Addressing Science Standards through Nanotechnology
Nancy Healy and Joyce Palmer
All grades
Learn how nanotechnology can fit into the standards-based science that are already taught in middle and high schools. This session will introduce participants to nanotechnology, help participants understand why their students should learn about nanotechnology, and present hands-on instructional units. All participants will receive a CD containing teacher and student guides.
Beyond Field Teaching: Local Asset Mapping for Science
Silvia Parker and Joel Pontius
All grades
This interactive session focuses on the identification of local teaching assets, both natural and community-based, as a strategy to “localize” the teaching of science in Wyoming schools. Participants will learn strategies to identify natural and professional resources in their communities that can be used to aid in meaningful science teaching. We will discuss short- and long-term science projects in the community, focusing on involvement of community professionals and using local natural areas for field research opportunities. The Casper College campus will act as a laboratory to practice these strategies, so be sure to dress for the weather!
Bringing the World-Class Singapore Curriculum to the United States: Focus, Coherence and Rigor
Andy Clark
All grades
Participants will learn how Singapore’s concrete-to-abstract approach develops both understanding and computational fluency and how model drawing and visualization enable students to solve complex problems. Participants will participate in activities from the materials used currently in Singapore and are now available in the U.S.
Building a Science Glossary for PAWS
Jim Verley
Grades: 4–12
Developing an appropriate and common glossary for Wyoming science teachers to aid students on the PAWS test is a valuable tool for success. This session will discuss the terms Wyoming science teachers consider essential at different grade levels.
Casper Mountain Science School: History and Potentials
Evert Brown and Carolyn Jacobs
All grades
Two years ago, Casper College and Natrona County School District #1 developed a vision for an outdoor science school on Casper Mountain for eighth grade students and college students. Evert Brown of Casper College and Carolyn Jacobs of Dean Morgan Junior High School developed the pilot programs. We will share what has been done, what we are doing now, and where we want to go. We will also discuss the nature of outdoor experiences and their importance in education.
Colorful Cosmos
Michele Wistesen
All grades
Learn how to share the excitement of astrophotography with your students. Using robotic telescopes, students can take pictures of planets and stars and then using image processing tools, students can bring out details in photos the same way professional astronomers do.
Comprehensive Approach to Improving Mathematics Achievement
Cathy McAtee and Wendy Phillips
Grades: K–6
The Carbon County Math Initiative (CCMI), a comprehensive approach to improving mathematics achievement in Carbon County, is a collaborative project involving CCSD #1, CCSD #2, and the University of Wyoming. The collaboration provides professional development for teachers to develop and implement a cohesive and comprehensive mathematics program for students in grades K–12. Presenters will discuss the goals and implementation of the MSP grant, the impact on student learning, and the math intervention framework as a product of the grant.
Data Collection with Vernier LabQuest and Logger Pro Synced Videos
Roger Larson
Grades: 7–12
See how easy it is for your students to collect and analyze data using Vernier LabQuest. Participants will perform experiments exploring areas such as Boyle's Law, cell respiration, cart on a ramp, and relative humidity.
Developing New Ideas for Hands-on Curriculum in the Traditional Classroom
Gever Tulley
All grades
Participants will collaborate as they play with a set of common materials to discover what educational opportunities they afford and discuss the importance of hands-on learning. Materials will be provided. Space is limited to 20 participants.
Effective Practices in Math Education
David Gardner
All grades
We all know that students who are engaged in a lesson are going to learn more than those who are not. How do we change student perceptions of math from a subject that is hard and boring to what math should be: challenging, interesting, rewarding, and even exciting? Learn proven ideas and strategies for changing student perceptions.
Enabling 21st Century Science Education
Jeff Arrigotti
Grades: 7–12
Learn how to prepare your students for the future: 21st Century science education using 21st Century science methods and tools. Participants will learn how to deliver authentic 21st Century science experiences by combining standards-based content and relevant professional development with innovations in modern, electronic measurement.
Explore Space: NASA Resources for Wyoming Teachers
Shawna McBride
All grades
Explore the many NASA resources available to K–12 teachers through the Wyoming NASA Space Grant Consortium, including Space Trunks, support for teacher training and workshops, robotics programs, and balloon satellite projects, the revamped NASA Educator Resource Center, Women in Science, AstroCamp, and online resources.
