PI: Frank W. Ireton Instititution: American Geophysical Union Title: Spheres of Influence: Shaping the Future of Earth Systems Sciences Education ABSTRACT: The American Geophysical Union will convene a workshop called, "Spheres of Influence: Shaping the Future of Earth System Sciences Education". This project is an outgrowth of the 1994 Chapman Conference sponsored by the American Geophysical Union on "Scrutiny of Geoscience Education". The former workshop was an exploration of common issues and problems; this workshop is a call to action. This is a timely project because of the recent attention focused on the earth sciences due to questions of environmental degradation, natural hazard reduction, and thematic topics such as global change. National studies such as Geosciences and Society (NRC), National Science Education Standards (NRC), Project 2061 and Benchmarks for Science Literacy (AAAS) also call attention to the need for improved education in the geosciences. A steering committee, composed of participants from geology, atmospheric sciences, and oceanography, will meet to refine the agenda for the meeting, and to identify qualified participants. The central themes that will be addressed at the workshop include: earth sciences for all students, curricular issues, training of future teachers (and implementation of K-12 science standards), use of new technologies in the classroom, integration research and education, recruitment and retention of diverse populations in the earth sciences, changing the culture of instruction in the earth sciences, and collaborations and other partnerships. Participants will be selected to provide the broadest representation based on sub- discipline, type of home institution, geographic distribution, professional experience, race, and gender. This will be a writing workshop, with participants selected to write recommendations and action plans for topics identified above. Participants will be assig ned to a given topic, will engage in an electronic exchange of ideas prior to coming to the workshop, and will come prepared to write their recommendations. The outcome of this workshop will be a document similar to NSF 94-19 "Innovation and Change in the Chemistry Curriculum". This document will be published by AGU; it will be broadly disseminated to earth science departments across the country, and will be accessible through the AGU homepage. A special session at the AGU annual meeting will be dedicated to the presentation of the results of the workshop, and summaries of each of the working groups will also be published in EOS. The outcome of this workshop will be a document in which the common themes of earth science education will be articulated, common goals for students and faculty will be defined, and specific recommendations will be made about how faculty, departments, and the earth science community in general can reach these goals. This is an important step towards developing a stronger presence of the earth sciences in the overall educational mission of the National Science Foundation.
