Application information for these free institutes is below. Thank you for your interest and see you on the rivers!
In summer 2008, Hamline University's Center for Global Environmental Education (CGEE) will present its acclaimed Rivers Institute, this year on two rivers. The three-day, two-credit field-based course addresses the natural overlap between science processes and content and the skills of literacy. Our natural affinity to water makes rivers and watersheds a useful and familiar context for teaching and learning.
Goal To explore how using rivers as a context can help your students meet specific Minnesota education standards in science and literacy.
Eligibility All 3-8 grade teachers (classroom teachers as well as science specialists) and middle school science and social studies teachers are eligible. Teams of teachers are encouraged to apply. The St. Croix Institute is open only to teachers in schools in the Lower St. Croix Watershed Management District. Students may take only one Rivers Institute per summer.
Structure Participants
- Explore the unique geology of river gorge areas in canoes;
- Experience the power of accurate, richly described scientific observations;
- Participate in learning activities from Project WET, an international K-12 water education program that gives teachers proven classroom tools to teach science and literacy skills;
- Share strategies for helping student "think like a scientist" as they practice the skills of literacy;
- Create plans to extend FOSS and other science kits into field-based investigations in the local environment.
Process The Rivers Institutes take place over three days, with a follow-up online component. Participants in this course will work directly with professionals working on the river to investigate how concepts taught in the classroom are applied in the field. Core concepts in science and literacy will be explored, as well as strategies for integrating curriculum using the river as a context.
To apply, please complete and submit together the registration form and application. Thank you for your interest!
Full scholarships for qualified teachers are provided in part by contributions from the 3M Foundation, Katherine B. Andersen Fund of The Saint Paul Foundation, Patrick and Aimee Butler Family Foundation, Ecolab Foundation, Medtronic Foundation, the Mississippi Watershed Management Organization and Xcel Energy Foundation. With their support we enable hundred of teachers to improve the way they teach science through watershed education, connecting thousands of young people to their natural world.
Questions? Contact CGEE by
email or by phone at 651 523 2591.
