Physical Science: City Science, PLED 551
About this Course:
The Physical Science: City Science year-round teacher professional development series is designed to help teachers explores a city through key science concepts. Through this intensive and engaging five day program, the teachers can increase their content knowledge of city ecology, human impact on the environment, engineering, and city infrastructure. Each full day workshop focuses on one of the above concepts and explores how that topic can be brought back into the classroom in an engaging way. Aside from this program being broad based and interdisciplinary, this program explores how to further the interaction of inquiry based teaching methods into the classroom as well as the multiple ways that an informal institution such as The Museum of Science and Industry, can be used to further the curriculum objectives established.
Prerequisites:
Certified 6 - 12 science teachers
Who Should Attend:
Secondary level science teachers
Expected Outcomes:
The workshop aims to achieve the following goals:
- Teachers will become more knowledgeable about science concepts related to city ecology, human impact on the environment, the science behind structures, and what issues play a role in developing the cities of the future
- Teachers will learn inquiry-based classroom strategies for teaching about city ecology, human impact on the environment, the science behind structures, and what issues play a role in developing the cities of the future
- Teachers will discover ways to integrate the field trip experience(s) into classroom curriculum, and learn strategies to continue their own as well as their students learning back in the classroom.
- Teachers will understand how Museum programs and resources address state science education standards, and learn to incorporate academic standards and curricular requirements in to field trips.
Course Outline:
Major Topics
The Physical Science: City Science series explores concepts related to city ecology, human impact on the environment, the science behind structures, and what issues play a role in developing the cities of the future. Teacher ill discuss science content and practice inquiry-based classroom activities that address the following key ideas:
- City Ecology (ecosystems, habitats, food chain/web, identification and classification, wetlands, succession, etc.)
- City environment (pollution, responsible waste disposal, water cycle, greenhouse effect, etc.)
- Buildings and structures (architecture/structural engineering, forces, load, tension, compression, gravity, stability, etc.)
- City planning and development (energy needs, alternative energy sources, population demographics, heat islands, etc.)
- The Series will also expose teachers to resources of the Museum and engage them in strategies for planning more effective, educational and rewarding field trips for their students.
- Field trip opportunities (including hands-on workshops, exhibit guides, demonstrations, theater shows)
- Special workshops for teachers
- Museum exhibits that address curriculum standards
- "How to" book and plan a field trip
Course Details:
Methods for Evaluating Teacher Performance
- Teachers will be assessed with a comfort and attitudinal scale. This will evaluate their comfort with content, pedagogy and museum skills
- Participants will complete a museum field trip planning sheet to assess how comfortable they are with using informal learning resources.
- At the end of each workshop, participants will complete an open-ended reflection
- Teachers maintain a "portfolio" during the course of the school year in which they document the activities they try in their own classroom and their observations and reflections about those activities. These portfolios are turned in at the conclusion of the program
Credit:
3 or 6 Graduate Credits
Presented By:
Dr. Judith Lederman, Director of Teacher Education, IIT
Nicole Kowrach, Assistant Director for Education and Manager: School Programs
Patricia Messersmith, Coordinator, Institute for Quality Science Teaching