SHERBURNE – Plans are in the works to bring an education workshop to the Sherburne area that will help STEM teachers get engaging ideas for their students through hand-on training while also filling requirements for professional development.
The SUNY Morrisville Norwich campus is partnering with Friends of Rogers in Sherburne to make “Advanced Methods: Using Nature and Research in the Classroom” happen. Teachers, namely those with a concentration in science, are invited to sign-up.
The workshop will work with teachers on the grounds of Rogers Environmental Education Center in Sherburne to learn how to identify acquitic insects and vertebrates found in streams and ponds. Participants can also learn about the tools that help analyze organismal data and discuss modifications to field techniques to make research appropriate for their students’ grade level.
“The focus of these workshops is to offer hands-on training to instructors of various grade levels in public and private schools as well as daycare and home school instructors in passive techniques that are used in wildlife science,” said Eric Diefenbacher, workshop facilitator and professor at the Morrisville State College Norwich campus. “Children and even older students are naturally drawn to the outdoors. Often instructors want to harness this natural curiosity but don’t know what tools to use or how to use them.”
Diefenbacher said the aim is to provide those tools so that teachers will learn how to gather information about wildlife in the natural habitat.
“The benefit to the hands-on approach offers participants not only the opportunity to learn how to use the techniques to devise ways to modify them to the students they teach, but also the opportunity to be the student themselves while drawing off of their education expertise to help enhance their ability to deliver quality instruction,” he added.
This is the second year the SUNY Morrisville Norwich campus has offered hands-on training for teachers. Last year, more than a dozen teachers took part in a workshop along the Unadilla River in New Berlin. That helped them with the tips and tricks of acquitic research.
Diefenbacher said the upcoming workshop isn’t just limited to middle and high school teachers, but also to anyone who wants to learn to provide unique education opportunities to their students, including homeschool instructors and even daycare providers.
“The hope is that, through these workshops, participants come away with ideas that they can implement in their own classroom to help enrich their curriculum and make the natural world fun and exciting for younger generations,” he said.
Cost of registration is $75 per person and includes lunch and informational materials. Anyone interested can register through DCMO BOCES. For more information, contact Diefenbacher via email at diefeneh@morrisville.edu; or call the SUNY Morrisville Norwich campus at 607-334-5144.