Resource Database: Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

A series of interactive workshops is being offered as an INSET programme (In-Service Education and Training) to schools by the Earth Science Education Unit at Keele University in order to support teaching of plate tectonics. Plate tectonics and the structure of the Earth were chosen for the following reasons:

• these topics are in the National Curriculum for Science at Key Stage (KS) 4 (14 - 16 year olds) and so are part of all science examinations syllabuses for 16 year olds;
• since plate tectonics is also part of the National Curriculum for Geography at KS3 (11-14 year olds), science teachers find it difficult to develop, at KS4 level, the understanding that pupils bring from Geography;
• the Earth science background of the majority of teachers that teach plate tectonics is very poor;
• as a result, they hold a variety of misconceptions;
• in some areas they exhibit a major lack of knowledge and understanding;
• errors and oversimplifications on these topics in science syllabuses, examinations and textbooks exacerbate these problems.

The task of the Earth Science Education Unit has been to develop a workshop approach that:

• engages and motivate teachers;
• builds background knowledge and understanding and deals with misconceptions in a non-threatening way;
• shows how plate tectonics can be presented effectively in a laboratory/classroom context.

The workshop falls into four main phases:

1. Plate tectonic knowledge from Geography: Photographic slides from a KS3 level geography film strip illustrating plate tectonic processes are shown. The slides are used to present plate tectonics as a series of facts and no explanations or evidence are discussed at this stage. This shows the understanding that children might bring from their KS3 geography.
2. Developing a scientific understanding: 'How do we take this basic knowledge and turn it into scientific understanding appropriate for KS4 children?' The answer is to revisit the slides in which the plate tectonic ideas were presented as 'facts' and ask scientific questions about these facts. When all the concepts have been covered, the teachers are presented with a completed sheet listing major points of evidence and explanation.
3. An interactive practical approach: A series of practical activities are made available to participants. These are all taken from an Earth Science Teachers Association (ESTA) publication (Kennett and King, 1996). Participants try out the activities, demonstrate them and feed back their findings to the rest of the group. Teaching strategies and technical matters are discussed and the value of the activity in demonstrating key plate tectonic processes is debated.
4. The evolution of plate tectonic theory: The teachers are presented with a scrambled list of the main players and their dates in the story of the evolution of plate tectonic theory. Unscrambling this illustrates the development of the theory and the story over time.

Feedback has been very positive, with such comments as, 'now have a greater depth of understanding to explain plate tectonics', 'have more confidence with improved knowledge', 'will include new ideas in our scheme of work', ' excellent', etc. This should inspire the Earth Science Education Unit team to greater heights!

References:

• Arthur, R (1996) Lies, dam lies and books on geology. In Stow, D. A. V and McCall, G. J. H. (eds.) Geoscience education and training. In schools and universities, for industry and public awareness. 289 - 291. (Rotterdam: Balkema).
• Kennett, P and King C. (1996) Investigating the Science of the Earth 2: Geological changes - Earth's structure and plate tectonics. (ESTA, Geo Supplies, Sheffield).
• King, C. (1998) Developing effective Earth science teaching approaches for non-Earth science specialists. In Fortner, R. W. and Mayer, V. J. (eds.) Proceedings of the second international conference on geoscience education. 158. (Ohio State University).
• King, C, Brooks, M, Gill, R, Rhodes, A and Thompson, D. B. (1999) Earth science in GCSE science syllabuses and examinations. School Science Review, Vol. 80, 87 - 93.

Keywords:

INSET
Interactive workshops
Teacher training