The Earth Science Educational Resource Center

The Mineral Physics Institute

The Mineral Physics Institute offers a multifaceted education program designed to realize the following goals:

Provide students, educators, and the general public with the opportunity to experience science as an inquiry-based process of discovery.

Promote the utilization of the natural environment as a hands-on learning laboratory where students and educators can conduct scientific research.

Facilitate an interdisciplinary approach that integrates the other natural sciences and mathematics into Earth Science education.

Integrate the use of computer technology into science education.

Stimulate young people to consider careers in the sciences.

Currently, MPI’s education programs are administered by the Earth Science Educational Resource Center (ESERC), which was established in 1994. ESERC conducts its activities under the supervision of Glenn Richard, MPI Educational Coordinator, who is responsible for the continued development of the programs and educational tools, in cooperation with Dr. Donald Weidner, Director of MPI.

ESERC accomplishes its goals through direct interaction with pre-K through 12^th grade students, summer educational internships for undergraduates, organization of teacher workshops, University credit courses for teachers, college undergraduates and graduate students, interactive educational material on the World Wide Web, and collaborations with other educational units on campus and in the surrounding community.

Although ESERC’s audiences have ranged from pre-K through graduate students, its programs are directed primarily toward grades K through 12, with an emphasis on grades 8 and higher. These programs are designed to increase the level of scientific literacy among Long Island’s young people and encourage them to consider careers in the sciences. However, MPI also recognizes the practice of "doing science" as a skill that can be generalized and used outside the classroom in all areas of life.

Several years ago ESERC and the Department of Geosciences arranged for students enrolled in Brian Vorwald's Honors Earth Science class at Sayville High School to receive University credit (GEO 122) for successfully completing the course, and completing a research project under the direction of Geosciences faculty, Janet Kaczmarek, and Glenn Richard. During the first year, in ninth grade, students participate in the lecture and laboratory component of the course. When they reach tenth grade, they conduct their research projects. In the past, projects have focused upon Long Island's geology, processes that take place in the Earth's interior, and the hydrogeology of Long Island’s Peconic River watershed and estuary. This program provides us the opportunity to pilot various research activities by interacting with the target-age students. In turn, these activities can be offered to participants in our teacher workshops for the benefit of their students.

Since the summer of 1998, ESERC also worked with the Office of Science and Technology on the Stony Brook Campus to offer a Brentwood Honors Earth Science program. The focus of this program is Environmental Geology. During the summer of 2000, ESERC offered the students a four week residential program that commences the third year of this program, with Geosciences graduate student Peter Schuchman is serving as instructor as he did the previous two years. Fifteen students participated in the summer of 2000, with a large proportion representing ethnic minorities.  During the summer of 2001, eleven students are enrolled.

One of the most successful and versatile programs offered by MPI's Earth Science Educational Resource Center is the "Lets Make Diamonds!" program, which offers students a sampling of the innovative research into the nature of our planet's interior that is conducted at MPI. With the guidance of ESERC and other MPI staff, participants in the program are encouraged to devise and conduct their own experiments, so that they learn to conceptualize scientific inquiry as a reasoned and carefully executed process of discovery. Included in the program are interactive software-based activities, demonstrations and a guided tour of the High Pressure Laboratory with its state-of-the-art research equipment. Although much of what the students learn is related to the activities of MPI or other highly focused subjects, the knowledge they gain and the techniques they learn for asking questions, and designing experiments apply to scientific inquiry in general.

The "Let's Make Diamonds!" program was initially designed for a selected audience of high school students and interested adults. It was essentially a "show-and-tell" session of one to two hours in duration. However, during the past several years, we have realized a broader potential for this program and have expanded it into a "mini-course" and test-marketed it with Project WISE (Women in Science and Engineering), a multi-faceted program at Stony Brook designed to challenge women who show academic promise or interest in math, science or engineering. Project WISE includes two major populations: 1) a group of undergraduate students who are specifically recruited for this program and nurtured during their tenure at the university; and 2) a group of high school students from the Long Island area who are identified as tenth graders and guided through a progressively more intensive program during their high school careers. ESERC has made it an important priority to work with both of these populations, and has cultivated a strong working relationship with Project WISE at Stony Brook over the past several years.

