Summer Workshop Plans

Keystone Summer Workshop Agenda

How long do your workshops last?

Workshops and institutes last from 3 to 6 days.

Our in the 4 field experiences (2 paleontology/geology and 2 environmental education) with experts last for 3 days with activities in the evening as well as the daytime

One institute was 50 hours/6 days 50 recertification units or 3 graduate semester hours

Three institutes were 40 hours/5 days each 40 recertification units or 2 graduate semester hours

How many teachers do you involve in your workshops?

We have about 300 teachers involved.

The number of teachers involved in each institute depends on the type: field experiences are limited to 30 in each session

The other institutes number of participants were 38, 80, 50, 13

What are your major goals for your workshops in terms of content and pedagogy? (Just one or two paragraphs)

We are using a variety of sources for professional development in a variety of curricular areas. We work with science kits, integration specialists, and professional scientists.

The Keystone Science and Technology a Beginning Institute was a 50 hour/6 day introduction to our goals, the standards, kits, other resources, and inquiry science teaching. Both content and pedagogy are stressed.

The Exploring Inquiry Through Questioning Institute was a 40 hour/5 day exploration of inquiry through making subtle shifts or major shifts. The participants were moved toward two goals: classroom use of the strategies and using the strategies to do staff development for their school or district. Pedagogy was the major stress. Teachers were taken through a process of developing their own questions to investigating their question of choice.

The Developing an Integrated Curriculum with Inquiry was a 40 hour/5 day institute with a stress on changing their own curricular unit to become more inquiry-based as well as connected to other curricular areas.

The Teaching Science with Literature institute was presented by Miami Univeristy from Middleton, Ohio. The goal was to integrate science and literature.

Are you offering professional development on specific curricula that you are hoping will be used in the classroom? If so, which curricula are you using?

We address all three content science areas (earth/space; biological; physical science). We are also addressing integration of content. Pedagogy is also addressed, many activities taken from the San Francisco Exploratorium for Inquiry.

We offer graduate credit for the institutes and provide a stipend, travel, housing, and food. Also, each school receives a mini-grant, based on numbers of participants from that school, to be used the following year on science staff development.

Additionally, we advertise for other universities and other science-related professional and educational groups.

We have provided professional development on physics, geology, chemistry,and life sciences both in field expeiences and by having experts and scientists in the science kit explorations. We use a variety of materials throughout the project. All schools are using some kits but this does vary from one district to another. When our project started many of our districts had already adopted science programs so there was no money to purchase many kits. Most schools borrow materials from the Bozeman Science Center; however, many schools are 200-300 miles from the site so this is a difficult task especially during the winter.

Montana requires school district to develop a curriculum for each subject. These are to be related to our benchmarks.

Monday, June 14, Sacajawea Middle School

Tuesday, June 15, Sacajawea Middle School and Morning Star

Tuesday Evening, June 15, Elks Club, 106 E. Babcock, Bozeman, Montana

Wednesday, June 15, Sacajawea Middle School and Morning Star

Thursday, June 17, Museum of the Rockies, 600 W. Kagy Boulevard

Friday, June 18, Sacajawea Middle School -- south parking lot