Earth as a System is Essential: Seasons and the Seas (EaSiE)
National education standards have been established for more than a decade, yet national studies have shown the impact of standards has not sufficiently reached where it matters most – in the classroom. Concurrent with this challenge of translating standards into classroom practice is the requisite shift from a traditional view of earth science to an earth systems approach. Dynamic professional development combined with access to quality instructional resources and digital media, integral to the Earth as a System is Essential – Seasons and the Seas (EaSiE) project will assertively address these challenges and impact student learning in earth systems science at the middle school level. The project will fill the critical need for a relevant, contextual curricular theme for middle school learning. Its goal is to incorporate NOAA resources and virtual visits by NOAA scientists to integrate authentic earth systems science content into existing instructional units. Development of these materials – in association with appropriate standards-based middle school learning goals and pedagogy, supported by embedded professional development, collegial networking, and supplied with the tools to meet this need - form the rationale for this project.
This project centers on the curricular theme of “Seasons and the Seas”. It builds on students’ prior knowledge of the changing seasons in New England – mountains dappled with colored leaves in fall, and budding apple leaves in spring. Connecting to these images, NOAA scientists create parallel images depicting the seasons in the seas. Once this bridge of shared seasonality is completed, students investigate the larger interactions of organisms, land, oceans and atmosphere that form the Earth system, and follow its changes throughout the seasonal year.
Middle school teachers from Massachusetts, Maine, and New Hampshire will become Teacher Resource Agents. Working with NOAA scientists, educators, and Maine Mathematics & Science Alliance (MMSA) staff, these individuals will complete extensive professional development over 24 months, including two Summer Institutes, two Fall Conferences, one Spring Conference, two unit implementations that incorporate webinars and podcasts, and web discussion boards. They will gain content background, integrate MMSA staff reviewed and aligned materials into their instruction, and conduct field tests of the curriculum materials. During Year 3, participants will share the curriculum units with colleagues in their own states and across the country through the project web site, marine and state science teachers associations, and state science supervisors.
Goals, Objectives and Outcomes
Overarching Goal
The overarching goal of EaSiE is to transform the traditional middle school study of terrestrial seasons and weather into an “exploration of the dynamic interactions between Earth’s land, oceans, atmosphere and living world.” Through professional development of their instructors and access to a robust array of print, digital, and real-time instructional resources, students learn about Earth as a system in the context of their “own backyard.”
Objective #1 – Support a robust and relevant middle school curricular theme that bridges the gap in environmental literacy between traditional earth science and thematic-based earth systems science by expanding existing curricular materials on terrestrial seasons and weather to include relevant concepts related to the seasonal and climatic changes in the Gulf of Maine.
Objective #2 – Offer substantive, sustained professional development to a cadre of middle school teachers in New England who will implement units in their classrooms and serve as EaSiE Teacher Resource Agents.
Objective #3 - Work with regional NOAA scientists to support continued Earth systems education and provide connections to current research and career choices.
Objective #4 – Develop a network of state science supervisors and other content specialists that strengthens the legitimacy of the curricular and instructional approach, and supports further dissemination within each state and nationally.
Outcomes for Middle School Teachers
Middle School teachers participating in EaSiE will:
Gain further understanding of Earth as a System through the seasons, and through periods of climate change.
Identify how northern New Englanders are part of the Earth system, how the parts of the system interact and how the parts affect the Gulf of Maine ecosystem.
Learn instructional strategies that support improved student learning in science, particularly Earth system science.
Integrate new resources into instruction to support the transformation of student thinking about Earth as a System and the interactions between solar energy, land, oceans atmosphere and the living world.
Motivate students in science with relevant content on current issues, and with contacts to NOAA researchers to introduce new career choices.
Outcomes for Middle School Students
Middle School students who are part of EaSiE will:
Recognize that people, organisms, land, atmosphere, and oceans are part of a system and that the interactions between these spheres and the sun’s radiation affect Earth’s weather and changing climate.
Describe the physical boundaries of the Gulf of Maine and its watershed along with some of its nearshore and offshore habitats and organisms.
Explain the reason for seasons on Earth, and compare the changing seasons and climate of New England’s landscape with changes in the Gulf of Maine.
Identify the role the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration plays in understanding Earth systems and some of the types of careers available in the field.
EaSiE and Ocean Literacy
Earth as a System is Essential – Seasons and the Seas aligns with Ocean Literacy Essential Principles and Fundamental Concepts. Through participation in EaSiE, teachers and their students will understand that:
the Earth has one big ocean with many features;
the ocean is a major influence on weather and climate;
the ocean supports a great diversity of life and ecosystems; and
the ocean and humans are inextricably interconnected.
