K-12 Educator Program

Download a printable poster and flyer here.

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Use the code Charles18

Invitation

The conference would like to invite K-12 Educators and Administrators to attend, interact with geochemists from around the world, and participate in a special workshop event. The goal is to improve awareness and utilization of geochemistry content in K-12 classrooms, and to foster connections between K-12 educators and the Goldschmidt community. A special workshop for K-12 educators, lead by Prof. Lisa Gilbert of Williams College and Prof. Peter Berquist from Thomas Nelson CC, will introduce InTeGrate teaching materials and will provide an opportunity to learn new teaching modules for your classroom.
You are encouraged to attend the whole meeting but the special events of this K-12 program will be focused on the Tuesday (14 August) and Thursday (16 August) of the conference. Please bring a laptop or tablet computer to the workshop if possible.

Tuesday and Thursday Schedule

7:45-8:30 Breakfast: Start the day with breakfast with a conference mentor (see below). Connect with one of our academics, gain some understanding of the meeting and look forward to the rest of the day. Room 102.
8:30-11:30 Conference Sessions: As well as the scientific conference sessions (up to 16 rooms of talks running at once) you will be specially invited to attend events in Theme 14: Communicating Science: Outreach and Education. Sessions from Theme 14 are scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday morning. Tuesday morning Theme 14 Keynote Speakers will include Dr. Jacob Foster (WGBH-TV, Boston; NGSS writing team member) and Prof. Daniel Schrag (Harvard Univ.; member of President Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology). On Thursday morning, Dr. Gavin Schmidt (Director, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies) will headline an interactive Theme 14 event.
11:45-12:45 Plenary Talk (Tuesday: Prof. Caroline Slomp, Netherlands - marine biogeochemistry; Thursday: Dr. Fumio Inagaki, Japan - geomicrobiology) – Everyone is invited to the Plenary session to hear a presentation from one of the leaders in the field. As well as finding out about a particular topic the talk will give an understanding of how science research is connected globally and how the work of one team feeds the future research of others.
Lunch – Delegates are encouraged to head out into the connected mall or Newbury street to get lunch with colleagues.
2:15-5:15 Afternoon workshop: See below (room 102)
5:30-7:30 Poster sessions: Gather to discuss work presented in poster form. Theme 14 posters will be up and available for viewing all week.

Mentoring

As part of the program you will be connected with a volunteer mentor from the Goldschmidt conference community: professors, researchers, postdocs, or graduate students. You are invited and encouraged to connect with these mentors via email, before and during the conference, to discuss what you hope to get from attendance and to create what we hope to be lasting connections.

Workshop Description

Engaging students in understanding the Earth system as it intertwines with key societal issues.
Bringing sustainability into K-12 classrooms offers a range of benefits to student learning, such as establishing relevance for your students and empowering them to begin thinking about society and the Earth on a broader scale. This professional development workshop is designed to help earth science, environmental science, and chemistry teachers infuse more societally relevant geoscience into their classrooms with InTeGrate teaching materials. InTeGrate materials challenge students to address interdisciplinary problems, engage in geoscientific habits of mind, work with authentic geoscience data and develop systems thinking. During the workshop, teachers will gain hands-on experience working with these NGSS-aligned, freely available InTeGrate materials and adapting them for elementary, middle school, and high school use. Examples drawing specifically from geochemistry as well as broader geoscience themes will be included. Tuesday will have more emphasis on elementary and middle school (K-8), whereas Thursday will have more emphasis on secondary school (9-12). For each workshop, attendance is limited to 60 participants.
Prof. Lisa Gilbert is an Associate Professor of Geosciences & Marine Science at The Maritime Studies Program of Williams College and Mystic Seaport. She co-authored InTeGrate modules Systems Thinking and Natural Hazards and Risks: Hurricanes and has led professional development workshops for K-12 teachers, museum professionals, and college faculty for 15 years.
Prof. Peter Berquist is an experienced workshop leader, most recently with the NAGT Traveling Workshop Program and the NSF-funded SAGE 2YC project. He is a co-author of the InTeGrate module Carbon, Climate, and Energy Resources and is Associate Professor and Department Chair of Geology at Thomas Nelson Community College in Virginia.

Professional Development Credit

Establishing PDP credit is the responsibility of each attendee. Your Goldschmidt receipt will indicate the special K-12 educator program registration. The following statement is taken from the FAQ section on the State of Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education website: "PDPs are no longer awarded for attendance at a professional conference. However, an educator could receive PDPs if (1) the conference spans two or more days, and allows for attendance at a series of sessions/workshops on the same or similar topic totaling 10 hours or more and (2) if attendance results in a final product that would serve as an assessment of learning, such as developing a school-based activity or curriculum, or publishing written material. Educators who attend a professional conference for less than 10 hours in a given topic may extend their learning to reach the required 10 hour minimum by developing a final product, such as the examples listed above. They may also "bundle" conferences on the same topic, but must still develop a final product, such as a resource that is published by the school or district."

Eligibility

Entrance to the program is limited to K-12 Educators and Administrators. You will be expected to provide proof of employment at a K-12 institution when you collect your registration materials. Proof of your participation will be provided on your Goldschmidt receipt.

Costs

These discounted costs are available for the first 100 K-12 educators only.
Full week - $280 (registration, coffee and poster refreshments each day, Tuesday or Thursday breakfast and workshop events);
Tuesday or Thursday only - $95 (registration, breakfast, and workshop event, coffee and poster refreshments). Printed program volumes can be added to your purchase for $25 (free app available alternatively).
Rates will increase after June 13th to $330 (full week) and $135 (one day).
K-12 attendees will also be eligible to participate in all other Goldschmidt events (some may require the purchase of an additional ticket). Abstract fees still apply if you wish to present at the conference.

Questions? Please contact local organizing committee member Prof. Ethan Baxter at ethan.baxter@bc.edu