ESC Outreach Plans

[Nicole D McMahon]

Hey Earth Science Clubbers,

I apologize in advance for the length, but it's important info.

Last Thursday we met and discussed our outreach projects with the 4th-8th grade students of the Cottonwood Valley Charter School.  We came up with dates and topics detailed below.  If you're interested in helping out in any aspect, or if you have some ideas we haven't considered, contact the lead or me sooner rather than later.

Items for consideration:

• The leads are responsible for planning their lessons and are encouraged to recruit other Earth Science Club members and even students in the department outside of the club to help with lesson planning and teaching.  
• It would be awesome if at least two students could show up for each of the lessons on the CVCS campus in order to promote earth science.
• If you want to help out with the Rio Grande water testing on Nov. 9, let me know so that I can let the teacher know you will be joining.

Odd Jobs - if you don't want to get involved with the planning/teaching process, but would still like to help out:

• Volcano experiment set-up: we'll have some pieces of heavy equipment, and the experiment will need to be ready to go by the time the student arrive around 9:15
• Children Wranglers: We will have approximately 90 students out on Tech Field Nov 22, and I'm sure the teachers would appreciate help wrangling the children and answering questions that come up.  It's be nice to have as many students (and professors) on the field as possible.
• Documentarians: I would like to have 2 people document the liquid nitrogen volcano with pictures and videos of both the experiment and the children/facilitators.  We can use photos and videos to document the ESC's activities, as support if we decide to run for club of the year, and I guarantee the students and teachers would love to have a record of the activity.  And, if possible, it'd be great to have photos and videos from each of the lessons taught in classrooms.

Tips for Lesson Planning:

• Emphasis on the scientific method - the teachers told me that they'd like us to really emphasize the scientific method: ask a question, do some background research, develop a hypothesis, test the hypothesis, analyze the data, draw conclusions.
• Lesson level - be mindful of the grade level you are teaching and adjust lessons accordingly
• Make the lessons fun - I'm sure we all remember being an elementary school student and part of the fun of having a substitute teacher or guest was that class was a little crazy that day.  We'll be teaching on days right before or after breaks when students have "checked out" and are even less interested in school than usual.  So, rather than standing at the board and lecturing make the lessons interactive.  Make as much of the lesson participatory as possible.  I understand that some lecture will be necessary to fully teach concepts, but don't subject them to college style teaching before it's necessary.
• Technology is available - the teachers said they have projectors, smart boards, and overhead displays, so if your lesson involves powerpoints, awesome videos and/or pictures, go for it.
• Assessment/Evaluation - It's important to have a period of assessment or evaluation during or after your lesson in order for you and the teacher to gauge the students' understanding.  I did this by having a competition trivia challenge (e.g., boys vs. girls) or a board game (e.g., hangman) for the last 5-10mins of class.
• Document the lesson plan - if possible, I'd like to have copies of the lesson plans we use so that in future semesters we can reuse/build upon them.  The Earth Science Club may need to implement an historian position.
• It's your lesson - while I've suggested topics based on feedback from the teachers and my personal preferences, ultimately these are you lessons.  Implement your experiences and specialties.
• Teaching materials - if you buy any materials to help teach your lessons (e.g., candy for prizes in trivia competitions or graham crackers to demonstrate earth structure), save the receipts and we can try to have it subsidized by the student association or the club budget.  

If you need any help or resources for planning lessons, I'm happy to help.  I've included a copy of a lesson plan I used to teach about earthquake magnitude scales while I was in Michigan.  Keep in mind that I was preparing for education in third world countries, so I was discouraged from using too many resources (and no technology), but you don't have these constraints.

Nicole

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Nicole D. McMahon

Geophysics Graduate Student

New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology

Department of Earth and Environmental Science

801 Leroy Place Box 2356

Socorro, NM 87801

Office: MSEC 254

E-mail: nmcm...@nmt.edu

Cell: (405) 301-4862