Since it was initiated, about 130 undergraduate women have participated in a four-or six-session version of "Let's Make Diamonds" which includes introductory lectures on the Earth's interior, thermodynamics and phase transformations and high-pressure techniques. Each student has the opportunity to help design, prepare and run a high-pressure experiment on graphite, analyze the run products by x-ray diffraction and other techniques, and write a report on her experience. High school students (11th graders) have typically enrolled in a four-session version of this program. With the guidance of the Earth Science Educational Resource Center, they have posted their final reports on MPI's World Wide Web server.

During the fall of 1998, ESERC offered a "Mapping Long Island’s Glacial Topography" workshop to a group of seven high school students from the Women in Science and Engineering (Project WISE) program on the Stony Brook campus. After collecting topographical data in a morainal area on campus, the students used geographical information system and spreadsheet software to map and interpret the morphology of a glacial kettle that occurred there.

In the spring of 1999, ESERC conducted a six-session "Let’s Make Diamonds!" program for seven undergraduate Project WISE students who explored the technology and theoretical background behind MPI’s research in mineral physics. At the same time, ESERC offered a four-session program entitled "Investigation of Ground and Surface Water" to a group of seven high school Project WISE students. Participants perform comparative chemical analyses of water from groundwater monitoring wells, a pond, a recharge basin, and a stream, and other sources on campus. In addition, they study topographic maps, and measure water table depths in order to determine a likely origin for the water in the stream.

We also worked with Dr. Glenn Smith of Stony Brook’s Department of Technology and Society, and Christopher Cahill, a graduate student, to develop a program on "Computer Visualization of Crystals" for a high school Project WISE group. Participants utilized three-dimensional rendering software to use x-ray diffraction data to create images of crystals. The students were then able to conceptualize the atomic structure and internal symmetry of the crystals. During this activity, data was also collected regarding the participants’ conceptualization process. By analyzing both the crystallographic and cognitive data, the students had the opportunity to learn about the nature of crystals as well as the workings of their own discovery process as scientists.

During the spring, 2001 semester, ESERC condcuted a new program, "Investigating Seismology" for the undergraduate and high school Project WISE students.

We have been pleased by the success of our collaboration with Project WISE, and believe that this is an excellent example of synergy between two NSF-funded programs.

During the 1998 to 1999 school year, this weekly program of science discovery activities was conducted for its second run at the Ivy League School, a private institution in Smithtown. Professor Hanna Nekvasil and Educational Specialist Janet Kaczmarek conducted activities for students from pre-K to 2^nd grade that were designed to act upon the increasing realization of the importance of the primary years in shaping interests, motivation, and academic awareness. It takes advantage of the natural curiosity characteristic of these early years and provides guidance for the formulation of problems and the development of discovery-based creative methodologies for their resolution.

During the 1998 to  school year, SEEY used an Earth Systems Science-based approach as a nucleus for a general science program. Through guided experiments, students explored light and waves, phases of matter, mass and volume, density, heat, colors and light, the sun's effect on the Earth, electricity, magnetism, atoms and molecules, the atmosphere, and properties of air. We continue to be amazed at how quickly these young children comprehend seemingly complex concepts.

Important factors in the success of this program were teacher involvement that reinforced students’ interest in the activities, and a low tech approach that employed materials and procedures that the young students could readily understand. The easy availability of the materials also made it possible for parents to engage the students in follow-up activities at home. Hanna and Janet encouraged parent involvement by distributing a take-home newsletter that described what the students were learning and suggested related experiments that could be done at home.

During the summer of 2001, some of the SEEY programs are being redesigned for the Stony Brook University Summer Camp.

