C's to Shining C

A second project I am working on is the Mathematics and Science Partnership (MSP) project: C's to Shining C :Connecting Climate to Curriculum (C2C).  It is co-facilitated by The Challenger Learning Center of Maine and UMaine.  My position is to help with the twice a month workshop sessions.

We had our first sessions last month, and are preparing for Octobers meetings.  We are going to be working on the concepts of density, pressure, and buoyancy and connecting these to climate and climate change.  Over the summer I attended the COSEE-OS' Teaching Science by Ocean Inquiry workshop in preparation to help run some of the same labs this fall.  This week I will review the lab setups.

In the spirit of 'practicing what you preach', we are going to have the participating teachers begin construction on a physical representation of a conceptual structure they can use to 'house' the knowledge they will collect throughout the year. Last month we focused on pedagogy issues and discussed the advantage of students having a framework in which to solidify new information and establish connections.  I will be leading a session on Saturday to guide our teachers in creating their own framework on climate change, starting with the concepts we explore in the labs.