K-12 Teacher Professional Development

Level Up Conference K-12 Teacher Workshop

 

On March 7th, Karagh Brummond, Director of Outreach and Engagement for the Science Initiative, provided an hour-long workshop to 15 Wyoming K-12 teachers on the Roadshow titled “Using Active Learning Techniques to Engage Students in STEM.” The teachers were introduced to the Science Initiative Roadshow and the theory and data behind using active learning techniques in the curriculum the Roadshow designs for the K-12 students they visit during the academic year. The teachers were then able to experience a Roadshow activity by performing the Design an Imaginary Animal activity. After the activity there was time for conversation, feedback, and discussion about the Roadshow and the resources it offers K-12 teachers and students in the state of Wyoming.

 

Wyoming State Science Fair K-12 Teacher Workshop

 

On Monday, March 6th, Karagh Brummond facilitated the organization of an hour-long workshop for 6 teachers participating in the Wyoming State Science Fair. The workshop titled, “Seeing” Science: Exploring Technology Used to Answer Questions in STEM” allowed the K-12 teachers to come and explore the new state-of-the-art Science Initiative Building on the UW campus to experience two of the instruments we use to answer various STEM research questions, the Micro-CT Scanner and the X-Ray Diffractometer. The microCT scanner may be familiar if you or someone else you know has ever had a CAT scan at the hospital. A micro-CT is just a ‘micro’ version of a CAT scanner! It collects information about millimeter-sized objects by taking many X-ray images from different rotation angles. This allows us to generate a 3D rendering of the object, which can then be further analyzed and studied. This technology is useful to many different STEM fields, including biology, materials science, geology, archaeology, paleontology, and engineering. It allows us to see an object’s composition at the micrometer scale without cutting open or damaging a sample. Teacher were able to meet the researchers working with this technology who demonstrated how we can use micro-CT scanning to help us understand the biology of the brain and the study of human diseases such as Alzheimer’s and other related dementias. The X-Ray Diffractometer provides detailed information about the internal lattice structure of crystalline molecular solids, including unit cell dimensions, bond-lengths, bond-angles, and details of site-ordering. Overall, it can help determine the 3D structure of molecules by examining how X-rays interact with the crystals of those compounds. This technique is used widely in chemistry, molecular biology, pharmacy, physics, and chemical engineering. Teachers in this workshop experienced the Micro-CT scanner from 10:15-10:45am and then head up to the X-Ray Diffractometer from 10:45-11:15am.

MicroCT Facilitation: Todd Schoborg

X-Ray Diffractometer Facilitation: Elliott Hulley

Quotes from Teachers:

• Everyone was very kind and very knowledgeable.
• I thought it was very informative and worthwhile.
• It was a great experience! Very informative and laid back. The presenters were kind and very knowledgeable.
• It was a great opportunity to see UW facilities and programs; visit with other teachers; interact with UW staff