This analysis (PDF format - 3540kB) presents preliminary findings from the week-long HEA workshop held at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, IL from Tuesday, July 6, 2010 through Saturday, July 10, 2010. This analysis includes all quantitative data from 1) the daily feedback forms—Tuesday through Friday, 2) pre- and post-assessments of teachers’ perceptions of preparedness and 3) the end-of workshop questionnaire—Saturday.

This analysis (PDF format - 4376kb) presents preliminary findings from the week-long HEA workshop held at the University of Alaska in Anchorage, Alaska from Sunday, June 21, 2009 through Friday, June 26, 2009. This analysis includes all quantitative data from 1) the daily feedback forms—Monday through Wednesday, 2) the pre- and post-assessments and 3) the end-of workshop questionnaire—Friday.

The final evaluation report (PDF format - 863kB) for the THEMIS Education and Public Outreach program from 2003-2009 during the “prime phase” of the THEMIS mission (when the satellites were built and sent to space and the scientific studies that were originally proposed were completed.) This report documents the THEMIS program’s evaluation results and is organized into four chapters reflecting each of the program’s components as well as a final chapter discussing THEMIS’ future.

Short-term professional development workshops are a part of the THEMIS Education and Public Outreach (E/PO) program. These PD workshops take place at different locations and for different timespans. For example, some are 1-hour workshops at National and state science teacher conferences and 1- to 2-day workshops at the Space Sciences Laboratory at UC Berkeley. In addition to these workshops, we conduct yearly 2-3 day workshops with the THEMIS GEONS teachers as an on-going sustained PD. To find out more about our teacher PD workshops, visit the THEMIS GEONS page and the Center for Science Education teacher PD workshop page.

This report (PDF format - 66kB) summarizes findings from these types of workshops over Fiscal Year 2007 (FY07) - from October 1, 2006 through September 30, 2007. In addition to organizing workshops, THEMIS E/PO also maintains an active website. Relevant statistics about the use of this website over the Fiscal Year 2006 (FY06) from October 1, 2005 through September 30, 2006 and Fiscal Year 2007 (FY07) from October 1, 2006 through September 30, 2007 can also be found in the report.

At the November 2004 AISES conference in Anchorage, Alaska, five teachers attended a workshop offered by the THEMIS staff. This workshop focused on teaching magnetism and exploring the Earth’s magnetic field. The five participating teachers reported that they would reach upwards of 440 students with these materials and share this information with some 20 other teachers.
All five participating teachers identified the grade levels at which they are currently teaching. At the end of the workshop, participating teachers were asked to complete a questionnaire that presented both quantitative, rating scale items and qualitative, open-ended queries.
Click here to see the full report (PDF format - 112kB).

In the summer of 2004, a two-day training session was held in Berkeley, CA as well as a half-day session exploring Chabot Space and Science Center. A report summarizing the impact of this workshop on participating teachers can be found here (PDF format - 286kB).

As a follow-up to the summer workshop, in January 2005, seven of the ten GEONS teachers accepted invitations to participate in telephone interviews in which they were asked to share their perceptions about their experiences in the THEMIS project. These interviews took place during the month of January—some six months after their initial introduction to the project at a three-day workshop in Berkeley, CA in the summer of 2004.
Interview findings can be read in the full report (PDF format - 749kB).

After the summer 2004 GEONS teacher workshop in Berkeley, CA, a second formal workshop—also a two-day training session—was held in Carson City, Nevada in June 2005. The focus of this report is to summarize questionnaire data collected from GEONS teachers attending this workshop.
Click here to see the full report (PDF format - 250kB).

With the 2006 completion of magnetometer installations at all 12 sites and the formal presentation of THEMIS-related materials at summer workshops in 2004 and 2005, most of the GEONS teachers (save several newcomers) have by now had the opportunity to use these materials for classroom instruction and to share them with their fellow teachers.
The thrust of this report (PDF format - 231 kB) is to present findings from teacher interviews conducted in 2006.

At the October 2004 SACNAS (Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science) conference, a total of twenty teachers attended a workshop offered in two similar sessions by the THEMIS staff. This workshop focused on teaching magnetism and exploring the earth’s magnetic field. Among the twenty teachers, they reported that they would reach upwards of 1,700 students with these materials and would share this information with some 80 other teachers. Full data from all twenty teachers are analyzed in the full report (PDF format - 85kB).

In February 2005, twenty-seven teachers attended a workshop held at the Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL) in Berkeley, CA. The session focused on the connection between the Sun and Earth’s Magnetosphere and auroras and the way this connection influences human society. Data collected from the workshop participants indicate that that the number of students reached by these teachers totaled almost 2,400. These teachers also reported that they would be sharing workshop materials and information with about 110 colleagues.
Click here to see the full report (PDF format - 193kB).

The launch of Carson City, Nevada GEMS site took place in conjunction with a two-day teacher professional development workshop which emphasized space science, earth science and physical science. The THEMIS E/PO team gave two presentations at the workshop including Mapping the Magnetic Field and Living with a Star. Additionally, during the course of the workshop, topics including an overview of the GEMS series/video, the role of GEMS leaders and the Carson City GEMS Site were addressed. This report (PDF format - 248kB) summarizes questionnaire data collected from GEMS teachers attending the site launch workshop.