"The training I received during the Nearby Nature project held at the IU1 Learning Center in California, PA, was awesome...The abundance of resources provided to participants in this two day professional development was like no other," Howard E. Johnson, Charleroi Area Middle School.
On July 21 and 22, IU1 kicked off the first Nearby Nature Professional Development with 6 teachers from surrounding school districts. Throughout the two-day workshop, teachers learned how to incorporate CREATE and other technologies into their classrooms to get students exploring their outdoor environments. Read teacher testimonials below.
"The Nearby Nature workshop was extremely interesting and informative. Ryan and Kevin (ASSET) from the CREATE Lab at CMU shared some really great tools that I cannot wait to integrate into my classroom. The Speck will be a great way to promote student thinking about air quality and the Gigapan will be a fun way to start student conversations that can be transformed into meaningful discussions. It can be challenging to motivate students to actively participate in the classroom in an alternative setting. Some of the tools will be great to try to increase our students want to learn, even if they promote awareness and basic principles. Thanks for sharing your tools with us!"
"The training I received during the Nearby Nature project held last week at the IU1 Learning Center in California, PA, was awesome. The information provided regarding indoor air quality monitoring with the SPECK unit will be put to good use in my classroom, as well as the FlaminGO Water Sensor, which I will implement into my Stream Stewardship program. I especially enjoyed the outdoor activities in the morning (land cover classification) and afternoon (soil testing and cloud identification) utilizing new techniques and equipment to get students actively involved in outdoor ecosystems. The Problem Based Learning information was especially interesting to me as a middle school science teacher because I strive to get my students actively engaged in beneficial activities as I shift more responsibilities directly them, to enhance their own learning experiences. The abundance of resources provided to participants in this two day professional development was like no other and will be utilized to enhance my total teaching repertoire."