Enhancing the Public Understanding of Science and the Professional Development of Pre-college and University Science Teachers

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Enhancing the Public Understanding of Science and
the Professional Development of Pre-college and
University Science Teachers

• Janice Koch, Ph.D.
• http//www.hofstra.edu/IDEAS
• http//people.hofstra.edu/faculty/janice_koch
• Presentation to the Association for Science
  Teacher Education
• January 20-23, 2005

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Institute for the Development of Education in
the Advanced Sciences
An outreach institute
Professional development for science teachers
The Public Understanding Of Science
Workshops for college science faculty
Hofstra University - 25 miles east of New York
City A private coeducational non-sectarian
university with 13,000 undergraduate and graduate
students studying in schools of education, law,
communication, business and the liberal arts and
sciences.
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Our Mission Enhancing the public engagement
with and understanding of science.
Free Public Lectures on.
Turtles in New York City Supplying Long Island
with Fresh Water Pandoras Baby- The
Reproductive Revolution A Chemical Cure for
the Common Cold The Search for Extra-
Solar Planets
The Tortoise and the Lava Flow Geology and
Evolution in the Galapagos Islands
Computational Physics of the Heart Normal and
Abnormal Rhythms in Heart Disease
Treating Lower Back Pain without Medication
Alternatives Dead Stars Do Tell Tales The
Exciting Case of Supernova 1987A
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Initially funded by the New York State
legislaturenow a permanent structure of the
School of Education
IDEAS has been assembled to provide a focus on
cutting edge issues in science and technology,
for the general public, local public and private
school teachers and administrators, and college
educators.
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Turtles in New York City- Sept 23, 2004
Did you know that that the world's largest
population of terrapins nest primarily on a
small island in Jamaica Bay, in New York City?
They are struggling to survive the predation of
over 300 raccoons!
High school students, the college community and
senior citizens attend and visit the Hofstra
Observatory after the lecture.we begin the fall
season!
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Science Writer Robin Henig visits Hofstra for
IDEAS

• PANDORA'S BABY How the first Test
• Tube Babies Sparked the Reproductive
  Revolution
• Robin Henig specializes in writing books and
  articles about medicine and science and is a
  frequent contributor to The New York Times
  Magazine and Science Times.
• She met with some students first and then
  presented a public lecture November, 2004

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Our Mission Providing for the professional
development of science and technology professors

• First, on October 8- IDEAS welcomes Dr. David
  Hanson

POGIL- PROCESS ORIENTED GUIDED INQUIRY
LEARNING
The POGIL approach involves creating a learning
environment where students are actively engaged
in mastering a discipline and in developing
essential skills by working in self-managed teams
on guided inquiry activities.
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Next More Professional Development for
University Science Faculty- featuring the Biology
Grant

• IDEAS evaluates the NSF Bio Grant.
• Faculty Institutes
• for Reforming Science
• Teaching(FIRST)
• Re-inventing college Biology
• Pedagogical innovations- Electronic Response
  systems, labs that match lecture and workshops
  following inquiry labs.

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Our Mission Professional Development for
pre-college science educators

• Geology for teachers and travelers.
• Oct 16-17 The goal of this weekend is to
  investigate the geologic history revealed in the
  natural feature of southeastern New York State.
• Opportunities to collect
• specimens
• Earn in service or grad credits
• New York State as
• the Geology Lab

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Ten teachers- on the Geology Field
trip-fall 2004
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Exit surveys reveal.
This was an important opportunity For meeven
teaching earth science, I never understood the
formations In New York state Great two-day
experience with no cares-All details were
pre-arranged- and we could maintain our focus I
learned a ton of stuff that helped me to
understand geologic history-because there was a
relevant context Although I had no prior
knowledge of geology I had no problem following
the presenter
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Professional development for elementary and
secondary science teachers

• Science in the daily life of the classroom
• Teachers as Researchers
• Classroom Demos in the physicalsciences

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Professional development for Elementary and
Secondary teacherscont

• Keith Sheppard from Teachers College, NY present
  the i-video workshop- the use of teacher made
  videos to enhance teacher scientific
  understanding while presenting difficult concepts
  that can be dangerous in the classroom to
  secondary students.
• Greg Stefanich from the University of Northern
  Iowa presents doing Science with Students with
  Disabilities to elementary and secondary science
  teachers.
• Ken Appleton from Queensland, Australia presents
  Science Activities that work to teachers in the
  elementary school.
• Alec Bodzin from Lehigh University presents
  Using the Web to promote Science Learning.

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How have we done? 2004

• At the public lectures there were an average of
  31 people at each lecture
• People expressed that they heard about IDEAS from
  the web site.
• from word of mouth,
• from the list serve of Long Island School
  administrators and
• from the mailings.

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Evaluating the professional development workshops

• To what extent
• Did the program meet the educational objectives
  stated in the IDEAS Institute flyer?
• Was the presentation level appropriate?
• Was the faculty or presenter effective?
• Was the information current?
• Did the instructor present in a clear and orderly
  fashion?
• Did the instructor maintain your interest?
• Did the program help you professionally?
• Were the facilities comfortable?
• Overall, would you recommend the program?
• Session Comments..
• _______________________________________

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Some results and comments!

• Where 5 represented great Extent in response
  to survey questions, participants rated the
  categories a 4 or 5 ninety-five percent of
  the time.
• Comments included
• Excellent presentation wonderful ideas for the
  classroom I learned to think outside the box
• A great program-I am ready to buy an iMac
  presenters were extremely helpful, well informed
  and this seminar was a great one!
• This workshop should be brought to the school for
  the entire faculty
• The IDEAS Institute is great! Do more..
• This was an amazing example of teachers as
  learners thank you IDEAS for supporting this
  workshop.
• Great program- excellent presenters-thank you for
  making it possible.

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Does your university have a science outreach
institute?
I am interested in starting a consortium of
outreach institutes-sharing ideas and programs
Contact me at Janice.Koch_at_hofstra.edu