Elizabeth Burden of Eureka Junior/Senior High School has earned the American Meteorological Society’s Certified AMS Teacher (CAT) designation, a professional recognition for completing required coursework and being actively engaged in raising Earth Science literacy. Among science educators, the CAT designation is sought as a mark of distinction and recognition.
The CAT Program provides an incentive for continued professional growth for Earth Science educators, ensuring that CATs remain up-to-date on new developments in Earth Science and teaching standards. It offers K-12 educators opportunities to enroll in AMS Education Program courses to enhance their knowledge of weather, ocean, and climate science.
To earn the CAT, active, in-service K-12 teachers and informal educators must have a degree in atmospheric or related science and/or have successfully completed all the requirements of at least two of the AMS Education Program’s Professional Development Courses for graduate credit. CATs must also earn professional development points to maintain their certification. These points can be earned by additional AMS coursework, attending scientific seminars or meetings and similar activities.
The AMS promotes the development and dissemination of information and education on the atmospheric and related oceanic and hydrologic sciences and the advancement of their professional applications. Founded in 1919, AMS has a membership of more than 12,000 professionals, students, and weather enthusiasts. AMS publishes 12 atmospheric and related oceanic and hydrologic journals, sponsors more than 12 conferences annually, offers educators lowcost graduate coursework in weather, ocean, and climate science, and provides many other programs and services. Burden was also recently selected from applicants across the United States to attend Project Ice this June at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Ore. Project Ice is an online and in-residence teacher professional development course with a one-week residence experience offered by the American Meteorological Society’s Education Program in partnership with COLDEX and Pennsylvania Western University (PennWest). This course is specifically designed for K-12 teachers who desire to include climate content in their curriculum. Burden will receive free graduate course credit, airfare, room and board and field trip experiences while attending the residence experience. In summer of 2023, she attended a similar course, Project Ocean, through AMS.
Burden is pictured inset and below as she helped to release oysters into the Chesapeake Bay Watershed area, last year.
(Courtesy photos)
