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National Association of Geoscience
Teachers
Southeastern
Section Newsletter
Summer-Fall 2006
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Inside:
Regional
Geoscience Ed News
SE
GSA Comes to Savannah!
SE
NAGT Representatives
WWW . . .
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Winter-Spring 2007 Newsletter
Deadline: Feb. 9, 2007. Please send news, items, questions, &
answers to Stan at sdunagan@utm.edu
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Southeastern Section
Officers
President: Nancy Huebner
Fernbank Science
Center
156 Heaton Park Drive
Atlanta, GA
30307
404.929.6312
n.huebner@fernbank.edu
Past-President: Douglas Haywick
University of South Alabama
LSCB
136
Mobile, AL
36688-0002
334.460.6381
dhaywick@jaguar1.usouthal.edu
Vice-President: Gregory Bailey
Southeast Whitfield
County High
School
1954 Riverbend Road
Dalton, GA
30721
Geogagreg@alltel.net
Secretary/Treasurer: Pamela Gore
Department
of Geology
Georgia Perimeter
College
555 North Indian Creek Drive
Clarkston, GA
30021
678.891.3754
pgore@gpc.edu
Newsletter
Editor: Stan P. Dunagan
Dept.
of Geology, Geography, and Physics
The University of Tennessee at Martin
Martin, TN 38238
731.881.7437
sdunagan@utm.edu
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SENAGT President’s Report Fall 2006
One of the
best parts of my job is working with kids. A few weeks ago a 10 year old girl
stopped by my lab to get some help with her prized rock collection. In the
past, a child with such a strong interest in geology would likely go on to study
science in college, but might never end up in a college level geology course.
Lots of kids love rocks and fossils, but that love has traditionally not been nurtured
in our public schools. The good news is that this is starting to change. As
states begin to re-write their science standards for elementary, middle and
high school they are using various national standards as their guide, all of
which advise teaching physical, life and earth science as three equal strands throughout
the K-12 curriculum. Here in Georgia,
we are seeing more earth science being taught in elementary school, a strong, stand-alone
earth science course in middle school, and, for the first time in my memory, a
real, rigorous earth science course in high school. Even better, the teams of
professionals writing these new standards include actual geoscientists!
We are all
invested in the education of our nations’ children. As geoscientists we can
make a real difference in lots of little ways.
·
Keep
your eyes open for talented and dedicated earth science teachers and nominate
them for the NAGT Outstanding Earth Science Teacher award.
·
Go
to your state’s department of education’s web-site and look at the science
standards. Make sure the earth science standards are accurate and well chosen,
and if you see a problem, let them know.
·
Consider
presenting at one of the NAGT sponsored sessions at the next GSA or SEGSA
meeting.
·
Continue
to support geoscience education through your membership to NAGT.
·
Encourage
other geoscience professionals to join NAGT… let’s keep our membership growing.
Thank you
for you support of NAGT. Together we do make a difference.
Nan Huebner
Atlanta, GA
2006
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Secretary/Treasurer’s
Report - As of June, 2006, we had 129 members and the
account has $3919 in the bank.
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Southeastern
Section of the Geological Society of America
meeting, Savannah
(GA)
March 28-30, 2007
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The Department of Geology and
Geography at Georgia Southern University and the Southeastern Section of the
Geological Society of America proudly invites you to participate in the 56th
Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Section of the Geological Society of
America in Savannah, Georgia from March 28-30, 2007.
Call for Papers:
Abstract Deadline: December 12, 2006
Papers are invited from students and professionals for oral and poster
presentations in general discipline sessions, theme sessions, and symposia.
Abstracts can be submitted online through GSA's web site (http://www.geosociety.org). An abstract submission fee of $10 will be
charged. An individual may present only one volunteered paper; however, a
person may be a co-author on other papers. Individuals invited to
participate in symposia may present an additional volunteered paper.
For further information, the meeting website is http://www.geosociety.org/sectdiv/southe/07semtg.htm. If you have any questions about the
meeting, please contact me Pranoti Asher (Meeting Chair, SE GSA Meeting) at PAsher@georgiasouthern.edu or at
(912) 681-0338.
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REGIONAL NEWS IN GEOSCIENCE ED
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Alabama (submitted by David C.
Kopaska-Merkel and Hurd Finnegan)
Tim Ashley has
been selected to be Alabama’s
Outstanding Earth Science Teacher of 2006. Tim is a teacher at Leflore High School
in Mobile, AL.
