Would you like to be a part of the TXESS Revolution?
Katherine Ellins
UTIG Project Manager
Geoscience Education
SEMINAR OVERIEW:
This week, Kathy Ellins, UTIG Project Manager, will introduce the TXESS
Revolution Project, a $2.38 Million program to fund a rigorous, 5-year geoscience professional development program for 8th - 12th
grade minority-serving science teachers and teacher mentors in
ABOUT THE TXESS PROJECT:
The National Science Foundation's Opportunities to Enhance Diversity in the
Geosciences, the Shell Oil Company and the Jackson School of Geosciences are
together providing $2.38 million to fund the Texas Earth and Space Science
(TXESS) Revolution, a rigorous, high-quality, 5-year geoscience
professional development program for 8th 12th
grade minority-serving science teachers and teacher mentors in
Dean Eric Barron and Kathy Ellins, The Jackson School is teaming up with the
Texas Regional Collaboratives for Excellence in
Science and Mathematics Teaching, the Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering at UT-Austin, TERC (a not-for-profit
company in Massachusetts with 30 years experience in designing science
curriculum), the University of South Florida, and GeoFORCE
Texas to carry out the project. The goal is to prepare teachers for
Key elements of the TXESS Revolution include eight different professional
development academies offered twice over two years to two cohorts of teachers
and teachers mentors; immersive summer institutes that will consist of
classroom activities aligned with the Texas educational standards for the
new capstone course, field experiences in Alaska and Texas, and a Petroleum
Science and Technology Institute; training on how to implement Earth Science by
Design, an innovative program of professional development for teachers
developed by TERC and the American Geological Institute with NSF funding; and
an online learning forum designed to keep teachers and teacher mentors in
contact with facilitators and fellow project-participants between and after
training, and to share best practices, and new information.