Top > Professional Development > UPDATED INFO: ESTEP Synchronous Meeting Dates/Course Description
Hello MnSTA members and ESTEP alumni!
We have some updated and new information to share with you regarding our Fall ESTEP Online courses! Please read on and share in your networks!
1) The Meteorology class is FULL - if you would like to be placed on a waiting list, please email Sue Bertsch via email at susan.bertsch@
2) The required virtual synchronous meeting dates are set for Astronomy and Meteorology - Sept 16 - 2 hours (9:00 - 11:00 am), and EITHER Oct 28 or Nov 18 - 3 hours (9:00 am - noon). If you are also taking Teaching and Learning Earth Science in 3D, you DO NOT have to attend the synchronous meetings for Astronomy and/or Meteorology.
3) Here is an updated course description for our brand new course offering, Teaching and Learning Earth Science in 3D:
Are you a K-12 educator struggling as to how to grasp and implement 3D learning in Earth Science? Teaching and Learning Earth Science in 3D gets in-service teachers directly involved in making sane shifts to their current strategies, in order to get students immersed in the real practices and cross-cutting concepts of science, as well as the content. This course will be a blend of synchronous, and asynchronous learning, in order to facilitate practice and discussion in a manner that will be of immediate use to teachers in the classroom, but will also give an eye to long-term methods to make science learning cohesive and real. Teachers will develop a storyline on an Earth Science topic of their choice as a part of the course, with ample time and support to make it realistic and valuable for their students. Synchronous sessions will be required one Saturday a month (3 total), with shorter sessions available on weekday evenings, as determined by class need. The first session will be 1 hour on August 26th, from 9:00 - 10:00 a.m., with remaining sessions to be determined together as the class unfolds.
**We do need at least 15 participants to register for this course for it to be offered. As soon as we have 15 registered participants, we will send out an email confirmation that the course is a go!
4) ESTEP fall courses begin August 22 so register soon to secure a seat!
Ready to register? Contact Sue Bertsch via email at susan.bertsch@
If you have other questions related to ESTEP programming, please contact Dana Smith at dasmedu2018@gmail.com
Note: ALL online courses are designated as blended. This means that the courses are offered in an asynchronous style, with scheduled assignment turn in dates and assessments, AND there will also be REQUIRED synchronous online meeting times per course. In order to earn a passing grade and credit for the course, participants MUST commit to both asynchronous AND synchronous requirements. A final pedagogy assignment is also required for all content courses.
The Earth Science Teacher Education Project, or ESTEP, is a professional development program for 6th grade and high school earth and space science teachers. Our goal is to facilitate and model best practices in content and three-dimensional teaching strategies so that MN teachers can become practitioners of these new standards and create an environment of investigation and discovery in their classrooms. Graduate credit for all summer bootcamps and online courses are available to participants for FREE (there may be a nominal registration fee for each course/camp; lodging and other expenses are not covered by the grant). Additionally, participation in ESTEP can help prepare currently licensed high school science teachers to obtain an additional licensure in 9-12 Earth and Space Science through MTLE testing.
Link to Troubleshooting for Online Courses and Access to D2L
New to ESTEP? Want to learn more? Check us out HERE!
Funding for this project was provided by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund as recommended by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR).
Minnesota science teachers should know about:
