Improving Urban Earth Science Education: The TRUST Model

Abstract

TRUST, or Teacher Renewal for Urban Science Teaching, is a National Science Foundation funded Earth science teacher preparation partnership between the American Museum of Natural History and Brooklyn and Lehman Colleges of the City University of New York. Our research and practice form a promising and replicable model for formal-informal partnership between teacher education programs and science-rich institutions such as museums, zoos, and botanical gardens. The model takes a problem-based approach to urban teacher shortages by focusing on the knowledge required for Earth science teacher certification. The initiative included two types of participants, teachers seeking Earth science certification and teacher leaders/school administrators seeking to improve science instruction in their schools. Key features of the model included new college-based courses that focus on Earth systems science and urban Earth science investigation and a two week museum-based summer institute emphasizing essential questions, interactions with scientists, and approaches to science teaching outside the classroom. The overall findings after four-years of implementation, action research, and external evaluation indicate that the model successfully provides timely and relevant approaches to partnership that complex urban situations require.