Hitchhiker’s Thumb
Bob Zent
Grades: 7–9
This session will demonstrate an activity based upon the angle of a person's thumb, with emphasis on angle measurement, probability, data collection, and analysis.
Improving the Quality of Experimental Design
Jeneen Hill and Chad Sharpe
Grades: 7–12
Are you tired of experiments with little meaning? Shift the emphasis toward student-centered learning with a Data Studio program in your math or science classroom. It is a simple program that is sure to improve the quality of students’ work.
Inquiry-Based Science
Kelli Petrick
All grades
Using inquiry to guide student learning in science can boost student curiosity and engagement in science as well as make the subject more student centered. This presentation will discuss inquiry-based science and how you can use it in your classroom or when you take your students outdoors.
Integrating Mathematics and Science
Joseph Stepans
Grades: 7–12
This session focuses on a nationally recognized inquiry model and will illustrate how you can integrate mathematics and science to make both areas meaningful and relevant to students. This is a hands-on interactive session. Handouts containing practical ideas and helpful resources will be provided.
Integrating Mathematics, Science, and Technology
Larry L. Hatfield
Grades: 7–12
Two advocacies in current standards-based reform involve integrated approaches to teaching and learning mathematics and building and using mathematical models in problem solving. Through specific examples, we will see how emphases might be interpreted and enacted in ways that provide unique opportunities for students to experience the investigation and development of mathematical situations so multiple curricular strands are involved. This session will pose a problematic situation and explore through concrete representations that build to more abstract representations aimed at developing, testing, and using a powerful model that itself becomes generative of new meanings and questions leading to further applications and extensions.
iTunes U in the Classroom
Brian Black
All grades
iTunes U is a part of the iTunes Store featuring free lectures, language lessons, audio books, and more, that you can enjoy on your iPod, iPhone, Mac, or PC. Explore over 200,000 educational audio and video files from top universities, museums, and public media organizations from around the world. With iTunes U, there is no end to what or where you can learn.
Light Me Up: Build a Classroom Windmill
Brenda Peterman
Grades: 7–12
Build your own windmill to take back to your classroom or come and enjoy watching others build theirs. We will use two-liter soda bottles, 1.89 liter Ocean Spray juice bottles, corks, industrial paper towel centers, and eight-inch nails to build windmills. A few generators will be available to test your windmill and instructions will be provided to build your own when you return home. This engaging activity will help your students connect with mathematics and science while enjoying the opportunity to investigate an alternative energy source.
Mars Bound: Designing a Mission to Mars
Tony Leavitt
Grades: 6–9
Engage in a self-contained activity in which your students will use realistic techniques to plan a mission to Mars. As NASA planners, you must design a mission and solve issues of power, mass, and cost. Learn how to bring a NASA program to your school.
The Nature of Learning and Inquiry
Lawrence Lowery
All grades
In this session, participants will learn about the nature of inquiry, current research on brain development, and its implications for learning science. They will perform science investigations like students do in a FOSS class, which provides the tools and confidence needed to help their children succeed in science. The Full Option Science System (FOSS) was developed by a team headed by Dr. Larry Lowery at the Lawrence Hall of Science, University of California at Berkeley, with the support from the National Science Foundation. The activities are fun and engaging and they introduce important scientific concepts in ways that encourage learning and cooperation.
NBCT Impact on Student Learning and Support for Teachers
Theresa Williams
All grades
Discover the changes that occur in schools when practicing teachers utilize support from the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards certification process. We will model how the process provides educational stewardship through reflection on teaching pedagogy, the responsibility to affect student learning for all learners, and renewing inward professional practices. We will outline the financial and academic support available to Wyoming teachers interested in going through the NBCT process.
NSF Pathways Project: Learning Progressions in Science
Robert Mayes
Grades: 7–12
The NSF Pathways Project is a national collaboration with the goal of developing learning progressions for 6–12 grade students in the areas of water cycle, carbon cycle, and biodiversity. Engage in an open discussion about assessment items on learning progressions that indicate what students should know about the areas as they progress from middle school to high school.
NSF Math TLC Project
Robert Mayes
Grades: 7–12
The NSF Math TLC Project is a collaboration between the University of Wyoming and the University of Northern Colorado that offers online master's and leadership in mathematics education programs. Learn about these innovative programs that you can take within your home region. The programs offer generous stipends to support your participation. The research-based programs are designed for in-service mathematics teachers at the middle school and high school levels.
