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About Integrating STEM Education at CU Boulder
Mini-Symposium on STEM Teacher Professional Development
On September 2, 2010, 36 people attended the iSTEM Mini-Symposium on STEM teacher professional development. The program included a lunch, poster session, three breakout sessions providing professional development for participants, and discussion on possible continuing work for the assembled group. Participant reaction was very positive.
There was unanimous consensus that this group should continue to share information and meet. Web-based information sharing ideas included posting a list of group members with their contact information and area of expertise, starting a wiki to share information and resources, and starting an archived listserve. Participants suggested ongoing quarterly meetings that include informal networking time and attendance by CU administrators. The Knowledge Café was widely embraced as a format for the meetings. It was suggested that these meetings include professional development for participants and opportunities to learn more about each other’s work.
Other suggested work for the group included collective negotiations with CU administration about common needs, efforts to increase program visibility, and organization of a teachers’ night to showcase CU professional development resources for K-12 teachers.
Schedule:
12:30 - Lunch and STEM Teacher Professional Development Poster Session
1:05 - Welcome, opening words, and introduction to the event
1:15 - Breakout Sessions (1. Evaluating teacher professional development: Why it's hard and what you can do anyway; 2. Inquiry Science and Teaching; 3. Best practices in translating the work of discipline-based education research (DBER) to K12 teachers)
2:25 - “The Institutional Perspective on Outreach” - Anne Heinz
2:55 - The future of the iSTEM teacher professional development group – Table discussion and whole group sharing
Participants:
Broadening Opportunity through Leadership and Diversity (BOLD) preparing engineers with diverse perspectives to be innovative leaders in a global society.
Biological Sciences Initiative offers multiple programs for students and teachers of the biological sciences including many free programs for K-12 teachers and paid research opportunities to undergraduates at CU.
Cooperative Institute for CIRES Education and Outreach educates people about Earth and environmental science issues that are relevant to our everyday lives, through outreach to the public and to the K-12 education community. They also run a GK12 project.
Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network (CLEAN) is a project with the goal of developing a new National Science Digital Library pathway that offers high quality digital teaching resources to teachers.
The Colorado Community College System comprises the state's largest system of higher education. Its career and academic programs in the 13 state community colleges serve more than 128,000 students annually.
Continuing Education & Professional Studies provides quality, innovative, lifelong learning opportunities to a diverse student population by extending the educational resources of the University of Colorado at Boulder.
CU Teach is Colorado's innovative secondary mathematics and science teacher education program that offers leadership training to all undergraduates interested in science and mathematics education at all levels.
The Ethnography & Evaluation Research group is part of the Center to Advance Research and Teaching in the Social Sciences (CARTSS).
Engaging Computer Science in Traditional Education (eCSite) oversees two GK12 projects in Computer Science and Engineering.
Fiske Planetarium and Science Center is a resource for STEM faculty wishing to integrate hands-on learning in non-lab courses. A popular field trip destination, Fiske has a strong K12 outreach program and also develops nationally disseminated planetarium curriculum. Click here to view the Fiske poster from the event.
Integrative Design-based Reform-oriented Educational Approach for Motivating Students (IDREAMS) is aimed at engaging students in computer science through game design and ultimately encouraging them to pursue careers in the information technology field.
Integrating STEM Education at Colorado (iSTEM) brings together existing efforts and supports new efforts in STEM Education by building the STEM education research community, increasing the number and quality of K16 STEM teachers, and transforming STEM Education at CU Boulder.
The Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) has an extensive k12 outreach and teacher professional development program that offers curricular resources and actives. Click here to view the LASP poster from the event.
The Office for University Outreach (OUO) serves CU Boulder by supporting outreach and engagement activities and initiatives. We facilitate internal and external partnerships and generate communication channels for existing and new outreach endeavors by faculty, staff, and students.
PhET Interactive Simulations provides free, research-based physics, chemistry, earth science and biology interactive simulations for the classroom, from k12 to college level sims. Click here to view the PhET poster from the event.
Partnerships for informal Science Education in the Community (PISEC) provides opportunities for university students (undergraduates, graduate students, and post docs) to teach inquiry-based science activities to K-12 populations under represented in science, such as Hispanic, African American, and economically disadvantaged youth.
Project EXTREMES is a blog written from Antartica where graduate students and teachers assist an international team of scientists dedicated to understanding the ecology of one of the most extreme environments on earth, the McMurdo Dry Valleys
Science Discovery is an experience-based education outreach program of the CU Boulder School of Education that promotes scientific interest, understanding, and literacy.