Tim is an avid student of the Geosciences, attending workshops in Geology and
Meteorology during the last year. The award was presented this fall at the
Alabama Science Teachers Association meeting in Birmingham, Al.
Davidson High School in Mobile will launch a one
of a kind Honors Geoscience class this spring. The class will be taught by Hurd Finnegan, a former Alabama Outstanding Earth
Science Teacher of the Year. The class will concentrate on Geology and
Meteorology. This class is a part of Davidson’s EPIC, (Engineering Pathways
Integrated Curriculum) program. EPIC is a program to prepare high school
students for careers in engineering and the sciences.
The annual
one-day field workshop in paleontology, a joint program of the University of West Alabama and the Geological Survey
of Alabama continues with two new partners.
Discovering Alabama and the new Black Belt
Museum will be helping
with the workshop beginning this year.
The Geological
Survey of Alabama distributes Earth Science Week teaching kits (produced by the
American Geological Institute). Earth
Science Week is in October every year and the kits assist teachers and other
adults in planning educational activities in the Earth sciences. The kits are a good resource even if teachers
don't use them during Earth science week itself.
The Birmingham
Paleontological Society organizes an annual fall education outreach event that
takes place at the Homewood
library. This is a good learning event for kids and parents; it includes fossil
information, video microscopes set up, and more.
The McWane Center,
a hands-on science museum in Birmingham,
is developing a program of field trips and field workshops but as yet this is
still in the planning stage. They hope to be able to lead educational field
trips within a year.
The Alabama
Museum of Natural History (Tuscaloosa)
continues summer field programs for children; these include fossil
collecting. Similarly, Legacy, Alabama's environmental
education organization, continues a week-long summer teacher workshop that
includes Earth science elements.
This was a year
for no progress in Alabama
science education. New funds were not
allocated and new statewide initiatives were not launched. Worthy programs such as the Alabama Math
Science and Technology Initiative continue to be implemented in new
schools. Most ongoing programs continue
at unchanged activity levels. Geology is
an elective in high school in Alabama
but only a few schools teach it. We know
of only one school that has added such a class within the past year (see
above). Without an infusion of money and
with no serious attention by the governor and the state legislature science
education in Alabama
cannot expect to make major strides.
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Georgia (submitted by Pamela Gore and Nan
Huebner)
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William G. (Bill) Waggener is the 2006
Outstanding Earth Science Teacher in Georgia. He has been
active in both formal and informal earth science education programs, at
both the secondary and college level.
Most recently, Bill has taught Physical Science and Earth Science to
9th graders at Paulding
County High
School (for two years). He previously
taught Earth Science to 8th graders at Flint Middle School
in the Griffin-Spalding County Schools. Prior to his secondary school teaching,
Bill worked at the Georgia Institute of Technology as a Laboratory and
Field Coordinator in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences,
where he taught geology labs for the Earth Science courses for 9 years.
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Bill has been extraordinarily active in the local
mineralogical and geological societies. He has served as President of
the Southeastern Federation of Mineralogical Societies for one year (2004),
and as the President of the Georgia Mineral Society for three years
(2000-2002). He is currently a Trustee of the Georgia Mineral Society.
His service to local mineralogical and geological societies also shows his
strong commitment to education. Bill’s work funds scholarship programs to
earth science students through three organizations. Bill is currently
the Education Chair of the Georgia Mineral Society. In addition, Bill
also serves as the current Grants and Scholarships Chair for the Atlanta
Geological Society (1996-present). In addition to these duties, Bill
is the current President of the Mayo Educational Foundation, a division of
the Southeastern Federation of Mineralogical Societies, which funds
scholarships and grants to upper level undergraduates and post-graduates
seeking degrees in earth science fields.
Bill has worked with students both formally and informally in
the field. He leads field trips with the Junior Section of the
Georgia Mineral Society (including both elementary and secondary school
students), and led field trips for college students at Georgia Tech. Bill noted that his students have
achieved some measure of success, as one of his 8th graders
recently placed third in the state at the Georgia Science and Engineering
Fair, held at the University of Georgia, in Athens,
GA, with an earth science
project on geochemistry.
Bill received his Bachelors of Science degree in Geology from Georgia State University
in 1993. He was in the Geoscience Honor Society there from 1989
through 1993. Bill also did undergraduate work at Texas A&M
University and at
Georgia Institute of Technology. In addition, he has done graduate
work at Georgia
State University.
