A Decade of AMS DataStreme Courses—Teachers Using Earth System Information

The DataStreme Project has become the precollege teacher enhancement flagship of the American Meteorological Society's Education Program. Three courses [DataStreme Atmosphere, DataStreme Ocean and DataStreme Water in the Earth System (WES)] have aided over 10,000 teachers to develop Earth system science competency. Following course participation teachers become Earth system science resource persons in their schools and districts. Further, the use of telecommunicated Earth system environmental information has been shown to be both exciting and highly motivational for students.

DataStreme Atmosphere, which began as the DataStreme Project in 1995, has served as the prototype for all AMS' DataStreme courses. DataStreme courses are offered locally by the Local Implementation Team (LIT), typically three members who are master teachers or scientists. They serve as mentors to the teachers whom they recruit. Course content is provided by a custom text and benchmark investigations coordinated by AMS' DataStreme Central. The text and the first halves of investigations are provided to the participants at the first semester meeting with weekly investigation completions based on current environmental data being delivered via the course website. The LIT also provides two additional meetings and weekly mentoring while participants work toward content mastery.

The unique blend of collegial work on specially crafted learning investigations utilizing current Internet-delivered real-time data is highly motivating and authentic. Teachers in turn bring this content interest and immediacy to their colleagues and classrooms.