Notes from June 29^th Pre-Service Education Working Group Telecon

ASTE:

• Discussion began with discussion by Rick Pomeroy and Stephanie Shipp on the status of cooperation between ASTE and PSEWG.  Rick reported that the June ASTE Board meeting went well, and that the majority of the Board is 100% behind some type of cooperative agreement with the PSEWG.
• Tim’s workshop proposal for ASTE’s January conference has been submitted

Science Methods and PSEWG

• Rick would like to start a small group discussion on what a portion of a science methods class would look like, incorporating all of the best practices and ideals discussed during the Advance.  He would like to devote about 5 class sessions, of 2.5 to 3 hours in space science.
• Those members of PSEWG who have experience with teaching science methods classes and would like to work with Rick on this should contact Rick or Christine; we would like to put together the ideal curriculum for such a project.  We will also continue this discussion during the July telecom.

Advance Notes

• No changes or edits were suggested to either version of the Advance Notes; comments were simply that they seemed complete.
• Christine will have the Executive Summary posted to the Web site in the next week; if there are any changes or additions to either version of the Notes, please send them to Christine as soon as possible.

Teams

• Julie has asked to join the Strategies team
• Jennifer has submitted a proposal to ASP on behalf of Professional Development; this would be a 90-minutes interactive awareness-building panel discussion
• Tim has submitted a proposal for ASTE that uses NASA data with preservice teacher science methods
• Cheri has talked with the Board of NAACTE; they will be meeting at the end of September and will invite a representative of PSEWG to attend their meeting

New Business

Microsoft’s TappedIn

• We discussed Peter’s email to the working group about the Microsoft Workshop.
• Tim pointed out that there is a fee for joining TapedIn
• We are interested and want to learn more from Peter; we hope he can share more insights at the next telecom.

“International Astronomical Year”

• Tim is the Chair of AAS’s IAY, 2009 (400^th anniversary of Galileo’s observations of Jupiter)
• Tim wanted opinions from the group of the goal of having every pre-service student teacher in the US observe Jupiter and its moons through a telescope in 2009
• Discussion was very positive; we feel that this goal is achievable, requires a broad base of support from amateur astronomers, provides future teachers with future connections as well as insipiration, and would affect education beyond 2009
• We spoke briefly about funding, about Sun-Earth Day, about the Night Sky Network, and about the Solar System Exploration forum.  Stephanie promised to hook Tim up with Leslie Lowe’s information; the Solar System Exploration forum has been discussing their interest in IAY.

What is the Role for E/PO Leads

• Laurie would like us to have a white paper for NASA E/PO leads on their role in preservice science education.
• Laurie suggested that the individual teams discuss the role for E/PO leads in preservice science education, as a part of each team’s meetings; their notes could be put together, particularly using the future wiki site (which should be in place on the PSEWG Web site before the next telecom)
• Laurie suggested that it would be very good to have a complete white paper before the September Education Council meeting (which coincides with ASP); some reservations were expressed about the ability of the group to have something finished by then.
• Stephanie suggested that Laurie head up that effort.

Next Telecon: July 20^th, 2p.m. Eastern (11 a.m. Pacific); discussion may include Rick’s Science method’s course, Microsoft’s TappedIn workshop, and a professional development article to be recommended by the Professional Development team.