He is a member of the Georgia Science Teachers Association, Geological
Society of America, Georgia Geological Society, Atlanta Geological Society,
The Georgia Mineral Society, the Cobb Co Gem & Mineral Society, and the
Southeastern Federation of Mineralogical Societies. His hobbies
include mineral and rock collecting, and motorcycles.
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Georgia has been working on revising its K-12 curriculum over
the past several years and the Georgia Department of Education is in the
process of rolling out the new science standard for grades K-12. The standards are based on national standards,
with equal time allotted for teaching physical, life and earth science. The new curriculum is called the Georgia
Performance Standards (GPS). A high school earth science course was added
this year, and with the change to the GPS, Earth Science instruction has moved
from 8th grade to 6th grade. Along with this, a new Earth Systems course
was approved in July 2006, to become one of the seven core courses in the high
school science curriculum. Best of
all, geoscientists from West Georgia, Georgia
State, Valdosta
State, Georgia
Southern, Georgia Perimeter College
and Fernbank Science Center
worked on developing the new standards.
In March 2007, Georgia welcomes the Southeastern Section
meeting of the Geological Society of America to Savannah. The SE NAGT will be sponsoring a teacher workshop
entitled, “The Correlation of the Georgia Performance Standards to Topics in
Paleontology.” This day-long
workshop is targeted for 3-12 grade
educators in the region with special emphasis on Georgia teachers. Like many
southern states, Georgia's
science curriculum has undergone major renovations. Evolution and the fossil
record are facets of the curriculum in grades 3-12. This workshop will focus on
methods and hands-on activities to teach these topics to the young minds.
Professional geologists from the region will present some of their research to
teachers in an effort to make paleontology relevant and realistic to the
student's local world. Photos on CD and real Georgia data will be given to the
teachers to use in their classroom to create virtual field trips. Instructors
will demonstrate to participants some methods and hands-on activities they have
used in their classrooms, and a set of grade-appropriate lesson plans will be
distributed. The workshop will be held
Friday March 30, 2007. Teachers from all states are invited to attend.
North Carolina
(submitted by Randy Bechtel)
The annual North Carolina Science Teachers Association (NCSTA)
Professional Development Institute was held in Greensboro, North Carolina
November 9-10. Of special note this year is the very popular, bi-annual,
Rock-Give-Away sponsored by the NC Aggregates Association. The samples are donated by aggregate and
mineral producing companies in North
Carolina.
Teachers receive 10-12 labeled rock and mineral samples, with
descriptions, from around the state.
There will also be a conference-wide inquiry-based activity called the
Investigation Station. This activity
includes a “crime scene” that participants need to use clues derived from
scientific investigations, including forensic geology, to discovery the
perpetrator.
We are excited to
present the Outstanding Earth Science Teacher (OEST) Awards. Our state winner is Carrie A. Jones; she will
be honored at the NCSTA Professional Development Institute during an awards
ceremony. The following in-state
participants sponsor this award: the N.C. Mining Commission, N.C. Aggregates
Association, Carolinas Section of the SME and the N.C. Geological Survey
(NCGS).
The Carolina
Geological Society will be running its annual weekend long fieldtrip November
3-5 in the central Piedmont. For more information please visit www.carolinageologicalsociety.org
In the October 2006 issue of Geotimes an article discusses the coming lack of trained geoscientists. It is entitled “Congress Weighs in on Geoscience Training”, the link is www.geotimes.org/current/scene.html
We are looking for a second state representative from North Carolina to be
involved in SENAGT. For more information
please contact Randy Bechtel at 919-733-2423 ext.414 or at Randy.Bechtel@ncmail.net
South Carolina (submitted
by Gwen Marie Daley)
In accordance
with the our state’s Education Accountability Act of 1998, all of South
Carolina’s education standards must to be reviewed and updated on a regular
basis with the first revision to be completed before 2005. Most of the press
coverage of this process has concentrated on the political fight over the
biology standards (see below). According to the December, 2004 report of the
South Carolina Education Oversight Committee (EOC) (Report on the Review of the South Carolina Science Curriculum Standards),
there were several problems with the old science teaching standards such as
redundancy, appropriateness of standards to grade level, the sometimes
illogical order of subjects and a lack of detail. These issues were addressed
in a new version of the South Carolina Science Academic Standards posted on the
South Carolina Department of Education (SCDoE)’s website in November. The new
standards were submitted to the EOC for approval, and the real trouble started.
The
main source of trouble on the EOC is SC state senator Mike Fair (R-Greenville),
who is a proponent of the so-called Intelligent Design theory and an opponent of
the theory of evolution, which he has called “foolish.” Sen. Fair was
apparently quite disturbed by a Thomas B. Fordham Foundation report on state
science teaching standards, published in 2000, which gave South Carolina an “A”
for the evolution standards (a 2005 report from the Fordham Foundation gave the
SC science standards the only “A” for any state in NAGT’s Southeastern
Section). In the past, he has tried unsuccessfully to require stickers on
biology textbooks that say that empirical science is not able to provide data
about the origin of life. He twice introduced a proposal in the SC Senate that
would form a committee to review alternatives to evolutionary theory as well as
“determine whether there is a consensus on the definition of science.”
Spurred
on by Fair, in December 2005 the EOC voted to reject the wording in the biology
standards that dealt with evolution, even though according to the law that
created the EOC, it does not have the power to edit the standards. The Board of
Education decided to keep the 2000 biology standards in place until the issues
were resolved, and the published biology standards on the SCDoE’s website were
amended so that “DRAFT*” appeared on each page.
Sen.
Fair decided that the EOC should consult a panel of experts on the topic of
education. He reportedly consulted the Discovery Institute about recruiting
evolution critics (the Discovery Institute also issued a press release about
the panel) and subsequently brought in two out-of-state scientists. They were
joined on the panel by a pair of SC educators: Mary Lane Edwards (Erskine College)
and Karen Stratton (Lexington
1 school system). According to second-hand accounts on The Panda’s Thumb
website, both South Carolinians did a “bang-up
job.”
After
consulting the panel, Bob Staton (who would like to be the next SC state
education superintendent) suggested a “compromise” which would reinstate the
original language, but add the deceptive phrase “critically analyze” to the
standards. As written, the proposed standard would require that students be
able to “critically analyze” the genetic, anatomic, embryologic, biochemical
and paleontologic data that supports the theory of evolution. It sounds
harmless, until you consider that the old, lauded, standards required students
to understand the scientific process of using data to critically analyze
scientific hypotheses and theories. The terminology is a classic “wedge” that
could allow pseudoscience, religious beliefs and nonsense to be taught as
science in biology classrooms.
The
SC School Board of Education will meet on March 8 to decide whether or not to
alter the standards. For more recent news and information and details please
see the website of the recently formed South Carolinians
for Science Education (http://www.sc-scied.org/). The South Carolina Science Council has issued
statements about this debate (http://www.southcarolinascience.org/).
On
a lighter (and completely different) note, on Saturday, March 18th,
the South Carolina Aquarium and the Centers for Ocean Sciences Education
Excellence South East (COSEE EE) is offering a workshop entitled “Compromise in
the Estuary” that will address scientific and political issues related to
estuary management (for more information, please consult: http://www.scaquarium.org/visit/upcomingevents.aspx). Dr. John Wagner
of Clemson will run a course in July sponsored by the South Carolina State Park
Service and SC LIFE. Participants will travel through the state exploring
Discover Carolina sites and using maps and aerial photos to explore natural and
human history (see: http://www.ces.clemson.edu/scmaps/).
Tennessee
(submitted by Michael A. Gibson and Ann Holmes)
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The 2006 NAGT Tennessee
Outstanding Earth Science Teacher is Bryan Byrne. Bryan was
born in Huntsville, AL. August 17, 1961, grew
up in Titusville, FL., but graduated High
School in Lancaster, CA. His travels as a youth helped mold his
views of teaching earth and space sciences because his father worked with the
Space program as a NASA contractor. Bryan furthered his
experience by serving four years in the Army as a Warrant Officer and
helicopter pilot. Bryan later became a NASA contractee
himself by working for Rockwell International, as a Space Flight Quality
Inspector. Six years ago he took up
the teaching challenge and has been at Cox Middle School
for the past four years, where he teaches 6th grade Science. Bryan
has a fascination for how things work, why things are the way they are, and
exploring the unknown. He claims that
his “unquenchable desire to learn about “things” and what makes them ‘tick’”
is what really pointed him to the teaching field. He says that he never has had an
overwhelming desire to focus on a particular field science, so he chose the
next best thing…teaching about all of science to others. “I truly love
working with young people admittedly because I am still just a big kid at
heart.
