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A really fun coincidence!
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At the Mystic Aquarium (only a few miles from the hotel) they are having an "Educator Open House." This may be an opportunity for you to relax a little and see the Mystic aquarium for free! According to their website, "Attendees will have the opportunity to see the aquarium's classrooms, class materials and program outlines, meet the education department staff, explore a behind-the-scenes area and enter to win a free Penguin Encounter program and other marine prizes. In addition, visitors will have the rare opportunity to tour the indoor exhibits after the aquarium is closed and the crowds have left."
Sounds like a lot of fun to me! For more information, check out the Mystic Aquarium Educator Open House event page.
POSTED BY COSEE-OS AT 4:22 PM
Teams are being chosen
Have you ever wondered how the scientists and educators are teamed together in our workshops?
It is not as simple as it may seem. The long questions that participants are asked in their applications to a workshop do have a purpose - to give us some insight into how well an applicant might know a particular concept, or how relevant it may be to their own teaching. We're looking both for concepts that a participant is not completely familiar with (to afford them an opportunity to learn) and ones that are most relevant to the audiences that they are educating. The ocean & climate literacy principles that were matching to are very detailed, but standardized - and we work hard to make sure that scientists and educators will both be learning from the workshop experience. The process starts with looking at the data collected from the applications. We chose eight ocean and climate literacy principles that best align with the research interests of the workshop scientists. The educators who applied for the workshop rated their level of comfort with these principles, and also rated the relevance of these principles to their programs and classrooms. We then find the five "best fitting" principles based on a quantitative analysis of data, and that will help us to propose focus questions for each or the workshop scientists. Matching for the teams comes after this step, and we're looking forward to finding just the right combinations for effective teams. POSTED BY COSEE-OS AT 1:18 PM
So hard to choose!
Phew! Sorting through the applicant pool for this workshop can be challenging because everyone has such interesting educational backgrounds! We had applicants from as far away as Texas, teachers of all grade levels, educators from museums, aquaria and other projects. After much deliberation, we sent out the emails today offering spots to our top picks, and placing additional applicants in a waiting list as alternates. I wish that everyone who applied could attend, but there will be more COSEE workshop opportunities in the future for some of them. I am eagerly awaiting the participant's confirmations.
POSTED BY COSEE-OS AT 11:47 AM
Application period now closed...
Thank you very much to everyone who applied for this workshop opportunity. We got an overwhelming response from educators and the process of selecting participants has begun in earnest. Stay tuned for an email from Carla on the status of your application!
POSTED BY COSEE-OS AT 10:05 AM
Applications now accepted!
At COSEE-Ocean Systems, we are excited to offer a unique workshop for informal and formal educators, hosted by the University of Connecticut. This workshop will pair teams of educators with university research scientists to collaboratively develop tools and concept maps relating to ocean and climate science topics.
The scientists that are attending have a wide breadth of knowledge and research experience, and were chosen to provide content that is linked to the local environment systems. Teachers will leave the workshop with tools and materials that they can use in their own classroom or informal education institution, and the scientists will benefit from having an educator's perspective on their research. You can apply now by selecting the UConn Scientist Educator Collaborative Workshop section under the "Events" tab.
POSTED BY COSEE-OS AT 9:23 AM
