Scroll to the bottom of the page to see the Superstitions Mountains VFE.

This page provides information for participants in our Teacher Friendly Professional Development Program on teaching local and regional Earth system science of the Southwestern United States. 

The workshop was held in and around Mesa, Arizona and Arizona’s Superstition Mountains, July 19 - 21, 2011. Classroom space was provided by Skyline High School.

Click the map for directions to the school.

Things to Do Before the Workshop:

There are two pieces of homework that are ideally to be done before the workshop. 

1. 1.Create a “Powers of Ten” Google Earth Tour for your school or institution. For an introduction, see Your Own Powers of Ten Or, go straight to the tutorials: http://virtualfieldwork.org/How_tos/How_tos.html.  If you’re comfortable with Google Earth, and have created Google Earth tours previously, this will probably take about two hours.  If you need help, don’t hesitate to contact Don at [email protected] or via Skype at dugganhaas. Using Skype allows screensharing, which makes trouble shooting much easier. The two key purposes of this task are to create a useful teaching resource and to provide some familiarity with a key piece of software we’ll be using in our work together. 
   

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The second task is a reading that should be complete before the workshop.  

2. 2.Read the executive summary of How Students Learn: History, Mathematics, and Science in the Classroom.  We’ll discuss this the first morning of the workshop.  Here are some things to consider as you read:
   

•How does how you learn compare to what the authors claim?

•How should research on learning inform how we teach?

•Note that the reading is not about whether people are visual or auditory learners. It’s more about how you put information together in your head.  How do you figure things out?

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2. This task is intended to both bring this research to your attention and to bring the research to bear on our own teaching.  As the reading describes, we are asking you to be metacognitive. The chapter and it can be downloaded from the National Academy Press website: http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=10126   Scroll down to the link for the free executive summary.
   

You may also wish to explore the project websites before the workshop:

    http://virtualfieldwork.org

    http://teacherfriendlyguide.org