Area teachers go ‘back to school’ at ORAU for interactive STEM courses

 

Teachers participate in GPS workshop

More than 190 elementary, middle school, and high school educators from East Tennessee gathered in ORAU’s Center for Science Education last week to participate in a variety of technology professional development workshops. The free workshops offered educators the chance to enhance their STEM knowledge and curricula through hands-on experiences.

One of last week’s workshops focused on how GPS could be used during an outside exercise. Workshop participants took an excursion outside for a hands-on activity where the first three participants to locate a hidden GPS device using provided coordinates actually won a GPS device.

“I learned a great deal about GPS, because I was a total stranger to GPS before this workshop,” said Arnold “Rocky” Warren from Morgan County Career and Technical Center. “I have some GPS devices in my classroom, but I did not know all the ways I could use them. Now, I feel confident I can instruct my students on how to use them in my physics class.”

The workshops are designed so teachers can take the information back to their students and use it immediately. The Twitter Workshop proved popular as well.

“The Twitter Workshop allowed me to connect to a great deal of math resources on Twitter,” said Jonathan Schoolcraft from Wartburg Central High School. “I really enjoyed the workshop, and I think my students will love using Twitter for math classes. I look forward to implementing these resources in my algebra II and geometry classes.”

ORAU conducts these workshops as part of its K-12 educator programs. The ORAU Center for Science Education offers educators the opportunity to participate in STEM programs that enhance classroom teaching. During the summer months, ORAU offers a variety of programs to provide teachers the opportunity to engage in hands-on activities that enhance their STEM curriculum.

“Last week was filled with engaging technology workshops with teachers participating from across East Tennessee, and they easily can take back what they have learned and use in lesson plans immediately,” said Meiko Thompson, project manager of the workshops. “Whether it was the workshop on Using Twitter to Engage Students, GPS, Teaching Climate Change, iPads in the Classroom, or using Excel, all of the feedback ORAU has received from teachers about these sessions has been overwhelmingly positive.”

Sherilyn Dawson from Concord Christian School agreed that the workshops are valuable.

“I have participated in several of these (ORAU) workshops, and the experience has been phenomenal,” said Dawson. “Being able to take the hands-on, practical applications that we learn during the workshops back to the classroom helps keep lesson plans from becoming stale.”

ORAU’s technology professional workshops continue through the month of June.

Learn more about the workshops and find information about how to register for upcoming sessions here.