1. IRIS Education and Outreach
Assessing the IRIS Professional Development Model: Impact Beyond the Workshops
Michael Hubenthal - Education Specialist
John Taber - Education and Outreach Program Manager

2. Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS)
Formed in 1984 to advance and promote seismology through facilitating nationally shared instrumentation and data resources.
NSF-funded consortium of
100 member universities and laboratories,
Over 35 U.S. and foreign affiliates
Four educational affiliates.

3. Why is IRIS involved in education?
2000 National Survey of Science and Math Education - Horizon Research

4. Workshop Snapshot
Primary Audience – Formal educators teaching grades 6-10 & undergraduate faculty
Secondary Audience – Formal educators teaching grades outside 6-10
Workshop Length – 8:00am – 5:00pm Presenters - Selected researchers from IRIS Institutions
Dissemination – National and regional educational/scientific conferences
Impact /2003 = 147 teachers and faculty
IRIS professional development
workshops established 1999

5. Workshops can increase teacher comfort in the classroom by
increasing educators’ foundation in seismology and earth science
providing educators with a variety of high-quality (based on the NSES), scientifically accurate activities to deliver content to students, and
actively engaging educators with both the content and the educational activities as the primary means of knowledge transfer

6. Thinking on teacher professional development
“a one-time workshop or seminar is unlikely to result in significant, long-term change in the practice of a teacher…….Because as stand-alone strategies workshops, institutes, courses and seminars fall short of providing a well-rounded professional development experience, ideally one-time workshops and even long-term courses are combined with other strategies to enhance the learning experience of the participants.”
Designing Professional Development for Teachers of Science and Mathematics, Loucks-Horsley et al.

7. Developing an assessment program
Can IRIS, as an organization whose primary purpose is facilitating science, have meaningful impact in the classroom through a one-day professional development experience?
For this purpose, “meaningful impact” is defined as seismology will be taught more broadly/frequently and effectively.

8. Metrics
Participant Perceptions (Did the participants like the professional development experience and find it valuable)
Learning (Did the participants learn the intended material?)
Transfer (Will they use it when they return to their classrooms?)
Self-Reported Data
Statements with Likert-style responses
Closed-ended questions measuring teachers preparedness to teach content
Follow-up survey measuring length of time on topic, and activity usage.

9. About the Perception Data
Collected via survey at the end of each workshop
8 Statement with Likert-style responses
2 Open-ended catch all questions
Response rate 96%

10. Participant Perceptions
(Did the participants like the PD experience and find it valuable)

11. About the Learning Data
Added to perception survey prior to the 2003 national NSTA workshop
4 Statements “As a result of this workshop my preparedness to teach about ___ has (I/D/RAS)”
Response rate was 100%

12. Participant Learning (Did the participants learn the intended material
All participants responded that their preparedness to teach students about
seismic waves,
plate tectonics,
earth structure, and
earthquake effects, hazards, and risks
had increased.

13. About the Transfer Data
Collected via workshop specific survey at the end of the academic year
Two separate mailings achieved a response rate of 39%
Participants reported specific activity usage, which is being analyzed for continuous improvement.

14. Transfer (Will they use it when they return to their classrooms?)
74% of respondents report increasing the amount of time spent teaching seismology or related topics in their classroom
86% of respondents report using at-least one activity modeled during the workshop upon returning to their classrooms.
An average of 4.5 modeled activities were used per teacher
In contrast, only 13% of respondents used activities that were made available to participants in the form of handouts at the workshop but were not modeled during the workshop.

15. Conclusions Why? One-day workshop focusing on:
increasing educators’ foundation in seismology and earth science,
providing educators with a variety of high-quality (based on the NSES), scientifically accurate activities to deliver content to students, and
providing educators with experiences involving both the content and the educational activities as the primary method of instruction
has resulted in teachers actively transferring the learning and resources gained as part of the workshop to their classroom.
Very specific content area for 8 hours
Educators who attend our workshops
actively pursue their own well-rounded
professional development
Why?

16. Participant Attributes
Survey Period = 1999, and National NSTA Conferences
*Note: Similar data for all attendees at the National NSTA convention is not collected by NSTA, therefore no comparison is possible.

17. Conclusions Continued
Positive impacts on student learning of seismology related topics can be reasonably inferred from the number of participating educators reporting an increase in the amount of time spent on seismology and the number of activities used by participants.
*Note: IRIS has made no attempt to assess the learning of students in the classes of educators that have participated in the IRIS professional development workshop.

18. For Further Information:
Michael Hubenthal
IRIS Consortium
Education Specialist
(607)

19. Future development of the IRIS professional development program should focus on
Developing a more systemic professional development program with partnering educational institutions
Developing new tools to efficiently evaluate workshop participant learning.
Further refinement of workshop activities and content based on future follow-up surveys.

20. IRIS Professional Development
Provide professional development for teachers and college faculty to improve the science content, teaching methods and student learning of seismology, Earth science, and related topics in K-16
Develop and disseminate instructional materials and analysis tools that use seismological observations and data to improve the students’ education and appreciation of Earth science in grades 5-16
Outcome
Workshops
Earth science and seismology will be more broadly and effectively taught in 5-16 schools

21. About the Attribute Data
All data is self-reported
Acquired using two versions of surveys - v.1: and v.2:2003
Survey Period = 1999, and National NSTA Conferences
Data sets were selected based on compatibility between survey v.1 and v.2

22. Venues

23. Additional Attribute Data

24. Known Weaknesses in Data
Terms such as “Rural”, or “Urban” are not defined but are left to participant interpretation
Survey v.1 did not use the standard government reporting format for eliciting participant race and ethnicity information
Survey v.1 was not anonymous