Podcasting with Garage Band
Brian Black
All grades
Create the kind of learning environment that inspires creativity in your students. With Garage Band, you can easily make videos, podcasts, music, and interactive presentations that engage students in a way that the printed page cannot. You can assign digital media projects that will inspire them both inside and outside the classroom. Your students can start participating and collaborating more. They can sharpen their ability to organize information, think critically, and write creatively. Most important, they can learn to communicate their ideas clearly through the most compelling media.
Process Skills Circus: The Process Skills of Scientific Inquiry
Megan Schnorenberg
All grades
The Process Skills Circus is one of the five workshops in the Fundamentals of Inquiry Curriculum designed to introduce teachers to the benefits of inquiry-based teaching. This process skills session helps participants develop an understanding of the science process skills: skills needed to generate and test new ideas, build new knowledge, and learn scientific concepts. Participate in hands-on activities and group discussion to clarify and deepen your understanding of what the process skills of science are and how students use them.
Quantitative Reasoning for Ecological Literacy
Marjorie MacGregor
Grades: 6–12
The University of Wyoming's Science and Math Teaching Center (SMTC), in partnership with NSF-funded Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) network and eleven universities and K–12 schools, is working to improve environmental literacy by developing culturally relevant ecology from a scientific and educational perspective. SMTC is developing a framework for QR across quantitative literacy, modeling, and interpretation. Learn an overview of learning progressions and QR, the development of QR questions in biodiversity, and assessment outcomes across grades.
Recreational Mathematics: Combining Online, Apps, and Hands-On
Lynn Ipina
All grades
Sit with new friends to play classic math games and rediscover your favorites–with twists. See how the online community has taken math classics like Tower of Hanoi, Lights Out and Sets and asked new questions, imposed new rules, and given us tools that make playing more fun. Discover new math apps and widgets, browse new sites that allow access to decades of great puzzles and conundrums, and savor a few with special histories. I guarantee to give you something to do with your kids on Monday.
Robot Wars
Susan Franklin
Grades: 7–12
This session provides information about how robots can bring out the desire to learn STEM in students grades 8–12. Wiring, programming, and intense competition through FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) keeps students coming back for more!
Science Posse Project: Water Quality and Use and Changes in High School Students’ Attitudes
Jamie Crait, Lisa Kunza, Dan May, and Teresa Strube
Grades: 7–12
In the fall of 2009, Laramie High School students conducted a study of local water quality and use. They assessed whether participation in this activity fostered changes in students’ attitudes toward ecological responsibility and water conservation. Participants will engage in lessons from the field and laboratory-based components of the project. We will demonstrate how such activities can fit within the framework of Understanding by Design: Six Facets of Understanding.
Science Posse Project: Who We Are and What We Do
Maggie Renken
All grades
The University of Wyoming Science Posse is a science education outreach program. The Posse consists of Ph.D. students in science and mathematics whose common goal is to create excitement and enthusiasm for science. Learn what the Science Posse offers to teachers and administrators around the state.
Science Posse Project: Feasibility of a Sustainable Lifestyle
Jonathan Hoffman, Dave McKenzie, Eric Quade, Jill Walford, and Theresa Williams
Grades: 7–12
Learn about the Feasibility of a Sustainable Lifestyle, which uses inquiry-based teaching methods to highlight the need for ecological responsibility and better science and technology, while providing students an opportunity to design and conduct a scientific experiment. We will highlight stand-alone inquiry lessons related to popular culture topics such as climate variability.
Science Posse Project: My experiences in the U.S. and its relevancy to Bhutan
Jigme Tshering
All grades
In the age of information, the approach to K–12 sciences and mathematics need to undergo significant change to fulfill the needs of diverse students. The students of today are not adequately prepared to pursue a career in science, technology, engineering, or math in the increasingly competitive global market. This presentation will highlight the fundamental differences between American Schools and Bhutanese schools. I will talk about how my experiences at Teton Science Schools, as a Science Posse member and my master’s studies at the University of Wyoming have impacted my view of education in Bhutan.
