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Fostering Earth Science within Minority Populations
The American Meteorological Society (AMS) offers innovative educational programs to help schools meet the goals of science education. To promote diversity in Earth science, the organization actively recruits teachers who are members of underrepresented groups, or who teach such students, to participate in two key educational initiatives.
The AMA's Project ATMOSPHERE, which is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and AMS members, fosters the teaching and learning of atmospheric sciences in elementary and secondary schools. For greater reach, the project prepares teachers to train their peers. To this end, the AMA seeks minority teachers to participate at a two-week summer workshop at the National Weather Service Training Center in Kansas, MO. Attendees gain the expertise necessary to serve as resources and trainers of other teachers for classroom studies in atmospheric topics.
The Maury Project: Exploring the Physical Foundations of Oceanography is a comprehensive teacher enhancement program based on oceanographic science. The project disseminates instructional materials to schools and prepares teachers to provide peer training nationwide in the use of these and other resources. The project features a special AMS/NOAA initiative to promote minority participation, encouraging teachers of underrepresented groups to attend two-week, summer workshops at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. There, they will learn how to become peer trainers so they can show other teachers how to introduce oceanography to their students. Since 1994, the workshop's peer trainers have engaged over 18,000 teachers.
These educational projects illustrate the current efforts by both public and private organizations to encourage interest and literacy in Earth science within underrepresented student populations.
www.ametsoc.org/amsedu/aera
www.ametsoc.org/amsedu/maury
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