Informal educators pick up science teaching skills
Sep 6, 2011
posted in: Center
Informal educators from around Florida came together at the Dr. Kiran C. Patel Center to participate in the Center for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence (COSEE) professional development workshop, Reflecting on Practice: A professional development program for informal science educators. During the workshops, educators learned a variety of techniques to help educate young children about science. In a few modules, these educators-turned-students practiced different methods of instruction; they made presentations on squids, conducted experiments using ice cubes and died water, along with a host of other activities.
The entire program took place over three days and was facilitated by Lynn Tran from the Lawrence Hall of Science and Emily Yam from Aquarium of the Pacific.
“Informal educators means those of us who teach outside of the classroom,” said Laura Diederick, education specialist at the Smithsonian Marine Station in Ft. Pierce. “There are not a whole lot of professional opportunities directed to us so it’s been great, it’s been wonderful.”
Carlos Wilfong, a graduate student in USF mechanical engineering also participated in the program. Wilfong is part of USF Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN) fellowship and anticipates teaching young children for community outreach. “[The workshop] was very helpful, it reminded me of some of the definitions of the word ‘science’ that I had forgotten,” said Wilfong.
The workshop was a group effort overall, it was sponsored and presented by the Lawrence Hall of Science, it was hosted and sponsored in part by International Ocean Institute-USA (IOI-USA), the Patel School of Global Sustainability and Coastal Areas Climate Change Education, in collaboration with COSEE Florida and COSEE California.
“I feel it went very well, all the attendees said that they thought they got a lot of out of it and they got a lot of resources and tools to take back and teach their fellow colleagues and staff, which was the point,” concluded Mara Hendrix, one of the key planners from IOI-USA.
For more photos from the workshop, click here.