A common problem faced by many secondary school teachers of Earth Science is limited knowledge of local and regional geology and limited field experience. The active continental margin in the Pacific Northwest provides an amazing variety of geological settings:
Themes of Teachers on the Leading Edge will be: (a) Field-based geology investigations that feature the problem-solving approach and instill a geologic sense of place; (b) Earth Systems Science promoting critical thinking about mass and energy transfers within and between the geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere; (c) A geophysical emphasis that will demonstrate how subsurface geology is imaged by seismic, magnetic, and gravity studies and will prepare teachers to convey to their students the discoveries of Earth Scope's US Array and Plate Boundary Observatory experiments. (d) Examinations of geologic hazards as understandable and relevant to citizens who "live on the edge" of our continent. The planning workshops will: (1) form a collaborative of university and K-12 Earth Science educators; (2) determine the best field locations for learning Earth Science through problem-solving; (3) develop an implementation plan for the inaugural set of summer 2005 workshops for teachers; and (4) report program development and design through contributions to the Digital Library of Earth System Education (DLESE). .
