Teachers’ Professional Development – Learning Progressions from Land to Sea

Mar 30, 2014 Buttonwood Zoo

Practicing Progressions from Land to Sea: Bringing Engineering Design and Inquiry Into Your Classroom

Teachers learn how to stretcher a "dolphin" at a MITS summer institute.Join the Museum Institutes for Teaching Science, the Lloyd Center for the Environment, Buttonwood Park Zoo, Mass Audubon’s Oak Knoll and Stony Brook Wildlife Sanctuaries, and the National Marine Life Center and dive into learning progressions from land to sea. This professional development institute combines 16 hours of on-line instruction with a one-week on-site component. During the on-site component, spend a day at each partner institution’s site participating in hands-on inquiry investigations combined with content sessions.

Buttonwood Discover how plants and animals are dispersed across and adapted to the varied habitats within our aquatic, coastal and terrestrial landscape. Spend a day at a marine mammal rehabilitation facility as you investigate issues surrounding marine animal stranding, rehabilitation and release of of sea turtles, seals and dolphins. Learn first-hand the science of animal behavior and how it is applicable both in the wild and in captivity as you experience what it takes to meet animals’ physical and mental emotional needs in zoos. The experience becomes hands-on as you create an echogram, observe a training session, make enrichment items and participate in a behavioral training session. Get wet and salty as you explore a coastal ecosystem and discover how resident organisms are adapted to life in an extremely variable environment.

LloydThroughout the course we will utilize a variety of tools, methods, technologies and your background knowledge to identify adaptations that plants and animals may have to survive and thrive in a given habitat. Through online lessons, hands-on activities that demonstrate learning progressions and group discussions we will explore ways to excite and educate your students about science, technology and math!

This course is targeted at Grades 3-8 Educators.

Course Dates:
June 14 Introductory Session (8:30 am – 12:30 pm);
June 30 – August 8 on-line;
July 21 – 25 on-site (9 am – 3:30 pm)

Registration Fee (50 PDPs):
$375/individual;
$325/team of 2 or more teachers from same school district

Graduate Credit Offered (4 credits, 90 PDPs):
Cambridge College – $200;
Framingham State University – $225

For more information and to register, visit the Museum Institutes for Teaching Science website at: http://mits.org/2014-summer-professional-development-institutes/.