Thirty Middle School teachers from the public and private schools of Region 20 and Northside Independent School District in the San Antonio, Texas area will be given the opportunity to participate in a graduate Summer Institute utilizing the innovative "trainer of trainers" approach toward enhancing field and classroom instruction in geology. Prior to the three-week Institute, meetings will prepare participants for the course work, provide interaction with university faculty and introduce the "training of trainers" program. Field work, lecture and "hands-on" application will target essential elements of earth sciences which have been already identified by teachers in this region as requiring attention. A field trip to the Black Hills will introduce the teachers to a stratigraphy that exists in Texas, but is scattered around the state making it difficult to study in a short period of time. This site will make the segmented Texas geology more available and comprehensible to the teachers. This experience will enable them to develop good field trip experiences for their students at more home-based sites. Approximately 60% of the participants will be from campuses with more than 65% minority students. During the year following the summer component, participants and universtiy faculty will evaluate the results of the program and develop a package consisting of a teaching manual and video recordings for use in future training of teachers. Both pedagogy and content will be emphasized in this project.
