The Earth Science Storybook Project: Building Content Knowledge and Teaching Confidence in Preservice Teachers

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The Earth Science Storybook ProjectThe Earth Science Storybook Project is a pilot project based upon the premise that current reform efforts in science education must have a focus on teacher education. The project develops a process whereby university faculty can serve as positive mentors to preservice teachers and foster sound professional development for teachers. The project presents preservice teachers the opportunity to research and write standards-based children's literature (storybooks) in earth science and test the idea that use of creative skills will be a meaningful learning experience leading to a more successful degree of professional development for teachers. Earth scientists help the preservice teachers to create scientifically sound products that teach concepts required by state and national standards for the K-4 grade levels. These geoscientists work with the participants to design simple experiments that will be included in the storybook narratives designed to promote scientific investigation in K-4 classes. The emphasis on the design and implementation of experiments gives the participating preservice teachers and K-4 students a glimpse of the way science is practiced. Elementary education majors enrolled in an introductory geology class at Brigham Young University are mentored as they research a specific earth science topic and write a short storybook on that topic. Potential storybook topics are taken from national and state science education standards and are appropriate for children at the K-4 level. Participating preservice teachers are mentored throughout the process of creating their storybooks in order to foster development of positive attitudes toward scientific inquiry and enhanced pedagogical content knowledge in science. The storybooks will be professionally illustrated. As the project continues past the pilot stage, it will focus on dissemination of the storybooks into a local school district. Assessment of the storybooks themselves will be conducted in terms of their affective outcomes on teachers and students and their effectiveness in fostering development of content knowledge for K-4 students at the district level.