
• how authentic research experiences can be used as a strategy to retain and renew the best science teachers and enhance student learning
• the framework for conceptual learning in terms of the curricula and embedded research activities
• the effective transfer of knowledge from the teacher/researcher to the students through implementing a research program within the classroom
• how these teacher professional development programs play an essential role in science education reform and in teacher retention and renewal
Presentations on new models for long and short-term teacher research experiences are invited from the fields of space science, environmental science, atmospheric science, earth science, oceanography, etc. Scientist-teacher research teams are particularly encouraged to submit abstracts for the session. Printed and CD-based materials may be brought by participants to the session to be distributed to attendees.
