LAKE COUNTY – More than 40 teachers participated in the “Geology of Lake County” field trip on May 5.

Stops during the field trip included the George Hoberg Visitor Center Overlook; Blue Lakes and the Cow Mountain Landslide; Little Borax Lake at the Buckingham Golf & Country Club; and the Konocti Bay fault zone on Fairway Drive.

Teachers learned information, including that the formation of the Clear Lake basin is one of the oldest in North America; and that over Clear Lake’s lifetime its waters have drained to Sacramento River and the Russian River.

The field trip was lead by Dean Enderlin, who has more than 20 years of experience in the study of Lake County geology and worked at the McLaughlin mine in the Geology Department and Environmental Department.

This field trip is part of the learning activities through Kelseyville’s Exemplary (LAKE) Science Collaborative program, a grant of over $500,000 acquired by the Kelseyville Unified School District in cooperation with the Lake County Office of Education. The program promotes science education in elementary schools in Lake County.

Lake County Superintendent of Schools Dave Geck is enthusiastic about the opportunities for science education in Lake County. “This grant provides us with a great opportunity to help teachers gain the knowledge they need to help their science programs make use of the wonderful natural resources we have here in Lake County,” Geck said.

The goal of this program is to increase the academic achievement in science of students in grades fourth through sixth. It seeks to enhance the content knowledge and teaching skills of classroom teachers in Lake County through professional learning activities that focus on Lake County’s environment.

The program will provide 80 hours of “intensive” training, which is intended to improve the science content knowledge and teaching skills of participating teachers; and 24 hours of classroom “followup” to allow participating teachers to infuse the knowledge and skills gained during the intensive training directly into the classroom to benefit students.

The followup sessions will allow teachers to work in grade-level groups to use a type of lesson study called the Teaching Learning Collaborative (TLC) process to design, teach and rewrite a science lesson.

Teachers who attended the field trip will participate in a science summer institute July 30 through Aug. 3 at the McLaughlin Reserve.

For more information, contact Program Director Olga Clymire at the Lake County Office of Education 263-7249.

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