Summer programs at KBS for teachers

Summer is busy time for everyone at KBS and a great time for K-12 teachers to have authentic research experiences!  Each summer we seek funds to provide Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) and an internship for an MSU undergraduate studying education.  This year we have four RETs and one intern!  Each of them has worked with us to create a unique experience that will help them increase scientific knowledge and create lessons and experiments to bring to their students in the fall.

Emma Hollowell

Hello! I’m an aspiring teacher interning at KBS as the Science Education Intern this summer! I’m incredibly excited to be here and experience all KBS has to offer. Along with interning and working with Teaching Science Outdoors, I am taking ecology and wetland ecology this summer through MSU. I’m a Biology major with a focus in Urban Education so I am excited to be around Gull Lake and experience the rural side of education. In my free time I love to swim, do paddleboard yoga, and I am currently training for a triathlon. I can’t wait to get to know all of the teachers in the teacher network and hear about as many experiences as I can!

Shaun Davis

I teach 6th and 8th grades at Thornapple Kellogg Middle School.  This is my fourth summer here at KBS working in Jen Lau’s lab.

I always look forward to coming to KBS because I learn a lot, continue to develop my skill set, work with great people, and bring many of my experiences back to the classroom.  This past year my students conducted an investigation simulating projected global warming in Michigan that was very similar to work being done here at KBS.

With the work I’m doing this summer, I hope to add another investigation to my experimental field.  I also plan to develop an experiment that I can run during the cold months of the year so my students can conduct research year-round!

Matt Hawkins

I am a 5th grade math and science teacher at Gull Lake Community Schools. My goal this summer is to support my elementary students in their interests of computer coding and programming. I am applying technology use to the data collecting that we complete within our science curriculum and with our school garden.

I plan to advance my coding skills with online modules and build data sensors using Raspberry Pi boards. Data collected will include soil moisture, light levels, and a time-lapse camera for phenological data. I have an onsite mentor, Sven Bohms, who is currently applying this technology with the Long Term Ecological Research team. I have also been accepted to the Picademy in August, and will end the summer as a Raspberry Pi certified educator.

I am excited to learn a lot this summer, returning to school with the message that students (and teachers) of all levels can code, program, and there are many opportunities to use these skills within our science curriculum!

Janelle Holland

My name is Janelle Holland.  I am a second grade teacher at Gull Lake Community Schools, Kellogg Elementary!  I first came to KBS the summer of 2015 for Teaching Science Outdoors and have continued to attend the K-12 partnership workshops.  I have brought our 2nd graders to the Agricultural and Ecology Trail and love the experience that it provides.

This summer I am excited to be working with the KBS staff to provide a teacher’s perspective on the Agriculture and Ecology Trail and how it can better serve student and teacher’s needs.  I will also be working on correlating the Trail activities with the Next Generation Science Standards and developing post visit activities for teachers to use in their classrooms.  I am looking forward to digging deeper into the activities of the Agricultural and Ecology Trail and how this experience can work best for students and teachers.

I look forward to sharing what we have developed with teachers during the K-12 Summer Institute.

If you are a K-12 teacher and would like to see some of the products from all of this hard work, please join us for the KBS K-12 Partnership Summer Institute, August 9-11, 2017.  More information and registration.