Changing Earth Science Curriculum: From ESCP to www.
by Dr. Michael J. Passow

[A slightly different version of this article was published in Geotimes, September 1999. Appreciation to the American Geological Institute for permission to include this version.]

   Three decades in Earth Science classrooms provide perspective on the challenges and demands of implementing new state and national standard in Earth Science education. We who began teaching when we could watch Apollo landings live with students nearly our age have experienced many TYNTs and LYNTs ("This Year's New Thing/Last Year's New Thing"). Now we are learning to utilize perhaps the most exciting communication technology ever, the World Wide Web. 

   Many of us who are the "senior" teachers first became excited about our planet in elementary school during the International Geophysical Year of 1957-58, when the launch of Sputnik began the Space Race. As we moved through high school and college in the 1960s, new discoveries and theories changed what we were taught about Earth. 

   ESCP–Earth Science Curriculum Project--was one of the "alphabet soup" science programs created in response to the "Space Race." Under AGI's leadership, hundreds of scientists and educators attempted to create "an integrated and up-to-date story of planet earth and its environment in space." ESCP provided a comprehensive instructional package--textbook, laboratory supplement book, two-volume teacher's guides, and inexpensive materials for hands-on investigations--that allowed for a quality program, regardless of what teachers had or had not learned previously. 

   Even with ESCP, Earth Science education continued to vary greatly from state to state, school to school. Student learning often depended on individual teacher competency, knowledge, and resources. As plate tectonics, remote sensing techniques, interplanetary explorations, and other discoveries and theories greatly expanded boundaries between the known and unknown in geoscience, and made what we taught more scientifically accurate, actual classroom techniques too often remained little different from "traditional" methods--teach, review, test, and on to the next topic. 

   By the early 1980s, politicians began leading public outcry about "school accountability" and questioned whether students would be ready for the 21st century workplace. AGI responded with a series of conferences to consider what should be taught in K - 12 Earth Science. These resulted in well-written guides to key concepts that should be learned at various levels. But these were never as widely accepted as originally envisioned. 

   Around the same time, the American Association for the Advancement of Science created Project 2061. Drawing widely upon expertise from many areas, Project 2061 developed Benchmarks for Science Literacy, a compendium of what students should know and be able to do at various stages in their education. The National Academy of Science also developed their National Science Education Standards. These efforts placed Earth and planetary sciences for the first time on a more equal status with the "traditional" science subjects: biology, chemistry, and physics. 

   For most teachers, the Benchmarks and National Standards have often had minimal day-to-day impact, providing generalized philosophies and statements of limited value for designing learning activities or tests.

   But for state education departments, they provided impetus for developing new curriculum guides and assessments. Such state-mandated tests produced a great impact on classroom practices as teachers prepare their students to deal with such evaluations. 

   For example, in New York State, students can no longer graduate high school merely by passing locally-developed courses. All students must pass at least one "Regents Science exam, with greater recognition for those who pass two or more. With input from many classroom educators, the New York State Education Department is creating extensive new "Core Curriculum" guides. Earth Science is one of three "Physical Setting" cores, along with chemistry, physics, and "The Living Environment." 

   "Regents Science" exams based on new "Learning Standards in Mathematics, Science, and Technology" include content-based multiple-choice questions (approximately 25 - 35%); content- and skills based multiple-choice and /or short "constructed response" questions (approximately 25 - 35%); and "extended constructed response" items that require students to apply knowledge and skills in "real world" situations (approximately 20 - 25%). Answers for such questions include brief explanations, graphing, data analysis, drawing map profiles, and other techniques. 

   In addition, a hands-on "laboratory performance test" comprises 15% of the grade. This involves such investigation-based activities as mineral and rock identification, modeling the Sun's path across the sky on a plastic hemisphere, measuring rates of change, and other skills. The New York State Education Department web page (<www.nysed.gov>) provides current versions of learning standards, curriculum guides, and previous exams. In recent years, as many as 100,000 students have taken the Regents Earth Science exam annually. 

   Similar curriculum development and assessment projects are also being developed in most other states, although not always as extensively as in New York. Information to state education departments home pages is available through <http://promise.cahs.colostate.edu/DOE.html>. 

   For classroom teachers involved in developing new curriculum guides and writing items for statewide assessments, the process has generally been exciting and empowering. Sometimes it is frustrating, when one set of directives around which planning has begun are suddenly superseded by different ones. But on the whole, it has helped us gain greater understanding of how to teach and assess achievement. 

   But for the far greater numbers of teachers not personally involved in the process, changes seem arbitrary, unclear, and unnecessary. Experienced teachers have not always been convinced that changing habits of a career are warranted. Newer teachers may see often-changing directives as one more barrier placed in the path to mastering the teaching profession. Staff developers are uncertain whether to be proactive so teachers will be ready to implement new methods appropriate for new assessments, or wait longer to see if they are meeting the right directives. 