The Museum of Long Island Natural Sciences draws more than 10,000 primary school students each year, and is conveniently located in the same building as MPI. The proximity of the Museum of Long Island Natural Sciences has allowed MPI to develop programs specifically suited for class visits to the Museum, such as "Earth Shakers", for kindergarten through 3rd graders, which explores how the interior of the Earth affects its surface, and uses hands-on tools to investigate such properties as color, shape, size, texture, weight, density, volume, and magnetism in minerals. Using a shake table that simulates earthquake motion, the children design and construct buildings to withstand a seismic event. For 4th through 6th graders, the "Journey to the Center of the Earth" program provides investigation into the relationship between earthquakes, volcanoes, and plate tectonic boundaries, and asks students to discover what significance their common locations might infer. Hands-on activities examine mantle processes, magnetism, mafic and felsic density differences, and fault mechanics. These courses present plate tectonics in a manner understandable to the primary school student.

In October, 2001, for the third consecutive year, Glenn Richard led a group of fourth graders from Terryville Road Elementary School in Port Jefferson Station on field trips that provided the students with an examination of Long Island geology in a collaboration with Teacher Alice Lederway. They visited: 1) a North Shore cobble beach, where they collected and identified rocks, 2) a woodland exhibiting kame and kettle topography on the Stony Brook campus, 3) Bald Hill atop the Ronkonkoma Moraine, where the students could see a north-south transect of Long Island, including Long Island Sound, the Harbor Hill Moraine, the Terryville Outwash Plain, a lengthwise view of the Ronkonkoma Moraine, the Hempstead Outwash Plain, Great South Bay, Fire Island, and the Atlantic Ocean, and 4) Smith Point County Park on Fire Island, where they studied a transect of the barrier beach and the mineral composition of the beach sand.

This program interfaces very well with the fourth grade curriculum in New York State, which stipulates that students study the natural and human environment of their local area.

This program will be offered again during the 2001 to 2002 school year.

The Field Guide to Long Island’s Seashore, which was published in the summer of 2001. This book and the Museum’s previous publications, A Field Guide to Long Island’s Woodlands, and A Field Guide to Long Island’s Wetlands will be used as educational tools for the type of field trip that was offered to the Terryville students. They will also be used in schools as references to support student research projects. A workshop will be conducted in the summer of 2002 to train teachers to use the books as educational tools.

Each year since the summer of 1997, MPI has offered a Summer Educational Interns program with the following goals:

Provide college level students who are training to become science teachers with research experience tailored toward presenting science to secondary school students as a process of discovery.

Develop, test with students, and disseminate to teachers, lesson plans for learning experiences in scientific investigation for secondary school classes.

Enhance the skills of future teachers who demonstrate an interest in contributing to the quality of science education in schools with large populations of African-American students.

Encourage members of demographic groups that are under-represented in the sciences to consider careers in science education.

The Summer Educational Interns program is conducted in parallel with MPI's existing Summer Scholars Program. Accordingly, participants are provided with room and board on the SUNY Stony Brook campus for ten weeks during the summer, and receive a stipend, and a travel allowance. The core of each intern's experience during the ten weeks is to conduct a research project that can be tailored for educational use. Subsequently, the interns derive lesson plans from their work.

During the summer of 2000, Katie Vaughan studied sand particle size and mineralogy on a barrier island and Vincent Ugenti created Java applets for seismology education.

During the summer of 2001, four Summer Educational Interns are helpring to develop and conduct inquiry-based science programs for the Stony Brook University Summer Camp.

Project Java (http://www.journey.sunysb.edu/ProjectJava/) is a program designed to create interactive educational material for the World Wide Web. It was initiated in 1996 as a collaboration between the ESERC and the Long Island Consortium for Interconnected Learning, and is now administered by ESERC, the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, and the Department of Chemistry.

