In the spring of 2004, the Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE) and a set of partners conducted a pilot project to develop a collection of exemplary Earth System Science resources organized into a teaching sequence for use at the middle and high school levels. The participants included science teachers from the San Francisco Bay area and science advisors, facilitators, and instructional designers from the University of California Museum of Paleontology, San Francisco State University, USGS, and DLESE.

The teams created two virtual teaching boxes, one of which is on Dynamic Weather. A teaching box is an online framework that fully supports a teacher’s need to present a unit of instruction about the Earth system. It is organized for immediate use, but modifiable by teachers to better meet their needs. Each box takes an inquiry-based learning approach and integrates concepts, teaching outcomes, resources, activities, teaching tips, standards, and assessment strategies.

This session will demonstrate the Dynamic Weather teaching box. Participants will be able to view the contents of the box: the overarching concept map, instructional strategy, activities, and resources, etc. They will also see how to modify the box and create a new teaching box using the tools, strategies, and templates provided.