The Teacher Earth Science Education Programme (TESEP) is designed to help middle school [upper Primary and lower Secondary] teachers make better use of their time teaching Earth Science in their classrooms through the provision of
Professional Development workshops
Updates to existing resources
New resources
Ideas for field trips
Access to teachers experienced in this field
While aimed at middle school teachers, teachers from all school levels will benefit from attending the programmes on offer.
TESEP operates under the auspices of the Australian Science Teachers Association (ATSA) and is funded through donations from a wide variety of partners. TESEP activities are managed through the ASTA head office with oversight by the TESEP Chairperson, Jill Stevens, the TESEP Executive Officer, Greg McNamara, and an advisory board comprising personnel from ASTA and key industry, government and professional societies. TESEP is managed at a state level by experienced teacher coordinators.
TESEP's first series of professional development workshops, entitled The Challenging Earth, is now underway. The topics for the workshops were selected from those nominated in an Australia wide survey of teachers. They reflect topical issues and teacher needs and are designed to mesh with existing curriculum requirements in all states. The eight topics to be rolled out over the next 3 years are
PD1: Round and Round with Rocks
(The rock cycle, ore bodies and crustal geology)
PD2: Riding the Climate Roller Coaster
PD3: Greening coal (carbon sequestration)
PD4: Fossil sunlight (the hydrocarbon story)
PD5: Hot rocks (geothermal energy)
Wet rocks (ground water)
Powerful stuff (the uranium debate)
Our Place in Space
