Educator Workshops

Check back often to learn about future workshops. If you would like to suggest topics for educator workshops, please email info@discovery.wisc.edu.

For examples of past workshops, please see the descriptions below.

Wisconsin Science Festival Educator Workshops | Saturday, September 29, 2012 | 9:30-5 | Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery

Hunting the Elements
Interested in chemistry resources for your classroom? After the screening of NOVA's "Hunting the Elements," NOVA will host a separate presentation for teachers. Learn how you can bring NOVA's "Hunting the Elements" into your classroom with a new collection of teacher resources, including video excerpts from the show and an Elements iPad App. Participants will leave with new ideas and classroom periodic table posters and cards.

Exploring Biofuels: Science, Sustainability and Student Inquiry
Presenters: Leith Nye and John Greenler 
What's the state of research on advanced biofuels? How do we distinguish the hype from real hope when it comes to bioenergy? How are teachers bringing biofuels research into their classes? Learn about the latest opportunities and challenges for developing biofuels to meet current and future energy demands. Discover opportunities for bringing biofuels research topics into your classes with fun, engaging labs and activities. Participants will get hands-on experience with education materials that use biofuels research areas such as crop production, biomass deconstruction and fermentation to teach core concepts in a range of science classes, including biology, chemistry and environmental science.

Engineering Is Elementary
Presenters: Amy Schiebel, Anne Lynn Gillian-Daniel and Ben Taylor 
This workshop will give teachers of grades 3-5 the tools for incorporating engineering into their science curriculum in accordance with the National Science Education Standards. The focus will be on learning about what engineering is (and is not) and on creating hands-on activities that extend existing FOSS science kits. Design challenges and engineering problem solving will be at the core of these new activities. Teachers will come away with a newly created lesson as well as a useful model for planning additional lessons. Incorporating common core literacy and math standards into the science and engineering curriculum also will be addressed.

Charge & Size! Gel Electrophoresis of Dyes
Presenter: Barbara Bielec 
The Biopharmaceutical Technology Center Institute, located in Madison, Wis., offers a variety of programs to help students and teachers learn about and utilize biotechnology. This workshop will emphasize fundamental biotechnology concepts and techniques in a hands-on way and provide tips and resources to help implement biotechnology in the classroom. Come join the fun! Model DNA structure and electrophoresis in a variety of ways; practice using micropipettes; perform agarose gel electrophoresis of dyes to learn more about charge and size of molecules; and discuss resources available to help implement these techniques in the classroom.

HHMI Presents: Adaptation, Natural Selection, and the Birth and Death of Genes
Presenters: Jennifer Bricken and Ann Brokaw
Join HHMI for an exciting hands-on workshop about evolutionary concepts in high school biology and middle school life science, such as natural selection, ecological genetics and the evolution of genes. View two films in the short film trilogy "The Making of the Fittest," stories crafted to engage students with memorable examples of the evolutionary process in action, and work through activities that address concepts introduced in the films. Each film takes the audience on an adventure – to the deserts of the American Southwest and to the Antarctic, where they encounter fascinating creatures and pioneering scientists who have revealed how the fittest are made. Participants will receive free classroom-ready lessons, worksheets, demonstrations and hands-on activities to support the films. This workshop is appropriate for middle school life science and all levels of high school biology.

Bird Beak Adaptations
Presenters: Shaheen Sutterwala and Tawnya Cary
This workshop will provide hands-on activities and lesson plans designed to help elementary students make the connection between form and function. The session will start with a version of the classic bird beak buffet activity. Each participant will pick a bird beak tool (e.g., pipet, chopstick, strainer, tweezers) to test which food item their beak is most adapted for eating. Students can test their bird beak to see what they can and cannot pick up and place into their bird stomachs (i.e., cup). Participants will be guided by images of birds and natural diets to represent each beak tool and artificial food item. Each student then will be able to compare the contents of their bird's stomachs to other students' bird stomachs to better understand the diversity of feeding adaptations among birds. An assessment for whether each student achieved the learning objectives consists of a matching game that requires them to match a bird (and its beak) to one of a variety of bird stomachs containing different food items. Finally, these activities will be connected to the Next Generation Science Standards and participants will receive further resources for studying bird adaptations and diversity.

Exploring Materials Science Through Liquid Crystals
Presenters: Ben Taylor and Anne Lynn Gillian Daniel 
The UW–Madison Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) education group presents a hands-on teacher workshop on using liquid crystals (LCs) to introduce science and engineering concepts in the classroom. Participants will learn about the structure and properties of LCs, including how they interact with light, a property that enables LCs to be used in TV screens, digital watches and smart devices. Participants will have the opportunity to work with different forms of LCs and learn how to synthesize LCs that change colors at a variety of transition temperatures, which then can be used for inquiry-based investigations in the classroom. The fun, visually appealing activities presented in this workshop can be used with late elementary (4th and 5th grade), middle and high school students.

NOVA's "Finding Life Beyond Earth"
This program tells the story of how powerful telescopes and unmanned space missions at the forefront of the search for life beyond our planet have revealed a wide range of dynamic environments in the solar system. The new data are forcing scientists to expand their ideas about life and what kinds of worlds could support it. It may well be that life is common in the universe – the rule, and not the exception. NOVA has developed a collection of seven activities and accompanying video excerpts from the show that explore questions at the heart of the search for extraterrestrial life, such as "What is life?" and "Where do we find habitable conditions?" Educators can mix and match the activities to help kids understand the biology, physical science, technology and Earth and space science related to the search for life. In this workshop, learn about the teacher resources NOVA has to offer and participate in a hands-on activity from the Finding Life Beyond Earth Education Collection. Participants will receive all the necessary materials to incorporate the search for life beyond Earth into their classroom, including a data DVD with the seven activities and accompanying video excerpts from the program, a solar system classroom poster and a classroom set of planet temporary tattoos.

