19 teachers attended the 11/17/1999 ISTAT workshop
in earth sciences (18 high school and 1 middle school
teachers).  For the majority of these teachers (70%),
the highest level of science, mathematics, or engineering
education was the undergraduate level (57% in biology).
45% were in their first 5 years of teaching and 20% 
had taught over 20 years.  Most of the teachers had
taught earth sciences at some point in their career
(65%) and 40% had taught it within the last year.
Still, only 35% expressed "confidence" in their
ability to teach about earthquakes and plate tectonics.
This was confirmed in the responses to the pre-workshop
questionnaire, which contained 3 simple questions:

1) Two common measures of an earthquake are magnitude and
intensity.  Describe the difference between magnitude and
intensity.

2) In the last few decades, it has been determined that most 
earthquakes are caused by plate tectonic motions and plate
interactions.  Describe how the slow motions (a few cm/yr)
of the plates can produce the rapid rupture (a few meters of 
slip in a few seconds) along a fault during an earthquake.

3) What are the three main types of seismic waves.

25% of the teachers answered all three questions correctly,
while 45% answered less than half (the remaining 30% scored
in between).  In general, the teachers that expressed the
most confidence in their grasp of earth sciences scored the
highest (thank goodness!).  Over 30% of the pre-workshop
questions were unanswered (i.e., left blank).
In the followup questionnaire, the number of teachers who
answered all 3 questions correctly increased to 40% and the
number of teachers who answered less than half decreased to
20%.  Only 6% of the post-workshop content questions were
unanswered.  It is clear that while a 1-day workshop can help provide
teachers to background on earthquakes and earth science, 
additional material is helpful.

We also asked the teachers to comment on the activities and
on the ISTAT Web page.  In the post-session summary, all the teachers
indicated that they would use some or all activities
in their classroom.

80% of the teachers indicated that they had used the
Web for either lesson planning or student activities
in the past, although not necessarily for earth
science materials.  100% of the teachers indicated
that they were planning on using the Web in the
coming year, although several teachers indicated
concern about access to computers in the classrom.
And 100% of the teachers indicated that they would
use the ISTAT web pages.  Comments included:

	Great ideas and info I could use
	Good links
	Yes! Full of activities, good suggestions, also - lots of basic info
	Yes, but I have only one computer in my classroom
	Yes.  Info found there is teacher friendly and easily acessible.
	Yes, they seem like a great resource