The goals of the partnership are to: 1) contribute to the understanding of conceptual development in ESS through the middle grades, 2) develop and support current teachers across Pennsylvania to engage students with the significant and complex questions of ESS fields, 3) strengthen the science content preparation of pre-service teachers to deepen their understanding of ESS, and 4) institutionalize improved communication and collaboration in teaching and learning among colleges and campuses of Penn State, in underserved urban and rural school districts, and across the partnership.
Project Contributions

"In our experience with middle school classrooms, astronomy is often taught as a set of shallow, disconnected facts. As a way of addressing this, the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS…

"This study describes the process of defining a hypothetical learning progression for astronomy around the big idea of Solar System formation. At the most sophisticated level, students can explain how…

With support from the National Science Foundation, the Earth and Space Science Partnership (ESSP) was established to develop a collaborative relationship among scientists, education researchers, middle school teachers, and high…

"The Earth and Space Science Partnership is at the midpoint of our 5-year funding cycle In this presentation we reflect on the successes and challenges - anticipated and unforeseen -…

Posted by: Susan Lauver . "An expert in teacher professional development, Professor Tanya Furman is working with collaborators to forge innovative approaches to communicate Earth and Space Science to middle grade students."…

Posted by: Susan Lauver . This is a special issue of The Earth Scientist sponsored by the Earth & Space Science Partnership. The included articles reflect the enthusiasm, hard work and success of the teachers…

"This study describes the process of defining a hypothetical learning progression for astronomy around the big idea of Solar System formation . At the most sophisticated level of the learning…

Posted by: Susan Lauver . This article highlights the Earth & Space Science Partnership's Teacher Leader, Theresa Lewis-King and the collaborative work she and math teacher Rebecca Haldeman-Newschaffer are carrying out in their school.

Posted by: Susan Lauver . This article features the inaugural meeting of the Pennsylvania Earth Science Teachers Association (PAESTA), an organization founded by the Earth & Space Science Partnership at Penn State University

Posted by: Scott McDonald . Our project seeks to improve the quality of instruction and student learning in Earth and Space science (ESS). Our approach involves professional development that tightly integrates formative assessment, curriculum development…

To improve the quality of instruction and student learning in Earth and Space science we must have professional development that tightly integrates assessment (broadly construed), curriculum development and pedagogical improvement.…