   But throughout all this uncertainty, one overriding change has arrived and provides more excitement in the classroom than anything since watching moon landings: availability of the World Wide Web. 

   ESCP and most earlier programs provided students with "packaged" data for investigations. This gave a flavor of what scientists do, but always had a sense of "Let's pretend" about it. Such approaches lack a sense of "real-time" immediacy. It's hard to get a student to wonder, "What if we were to change this aspect?" when the data to investigate such a change is hard to find or manipulate. 

   But the Internet opens possibilities for exciting students through use of such "real" data available at the click of a mouse as current weather conditions, radar and satellite images from all over the world, locations of recent earthquakes and volcanoes, tide predictions, or sun and moon rise and set times. Students begin to formulate questions based on what they see--they are actively engaged in "sciencing," not playing at being "junior scientists." 

   The potential of the Internet has also brought out the creative sides of many scientists and science educators wishing to share knowledge and excitement through their web sites. For example, "Virtual Earthquake" created at California State University at Los Angeles (vquake@calstatela.edu) helps students learn about seismology through interactive activities that utilize well-packaged seismic waves to locate epicenters and determine Richter magnitudes. My students were much more confident about answering "Regents-type" questions on these concepts, compared with when they worked through pencil-and-paper problems. 

   From our classrooms we can make "virtual visits" to the dinosaurs, minerals and rocks, and other exhibit halls of a museum on the other side of the country. We can e-mail research scientists for information needed to carry out a project. We can compare tidal patterns on different coasts using data available from the National Ocean Survey, then process these data using spreadsheet programs. This is an example of how computer-assisted education help students achieve Learning Standards in science and other subject areas. 

   Another way in which students can draw upon the power of the Internet is using images, data, and concepts to create Power Point presentations. Imagine how satisfying it is to watch a shy thirteen-year-old glibly explain to classmates what NASA spacecraft have discovered about moons orbiting the Gas Giants as she clicks from slide to slide in a colorful Power Point show she has created. 

   But although the WWW opens exciting opportunities for many, the reality is that we are rapidly being divided into "Haves" and "Have Nots." Many school districts do not have the resources to provide such opportunities. Even within schools, some teachers push the boundaries of Internet-based learning, while colleagues in the next room are still teaching as they did decades ago. A major challenge now is staff development to help all teachers to take advantage of Internet-based teaching. Classroom teachers, like colleagues in the business community, must learn to take advantage of list-servers, e-mail, and quality educational web sites to help students develop knowledge, analytical, and presentational skills. 

   Yet Earth Science education must ultimately prepare students to understand the "real classroom" outside school walls. So it is important also to find ways to engage teachers in networking activities, such as regional meetings where they share classroom ideas and take field trips to local sites. They must participate in state and national conferences to raise their professional esteem and knowledge. 

   Special workshops for educators sponsored by research institutes and universities also help foster quality Earth Science education. For example, the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University conducts series of Saturday morning workshops in which research scientists discuss their work and teachers share classroom-ready activities. 

   K - 12 teachers will always face many other problems that hinder easy success. These include handling day-to-day scheduling, other demands on student time and energy, great variation in student interest and knowledge. The Internet can provide exciting ways to handle these challenges, but teachers must be given the resources and in-service training to develop competency to utilize its potential fully. 

   It is also clear that many experienced teachers will retire in the next decade. We need to train many new teachers. But are there too few "in the pipeline"? How can we attract the next generation of great teachers? What must they learn in pre-service programs both about the subject content and techniques of taking advantage of Internet and other new technologies? Given everything else going on in schools today, how can we retain good teachers in the classroom? 

   From the perspective of three decades in Earth Science education, I think it's permissible to paraphrase Dickens' famous opening, "It was the best of [geo]times, it was the worst of times." We've come a long way from ESCP to new Standards that include Earth Science in the curriculum to connecting students with the World Wide Web. We can provide opportunities never before possible to excite students about our planet. There are many challenges, but the potential for success is greater than ever.

Suggested Reading
American Association for the Advancement of Science/Project 2061, 1993, Benchmarks for Science Literacy. Oxford University Press, New York NY. National Center for Earth Science Education, 1991, Earth Science Content Guidelines Grades K - 12. American Geological Institute, Alexandria VA. National Center for 

Earth Science Education, 1991, Earth Science Education for the 21st Century: A Planning Guide. American Geological Institute, Alexandria VA. National Research Council, 1996, National Science Education Standards. National Academy Press, Washington DC. 

Bibliography 
Michael J. Passow teaches Earth Science in the White Plains, NY, Middle School. A frequent workshop presenter at professional educational conferences and contributor to educational publications, he also organizes regional in-service and pre-service training programs.