EfEC Summer Science Institute allows K-12 teachers to be students again
EfEC Summer Science Institute allows K-12 teachers to be students again
By:Ellie Albin
Friday, June 27, 2025
On a sunny day in May, 23 teachers from across Indiana and the Midwest descend on the Indiana University Research & Teaching Preserve in Griffy Woods to get their hands dirty in the name of science.
They are in the middle of a soil respiration experiment, part of a four-day workshop led by IU faculty focused on effectively teaching climate and environmental science in K-12 classrooms.
“Uh-oh,” says Lee Teevan, a high school science teacher from Springfield, Ohio. “It is jammed!”
Teevan’s soil probe — which is used to gather dirt — is stuffed with rocks, making it difficult to capture samples. That’s part of the process, though: the teachers make the same mistakes and conquer the same fears their students might encounter.
To measure carbon dioxide levels in soil, the teachers fill three mason jars with different soils samples. After pouring soda-lime into the mason jar with the dirt, there’s a 1–5-day incubation period, after which the soil sample will be weighed, and an equation will be used to measure carbon dioxide levels. It’s a relatively low-cost activity that can be replicated by students with a colander, scale, soda-lime, jars, and dirt.
While gathering samples, they share hard-earned lessons from the classroom.
“The kids who say, ‘Ew, I don’t want to do that!’ end up loving it the most,” says Angie Antrim, a third grade teacher from Bloomington.
TOP: From left to right: Lee Teevan, Angie Antrim, and Sarah Klebel conduct the soil respiration experiment on May 29.
LEFT: Earth and Atmospheric Sciences professor Michael Hamburger speaks to the teachers on the morning of May 29 at Griffy Research and Teaching Preserve.
RIGHT: Richard Phillips, IU professor and director of research at the Griffy Research and Teaching Preserve, guides the teachers through the soil respiration experiment instructions on May 29.
Instilling an appreciation for the environment and humanity’s dependence on environmental health is a shared goal among science educators, but not one they always feel well-equipped to meet. The Educating for Environmental Change (EfEC) Summer Science Institute, a collaboration between the IU Environmental Resilience Institute and other partners, is an opportunity for teachers to ask questions from IU experts and get new ideas about how to approach complex topics, such as climate change.
The program was founded in 2017 by Adam Scribner, Director of STEM Education Initiatives for the IU School of Education, and Michael Hamburger, professor emeritus with the IU College of Arts and Sciences’ Earth and Atmospheric Sciences department. Since then, hundreds of teachers have participated in EfEC programming and applied its principles to reach thousands of students.
Amidst the trees of Griffy Woods, this year’s participants, led by Hamburger and IU geology professor Andrea Stevens Goddard, admire a view of University Lake, second-growth pines, and turtles basking in the late-morning sun.
“It’s brown and lovely,” says Rene Williams, a former special education teacher of Madison, Illinois. “That’s not really scientific, but it’s something my artistic heart loves.”
Williams is staring at Indiana bedrock, which features prominently in the scenery. Her observation provides a natural segue to the next workshop topic: learning to read vertically.
“I think about time a little differently than most,” Goddard tells the assembled group. “I think about it in millions of years.”
Geology demands a different view of time, Goddard says. Yesterday won’t tell you much, but millions of yesterdays can tell you a lot, supplying evidence of altered landscapes and much more. Geologists organize data into stratigraphic columns, Goddard explains. These columns, read vertically in layers of rock, tell a detailed story about changing environmental conditions.
As the group leaves the overlook and hikes toward its next destination, an outpost of Indiana bedrock, Hamburger stops the teachers short.
TOP: Jamie Kuzemka (left) and Kristin Korcha examine a rock together with magnifying glasses on May 29.
LEFT: Earth and Atmospheric Sciences professor Michael Hamburger talks to the group on their hike on May 29.
RIGHT: Tau Stinger closely examines a rock with a magnifying glass on May 29.
“A little ravine can create the landscape we see here,” says Hamburger, gesturing toward the steep hillside below where the ravine slices through the landscape, plants and leaf litter all around it.
Farther down the path, the group stops again. The teachers disperse, advised by Goddard and Hamburger to explore the landscape with magnifying glasses, mallets, and safety goggles. The teachers are reminded of “nose geology, not toe geology,” meaning you can’t just kick a rock and expect to really see it; you need to pick it up, put it in the palm of your hand, and look at it closely.
Tau Stinger, a teacher in Bloomington, doesn’t hesitate, using the magnifying glass precisely how Hamburger and Goddard advise.
“It’s like its own landscape,” Stinger says, holding the magnifying glass up to the rock to reveal another world, Martian-like in its makeup.
A few steps from Stinger, Hamburger crawls up a boulder, joining a group of teachers admiring another hand-held rock. He pours hydrochloric acid onto its surface.
“What do you think is going to happen?” Hamburger said.
A flurry of hypotheses are posited from teachers who, for at least one week, get to be students again.
About the Environmental Resilience Institute
Indiana University’s Environmental Resilience Institute brings together a broad coalition of government, business, nonprofit, and community leaders to help Indiana and the Midwest better prepare for the challenges of environmental change. By integrating research, education, and community, ERI is working to create a more sustainable, equitable, and prosperous future. Learn more at eri.iu.edu.
