 |
Wednesday, May 28, 2008 - 2:45 PM
452
Overcoming roadblocks to the use of aquatic science curricula in secondary education
Nancy Mesner, Watershed Sciences, Utah State University, 5200 Old Main Hill, Logan, UT 84322-5200 and Andree' Walker, Utah Society for Environmental Education (USEE), 466 East 500 South Suite 100, Salt Lake City, UT 84111.
USU Water Quality Extension uses stream monitoring techniques to help students learn about water quality issues and watershed functions. Although we attempted to introduce these activities into schools, classroom adoption remained limited to those teachers with a special interest in water or outdoor education. In 2004, we worked with the Utah State Office of Education to conduct a formal evaluation of barriers to adoption of our activities. We identified 8 major barriers that teachers experience, including a need for curricula to address core standards and a lack of knowledge about water quality science. Using these results, we developed Stream Side Science, a curriculum of 11 water-focused lesson plans for Utah’s required 9th grade Earth Systems Science course. A formal assessment of these materials found significant increase in knowledge by students, and verification of the usefulness of the structure and components of the curriculum. Since 2004, we have provided all-day workshops to approximately 240 teachers on the use of this curriculum and have distributed over 800 copies nationwide. An ongoing follow-up survey of teachers who attended trainings between 2004 and 2006 indicates that they continue to use this curriculum in their classrooms, thus reaching thousands of students each year.
Web Page: outreach, secondary education, freshwater science curricula