The Earth & Space Science Education Certification has been offered at IUP since the 1960's. In this time over 130 earth science teachers have been trained in the program. Although we do not have contact with all former students, most of those we have contact with remained in the education field. Our mission has been to provide a quality content knowledge background, to demonstrate a variety of pedagogical techniques, and to provide a supervised field experience for the candidates to attain competence in the professional role for which they are preparing.

Our teaching philosophy states:

“The science education faculty at Indiana University of Pennsylvania believes that the preparation of science teachers for middle/secondary school classrooms must include strong backgrounds in both pedagogy and a science discipline. As such, science education majors at the university complete essentially the same core of courses as their non-education peers do in the discipline. Each science education program at IUP follows the recommendation of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Science Teachers Association for constructivist-based instruction. Since student-centered teaching is modeled by the science education faculty in the classroom, IUP's pre-service teaching graduates are used to blending cooperation, challenge, and critical exploration in their teaching. The National Research Council states such teaching effectively promotes scientific literacy for all students.” ( from the IUP Science Education recruitment brochure)

Local education personnel are involved with our program and fulfilling our mission in many ways. Each year, the College of Education (COE) hosts meetings and workshops for administrators, cooperating teachers, and support personnel, those involved with our student teachers. University supervisors also attend and interact during these meetings. The COE report explains in detail its mission, its work with local education entities, its collaboration with numerous members of professional education, and its reporting and admission/advising/monitoring procedures.

The Three Step Process is the most important document for student advising. Information on the requirements and procedures of this process is given to the entering education freshmen, published in the IUP Catalog, is on the COE website, and is included in the “plan of study” used by the students' academic advisors.

Potential changes in procedures and practices are discussed and approved by a committee of the coordinators of the education programs. The committee is called TECC (Teacher Education Coordinating Council) and meets at least once per month during the academic year.