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I have never really grown
up and wish to remain a Toys-R-Us kid always. I pursue just about any
opportunity for personal growth, improvement, or advancement of my knowledge
of science that comes my way (much to my wife’s chagrin) and rarely turn down
an opportunity to “do something” unless it just really won’t fit into my
schedule” Bryan
confesses. “My philosophy on teaching is very simple: It is my endeavor to
teach every child who walks into my room (student of mine or not) to be
life-long learners and lovers of the world around them. I challenge them to
discover everything about it including every rock, hill, insect, plant,
force, star, planet, nebula, molecule, person, etc. I implore them to discover
every thing they can and never be afraid to experience the new or unknown.
Life is a non-stop journey with no time for breaks in learning. Slackers are
the ones who will one day look back at their lives and say ‘I wish I would
have…’ rather than ‘I am so glad I …’”.
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The SE NAGT & SE
Paleontological Society will be co-sponsoring a session for K-16 educators at
the upcoming SE GSA meeting in Savannah,
TN. The oral session,
entitled “Teaching Organic Evolution for K-16 Students & Pre-Service
Teachers: Viewpoints, Techniques, and Approaches”, is being co-convened by
Michael A. Gibson (University of Tennessee at Martin; 731.881.7435, mgibson@utm.edu) and Colin Sumrall (University of Tennessee,
Knoxville, 865.974.0400, csumrall@utk.edu). Anyone interested in participating should
contact either convener. Deadline for abstracts is December 12,
2006.
In other Tennessee news, the State has paved the way
for more liberal incorporation of earth science in the middle schools by
allowing earth science to count as a physical science for middle school program
distributions. While no specific earth science requirement has been stipulated
for Tennessee
pupils, this move does allow teachers to infuse more earth science into their
individual classrooms.
Your SE NAGT State Representatives
Alabama
Hurd Finnegan
W.P Davidson
High School
3900
Pleasant Valley
Road Mobile, AL
36609
dhs.earth@gmail.com
David
Kopaska-Merkel
Geological Survey of Alabama
P.O. Box 869999
Tuscaloosa, AL
35486-6999
davidkm@gsa.state.al.us
205.349.2852
Florida
Jonathan R. Bryan
Earth Sciences
Okaloosa-Walton College
100 College Blvd.
Niceville, FL
32578
bryanj@owc.edu
850.729.5246
Paul Cutlip
Department of Natural Sciences
St. Petersburg College
St. Petersburg, FL
33733
Cutlip.Paul@spcollege.edu
727.341.4699
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Mississippi
Gail S. Russell
Department of Geology, Box 5045
University of Southern
Mississippi
Hattisburg, MS
39406
Gail.Russell@usm.edu
601.266.4077
David Dockery
Mississippi Office of Geology
Jackson, MS
39209
David_Dockery@deq.state.ms.us
601.961.5500
North
Carolina
Randy Bechtel
NC Geological Survey
Division of Land Resources, 1612MSC
Raleigh, NC
27699-1612
randy.bechtel@ncmail.net
919.733.2423
South
Carolina
John Wagner
Department of Geological Sciences
P.O. Box 340976
Clemson University
Clemson, SC
29634-0976
jrwgnr@clemson.edu
864.656.5024
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Georgia
Pamela Gore
Department
of Geology
Georgia Perimeter
College
555 North Indian Creek Drive
Clarkston, GA
30021
pgore@gpc.edu
678.891.3754
Nancy Huebner
Fernbank Science
Center
156 Heaton Park
Drive
Atlanta, GA 30307
n.huebner@fernbank.edu
404.929.6312
Louisiana
Andrea Walker
801 Pontalba
Street
New Orleans, LA
70124
andrealwalker@hotmail.com
504.488.5268
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Gwen M. Daley
Dept. of Chemistry, Physics and Geology
Winthrop University
Rock Hill, South Carolina 29731
803.323.4973
Tennessee
Michael
A. Gibson
Dept.
of Geology, Geography, and Physics
The University of Tennessee at Martin
Martin, TN 38238
mgibson@utm.edu
731.881.7435
Ann Holmes
Dept of
Physics, Geology and Astronomy
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Chattanooga, TN
37403
Ann-Holmes@utc.edu
423.425.1704
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NAGT
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