Using Language Arts to Pump More EpiSTEMology into STEM
Presenter: Tom Zinnen 
The Next Generation Science Standards are placing greater emphasis on science savvy and how well students grasp and use the ways scientists probe nature and test ideas. This workshop uses hands-on puzzles such as The Paradox of the DNA Tube and The Parable of the Color-Changing Pencil to expand participants' cross-cutting talents in framing questions, using if-then causal reasoning, exploring how science is different from other ways of knowing and testing ideas, and coaching the careful crafting of conclusions. As well as direct experience, emphasis will be put on using language arts skills in teaching science savvy; former UW–Madison President Thomas Chamberlin's essay on The Method of Multiple Working Hypotheses will be held up as an exemplar of innovative use of language skills in advancing how scientists view and do science.

HHMI "Natural Selection in Humans"
Presenters: Jennifer Bricken and Ann Brokaw
Join HHMI for an exciting hands-on workshop about evolutionary concepts in high school biology and middle school life science, such as natural selection, ecological genetics and the evolution of genes. View two films in the short film trilogy "The Making of the Fittest," stories crafted to engage students with memorable examples of the evolutionary process in action, and work through activities that address concepts introduced in the films. Each film takes the audience on an adventure – to the deserts of the American Southwest and to the Antarctic, where they encounter fascinating creatures and pioneering scientists who have revealed how the fittest are made. Participants will receive free classroom-ready lessons, worksheets, demonstrations and hands-on activities to support the films. This workshop is appropriate for middle school life science and all levels of high school biology.

Supporting Readers in Science Classrooms: An Introduction to the Common Core Standards
Presenter: Catherine Compton-Lilly 
Helping students to read scientific texts has long been a challenge for science teachers. This presentation will focus on strategies that teachers can use to help students negotiate scientific texts while at the same time meeting the demands of the newly implemented Common Core Standards. Attention will be paid to text difficulty, the distinct challenges presented by scientific texts and comprehension strategies. Participants will learn how to assess text difficulty and help children who struggle with reading. Examples of engaging science texts at various reading levels will be shared as well as helpful strategies for teaching vocabulary and reading comprehension strategies.

Doing DNA: The Code of Life
Presenter: Tom Zinnen 
An understanding of DNA, the key informational molecule of life on Earth, can give students insight into historic innovations in science as well as into the deepest mechanics of life. Doing DNA provides a series of activities, analogies and experiments ready to use in the classroom, including Extracting DNA "Glop" from Wheat Germ, Analyzing a Sample of Pure DNA and Building a Human DNA Model. The workshop includes a tour of the DNA synthesis facility at the Biotechnology Center as well as its DNA fountain, the oldest and most accurate fountain of its type.

Integrating the Science of Stem Cells into the Middle School Classroom
Presenter: Val Blair
Stem cell research is expanding the frontiers of science and medicine, and is an exciting and relevant topic to include in classroom experiences. At this workshop, teachers will explore the unique characteristics of human pluripotent stem cells, their role in science and their contributions to human health. Teachers also will try hands-on activities related to regular maintenance and culturing of stem cells in the laboratory.

Evo101: Teaching Evolution for Middle and High School Teachers
Presenter: Kristin Jenkins 
Evolution is one of the key concepts in biology but it is challenging to teach. Although the basic concept of change over time appears straightforward, education research has identified a number of student misconceptions around the processes and outcomes of evolution. This workshop will present resources and tips for teaching important concepts, such as common ancestry, and addressing misconceptions about evolutionary processes, for example natural selection. Presented by the University of Wisconsin Crow Institute for the Study of Evolution in collaboration with the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center.

The Next Generations Science Standards Are Coming!
Presenter: Shelley Lee
The Next Generation Science Standards will be final in 2013 and pending the State Superintendent's approval, will become Wisconsin's new state science standards. These standards are different from the current state science standards because they weave science content and concepts with science and engineering practices to illustrate student performance expectations in science for grades K-12. They will provide teachers with model pathways for implementing the standards and set the science education agenda for the next fifteen years. This session will provide participants with a glimpse into those standards. The session also will help participants begin to implement them in their classroom, school or district.

HHMI New Short Film and Free Classroom Resources
Presenter: Scott Wahlstrom
Join us for a special screening of HHMI's new documentary film and learn how it can enrich your teaching about the nature and power of the scientific method. Participants will be the first ever to learn about and receive the brand new, classroom-ready resources designed to help you connect the film to your existing curriculum. Teacher-developed lessons, tips and activities addressing discipline-crossing key concepts that emphasize connections between the earth and life sciences, such as the process of science, including gathering and assessing evidence,will be demonstrated and distributed.

Citizen Science Teacher Workshop
Presenter: Wade Berger 
This event will feature a playtest of the Citizen Science game as well as workshops focused on place-based learning, lake ecology and limnology and ideas for developing curricula and lessons plans around these topics. Teachers also will hear firsthand accounts of how the game and other augmented reality experiences have been used to supplement and enhance curricula, including an insider’s story from a teacher who has successfully used the Citizen Science game with students.