Smithsonian Science Education Academy for Teachers (SSEAT)

✦ The two days spent at the National Museum of Natural History were one of the highlights of the SSEAT program. (photo: Julio Peredo, Smithsonian website)

For the last 8 or more years scientific staff and support staff of the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism and the Geophysical Laboratory have participated in the Smithsonian Summer Education Academy for Teachers known by the acronym SSEAT. Led for many years by Ian MacGregor, formerly of the National Science Foundation and AGU, these teacher workshops and laboratory visits involved many scientists from the DC area over a week long program. Steve Shirey, Rick Carlson, Tim Mock, Anat Shahar, Emma Bullock, and a contingent of postdoctoral fellows have been involved in the program from Carnegie.

As described on a Smithsonian website article by Julio Peredo, "Earlier this summer, 21 teachers from across the country came together in Washington, DC, for this year’s Smithsonian Science Education Academy for Teachers (SSEAT) on Earth’s History and Global Change. The participants spent time behind the scenes at the National Museum of Natural History, the National Air and Space Museum, the Carnegie Institute of Washington, and NOAA Headquarters. Throughout the week, they learned about the origins of the solar system, about our footprint on Earth, and about the Smithsonian."

Two of last year's lectures (below) are typical of the information to which the teachers were exposed.

Plate Tectonics Lecture for K-12 Teachers

Given at the National Museum of Natural History, July 30, 2018

Dating, Mass Spectrometry, and Microscopy

Given at the Carnegie Institution's Broad Branch Road Campus using lecture material from Rick Carlson, Emma Bullock, Tim Mock, and Steve Shirey

August 2, 2018