MAKING SCIENCE RELEVANT
JOIN US IN A HANDS-ON PD TO LEARN TO ASSESS YOUR LOCAL WATERSHED
This summer we will offer a professional development summer course for 12 Florida Middle School teachers: June 9-15, 2024. This will equip the teachers to integrate local ecosystem monitoring within a problem-based learning context to increase students’ understanding of causal relationships and the impact of local watersheds on larger water bodies.
Four major activities will take place:
Upon completion of the onsite summer PD (Lodging, food, and excursions/field trips are paid during the Immersive 6-day field experience in the Okefenokee Swamp and Lower Suwannee Wildlife Refuges by the grant) each participant will be eligible to receive:
Teacher applications are currently open for Summer 2024. Deadline to apply is April 5, 2024.
Four major activities will take place:
- Immersive 6-day field experience in the Okefenokee Swamp and Lower Suwannee Wildlife Refuges - participants will receive Adopt-A-Stream, Project WET, Wild, Learning Tree, and/or Florida Youth Naturalist certifications. (lodging, food, and excursions/field trips are paid during the Immersive 6-day field experience in the Okefenokee Swamp and Lower Suwannee Wildlife Refuges by the grant).
- Online learning modules - participants will have access to various modules to dive deeper into science content (e.g. water quality (chemical and biological), soil quality (chemical and biological), and how water and soil quality relate to public health), science pedagogy (e.g. 3-Dimensional science teaching, Inquiry, Place-based learning, Design Thinking), and citizen science projects (e.g. Adopt-A-Stream, eBird, iNaturalist, Nature's Notebook).
- Lesson design support and implementation - participants will be placed in groups of 4 and work one-on-one with one of the three science educators (Lacey Huffling, Regina McCurdy, or Heather Scott) from lesson plan design to implementation. - participants will have access to funding to present their lessons at the Florida Association of Science Teachers or the Florida Marine Science Educators Association.
- Implementation support for a community watershed event to allow students to share their learning with their community. - participants' schools will receive a stipend to offset the costs of these events.
Upon completion of the onsite summer PD (Lodging, food, and excursions/field trips are paid during the Immersive 6-day field experience in the Okefenokee Swamp and Lower Suwannee Wildlife Refuges by the grant) each participant will be eligible to receive:
- Classroom Supplies (value of $1000)
- Stipend of $2000
- Conference registration, per diem, and/or lodging to attend the Florida Association of Science Teachers or the Florida Marine Science Educators Association (up to $1000 reimbursed)
- School Funding for Community Watershed Event (up to $1000) upon proposal submission.
Teacher applications are currently open for Summer 2024. Deadline to apply is April 5, 2024.
Supported by the Gulf Research Program of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine under the Grant Agreement: SCON-10000690