Science Posse Project: Teaching Scientific Methodology and Ecological Responsibility
Doris Bane, Clark Cotton, Ethan McMahan, and Megan Schnorenberg
Grades: K–9
Discover a model incorporating elements of inquiry and ecological responsibility into science curriculums. This session highlights a semester-long composting project aimed at teaching students basic scientific methodology and ecological responsibility, while inspiring student enthusiasm for science. We will illustrate how to initiate a school-wide composting project that exposes students to basic scientific methodology, ecology, and information related specifically to composting.
Science BOE Shar-A-Thon
Sharla Dowding
Grades: 9–12
Do you ever wonder how your science Body of Evidence (BOE) plan compares to the plan of other schools? Join panel participants in a roundtable discussion about what some districts include in their BOE plans, how they meet the BOE criteria, and what kind of support it takes to put together an assessment plan for student learning. If you have copies of your current district science assessments, bring them with you.
Skill-Building Math Games and Activities
David Gardner
All grades
It is the start of math class. You want to 1) get your students’ attention; 2) get them thinking about math and 3) have them start the math lesson in a positive frame of mind. This session will provide you with a quick, easy, almost foolproof way to do just that. It is a step towards changing students' perceptions of math as a hard and boring subject to a subject that is fun and challenging.
The $10,000 Presidential Award for Excellence
Elizabeth Horsch and Jeanne Spawn
All grades
This is a working session on the Presidential Award. Learn about the award and how to begin the process of developing a successful application.
“There’s an App for That!”: Using iPods in Your Classroom
Holly Hoffman and Jim Hoffman
All grades
Twenty-First Century students need 21st Century resources. This year in the Big Horn County School District #4 we implemented the iPod Touch handheld computers for classroom use. Come join us as we share experiences and resources including educational apps, websites, discussion forums, and more. This will be a hands-on session with 30 iPods available to use. For almost any topic you teach, “there’s an app for that!”
Thinking Outside the Plane?
Cyndi Moravek
Grades: 7–12
This session is a primer on non-Euclideon geometry and will explore geometric principles on a sphere and on a plane. How do the two compare? Making conjectures will definitely require us to think outside of the plane!
Understanding Science: How Science Works
Teresa Strube and Claudia VanWie
Grades: 10–12
We will summarize the contents of the Understanding Science website designed by the Museum of Paleontology at the University of California at Berkeley. The project provides support and materials to teachers to integrate How Science Works throughout their science courses. We will model how teachers can incorporate direct teaching of How Science Works into existing lab activities in order to promote a better understanding of science.
Using PAWS Assessment Descriptors and Content Limits
Bernie Schnorenberg
Grades: 4–12
Have you ever wondered about the criteria used to write the PAWS math questions? I will give you a chance to become familiar with the criteria and see how you can use the criteria to build your own questions to use with your students.
Virtual Master’s Degree Program for Secondary Mathematics Teachers
Ozlem Kormaz
Grades: 7–12
Online professional development programs are gaining importance in higher education as a means to enhance students’ achievement in schools. Learn about the virtual master’s program for secondary mathematics teachers offered jointly by the University of Northern Colorado and the University of Wyoming. We will introduce the vision, structure, and goals of the program such as developing a shared vision of mathematics as a culturally rich subject, expanding mathematical and pedagogical content knowledge, and empowering students as lifelong professional learners.
Walk an Hour in Your Student's Shoes
Science Posse
All grades
The Science Posse offers many exciting opportunities for your school and your students. What exactly is a demo day? A research presentation? A career talk? Put yourself in your students’ shoes in this dynamic session and let the Science Posse present a sampler of the types of activities we can bring to your school.
You + Denver Zoo + Your Students = A Learning Team
Dawn Mazzagetti
All grades
Do you need a new way to introduce a topic to your students? A fun experience to supplement your students’ grasp of a concept? Or maybe you would like to review their skills to better prepare them for testing and further learning? The Denver Zoo offers a wide variety of programs to accomplish all of the aforementioned goals and much more! Learn about teacher professional development, career-oriented curriculum, over-night camps at the Denver Zoo. Discover our live animal ambassadors yourself to see how we can help!
Youth Service Movement
Kelli Petrick
All grades
Join the national youth service movement by learning how to get your students involved in meaningful community service projects. Topics include project ideas, implementation and reflection, grant opportunities, and fostering community partnerships. Improve student learning and start making a difference in your community today.