During Project Java’s first year, three undergraduate computer science majors began writing applets in Java under the guidance of Glenn Richard. The resulting High Pressure Laboratory and Bragg's Law applets are used as part of the activities in MPI's "Let's Make Diamonds!" educational program, and are still used today. During that first year, Project Java and several of its applets received a great deal of praise from Web sites that specialize in Java, such as Gamelan and JARS. From April 18 to May 1, 1997, the Radioactive Decay applet was featured by Gamelan, bringing the hit counter for that applet's page, which began at zero on March 21, to over 8000 by May 1. The Project Java site and several of its applets have received Gamelan's "What's Cool" rating. JARS rated Project Java and several of the applets in the top 5% among their peers.

This program provides dual educational rewards as it offers undergraduate students tangible computer programming challenges and it provides teaching tools in the form of interactive programs that focus on specific educational topics.

During the fall, 1998 and spring, 1999 semesters, three of Glenn Richard’s Project Java students began work on a series of interactive applets designed to enable users to explore the workings of geysers. Ultimately these applets will be installed on two Sun workstations tied to a server at Yellowstone National Park. The equipment and software for this display are part of the 1998 Sun Microsystems Academic Equipment Grant that established the Java Computing Laboratory. This display will be heavily used, as Yellowstone National Park draws two million visitors per year.

The work on applets that implement mathematical models of geysers that commenced in 1998 was continued in a new course, GEO 327: Computerized Modeling of Geological Phenomena during the spring, 2000 semester.

Current Activities and Plans

Project Java’s vision for the future is to continue to experiment with new paradigms for interactive educational software and interactive models of natural and technical systems. This software will be used in research, displays, Web documents, undergraduate and secondary school course instruction, and as tools in ESERC’s educational programs.

During the summer of 1997, Professor Gilbert Hanson, MPI Educators, and a group of students interested in Earth Science education initiated the Earth Science Research Project (ESRP) at the Earth Science Educational Resource Center. The major goal of ESRP is to develop plans describing long-term research projects for secondary level Earth Science courses taught on Long Island that can be conducted within or near the school building or in the vicinity of a student's home. Projects of this type can be used to satisfy the long-term research component of the 1993 Earth Science Program Modifications.

During the summer of 1999, a new university credit course, GEO 588: Geological Field Methods for Earth Science Teachers, was piloted with Dr. Gilbert Hanson, Glenn Richard and Janet Kaczmarek as instructors. This course adopted and expanded the role previously played by the former one-week non-credit workshop, Research Projects for Earth Science Classes, that was offered by ESERC and served 40 teachers from 1995 to 1998.

In the spirit of the workshop that served as its forerunner, GEO 588 was designed to encourage teachers to develop research projects for secondary students in Earth Science. In the summer of 1999, GEO 588 offered its eight partcipants hands on participation in projects that included geological mapping techniques, analysis of salt marsh sedimentation rates, interpretation of strata in a coastal bluff that were glacially deposited and subsequently deformed by glaciotectonic phenomena, and hydrological methodologies applied in the field to examples on the SUNY Stony Brook Campus and at the David Weld Sanctuary in nearby Nissequogue.

This three-credit university course explores processes that have governed Long Island's geological development and continue to shape its morphology, and encourages Earth Science teachers to use student research projects as a teaching tool. For the past several years, GEO 514 has been taught by Glenn Richard and Steven Englebright, a University Adjunct who is a New York State Assemblyman and a well-known local naturalist. Topics include plate tectonics, volcanism, beach processes, glaciation, running water, erosion, and weathering. Two all-day field trips are included that observe Long Island's geologic features.

Each participant in CEN 514 is required to develop a lesson plan that is designed to familiarize secondary school students with Earth Science as an investigative process. The lesson plan describes a research project that the students are to perform that is designed to answer a specific question or test a specific hypothesis about Long Island's natural environment.

Current Activities and Plans

This course is being conducted again during the fall, 2002 semester.

Last modified March 21, 2002