Advancing ASER: Reflections on a 3-Day Workshop

The NSF-funded workshop, Developing Expertise and Building Collaborations to Advance Atmospheric Science Education Research (ASER) addressed the need for professional development for those interested in formally pursuing ASER. Specifically, the 3-day workshop brought together mentors with expertise in education research, current ASER scholars, atmospheric science educators, K-12 educators, and graduate students in atmospheric science. Five mentors and a keynote speaker helped facilitate workshop sessions for 19 participants. Workshop activities included networking during working meals, a gallery walk to share common research interests and questions, and numerous structured activities (e.g., jigsaw activity) which involved the workshop participants and mentors working together to develop well-designed education research projects.

At the close of the workshop, five teams had developed a research question and made plans to move their projects forward post-workshop, indicating that the workshop was successful at facilitating collaborations. In addition, the education research mentors provided numerous educational materials and resources (e.g., literature, websites, research planning worksheet) to the participants to help guide them as they move forward with their project plans, and participants were encouraged to contact the education research mentors beyond the workshop with any follow up questions. In this presentation, we will share what we learned about our community at the workshop, including shared research interests that were identified and areas for future work. This workshop resulted in a much-needed support system that will help to grow the ASER community’s expertise in education research methods, and the collaborations set the foundation for robust investigations into teaching and learning in atmospheric science.