IslandWood: Teacher Professional Development: Community Science Course

Our professional development opportunities are designed to support powerful learning experiences that connect to students’ lives. In this time of increasing awareness and activism, we are joining with teachers to address the vast racial, economic, and environmental disparities in our communities and classrooms.

During this course, you will explore with IslandWood staff and other teachers how local phenomena and investigations in YOUR community can be centered in a Next Generation Science Standards storyline to connect to the interests and identities of your students and support understanding of the impact of climate change. We will use an example phenomenal storyline to explore possibilities during our two large group sessions in November. Two small group follow up sessions will provide the opportunity to develop and discuss with other teachers what a hyperlocal storyline approach could look like for your students.

By the end of this course participants will…

• Understand how local phenomena interact with the Next Generation Science Standards, climate change, ecosystems and people in a community.
• Experience how local phenomena and field investigations can build scientific understanding.
• Understand how centering local phenomena in curriculum increases learning equity and supports student engagement.
• Work together to develop and implement ideas for incorporating local phenomena and their communities as a part of NGSS curriculum.
• Develop tools to increase students’ understanding of climate change and capacity to think about climate change solutions.

The course includes: An asynchronous session to complete before November 10th followed by an online session on Saturday, November 14th from 10-2:30 (includes an hour break for lunch). You will then be collaborating with a smaller teacher team to develop, adapt and discuss implementation of activities in two subsequent online meetings.

Cost: The $20 registration fee will be refunded to teachers who attend the first whole group session.