Teachers on the Leading Edge: 2005 Teacher Workshop

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This award supports a workshop for development of the Teachers on the Leading Edge program. The Pacific Northwest is a prime location for developing innovative Earth Science teacher professional development programs that empower teachers to connect classroom learning more directly to place and demonstrate the relevance of Earth Science to everyday life. Teachers on the Leading Edge (TOTLE) is a professional development program designed to engage K-12 teachers and their students in the geology and geophysics of the Pacific Northwest active continental margin, the leading edge of North America. Teachers on the Leading Edge will engage K-12 teachers in field study of plate margin geology in the Pacific Northwest, its past and present plate tectonic processes, and the societal implications of this geologic heritage, from understanding climate change to potential geologic hazards. Through a problem-solving approach to active continental margin geology, TOTLE teachers will gain experience and protocols for geologic inquiry, a regional geologic sense of place, the ability to engage students in learning "their geology", and appreciation for how geologists developed our current state of understanding and are advancing frontiers of knowledge through projects like EarthScope. Program themes include: (1) Convergent margin processes from great earthquakes to continent building through volcanism and terrane accretion; (2) Earth System Science using the John Day Fossil Beds to investigate a 30-million-year record of faunal and floral succession and paleoclimate changes; (3) geophysical studies that illuminate the geology beneath the tree-covered landscape and provide an introduction to EarthScope's USArray and Plate Boundary Observatory experiments; and (4) geologic hazards as aspects of living on the leading edge of our continent. A guiding principle is to make TOTLE invitational, accessible, and useful to K-12 teachers so they can carry Pacific Northwest geology to learners of Earth Science at a wide range of educational levels.