AMS pre-college teacher professional development courses: A hands-on exploration of the dynamic Earth system

During the fall and spring semesters, the American Meteorological Society, in partnership with NOAA, NASA, and SUNY Brockport, offers a suite of pre-college teacher development courses. AMS DataStreme is delivered to small groups of K-12 teachers with twice-weekly online study materials, weekly mentoring and several meetings, all supplemented by a provided textbook and investigation manual.

This past year began our DataStreme Climate course, which joins DataStreme Atmosphere (1996) and DataStreme Ocean (2003). The DataStreme courses have been completed by nearly 15,000 teachers, increasing their knowledge of Earth science online resources and providing confidence in understanding dynamic Earth systems. Through courses modeled on scientific inquiry and fashioned to develop critical thinking skills, these teachers become a resource for their classrooms and colleagues.

With the additional partnership of NSF, NOAA NWS, and the U.S. Navy, AMS also runs two, two-week, summer residence workshops, Project Atmosphere on the fundamentals of meteorology and the Maury Project on oceanography. Alumni of both workshops peer-train teachers in their local communities, using topic modules provided by AMS, as well as assist in offering DataStreme courses.

With a long standing history of championing diversity within its program, the American Meteorological Society actively recruits teachers who are members of groups traditionally underrepresented in science or who teach at schools with significant numbers of minority students.