Summary/Goals: The goal of this effort is to provide teachers unique opportunities both to experience authentic field hydrology situations and to better develop their own hydrologic literacy (and general professional development) through active participation in departmental field camps. The program will be expanded to include five preservice and early service science teachers annually.
Activities and outcomes during past year:
Two teachers participated in this program during its first year. In 2003, this program supported teacher participation in a spring snow field camp and a summer surface water camp. One comment we received from the snow camp participant was: "I so appreciate your help in my efforts to learn more about hydrology. I am hoping to shape my experiences into a theme for next year's curriculum ... using a PBL approach." We have found that our expectations for larger enrollments is limited somewhat by the timing of our camps, which both occur during the traditional K12 school year.
Plans for the upcoming year:
This project is currently in-active. We continue to look for new collaborators and ways for the teachers to share their experiences professionally, not just within their own classroom. We would like to make this kind of experience available at other locations and will try to do this through partial stipend support. So far, we are encouraged by the excitment this activity has generated in the program participants.
Our current focus is on REU's. Unfortunately, our interesting field experiences are usually at times (early spring) when most teachers do not have week-long blocks of time available. We have not actively recruited for this position over the last year.
