KBS presenting at the Michigan Science Teachers Association Conference

A room full of elementary teachers joined educators Renee Bayer and Kara Haas on March 4th for a 1 hour and 45 minute session at the Michigan Science Teachers Association Conference in Lansing, MI.  Kara and Renee collaborate on the Teaching Science Outdoors elementary professional development project at the Kellogg Biological Station.  As part of the workshop, teachers participated in an outdoor activity to explore the Grand River Watershed.   After taking  photos outside and posting them along with their questions about the watershed on Twitter, teachers gathered inside to review and refine questions and brainstorm investigations or models to help answer the questions.  All of this was done thinking through the lens of the new Michigan Science Standards which are based upon the Next Generation Science Standards. Go to Twitter and search #kbsk12 to see what was evidence teachers collected.

Screenshot from Twitter. What are these teachers doing?

Fun was had by all and we hope that teachers are inspired to bring their students outside for science this spring!

Links to pdfs of resources:

Handout-TSO_MSTA2016.pdf inc. an outline of Performance Expectations from grades K-5

Presentation slides: MSTA – TSO 2016

Kara Haas, Kellogg Biological Station, Science Education and Outreach Coordinator, karahaas@msu.edu

Renee Bayer, CREATE for STEM Institute, Associate Director for Engagement, rbayer@msu.edu