Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

Using Inquiry To Teach Microscope Skills, Susan Styer

Faculty Publications & Research

One of the first lab activities often done in a high school biology course is learning to use the microscope. As it is typically described in laboratory manuals, there is no inquiry involved in this activity. Students learn the parts of the microscope and information explaining its operation. There may be a review of the metric system. Then students examine cells, often to observe the difference between plant and animal cells. Students may be instructed to prepare wet mounts and do simple staining. All of these are important skills to have in order to use the microscope correctly, but it …

Session D-2: Including World Religions In World History, Christian D. Nokkentved

Professional Learning Day

The major religions of the world are fascinating and belong in world history curricula, but can be challenging; especially if students are to be given the opportunity to read in the scriptures of diverse religions. This presentation will provide participants with a structure and suggested resources for setting up learning experiences that will facilitate student discussion of basic texts.

Session E-1: Self-Paced Proficiency Based Physics – Updates And Extensions, Brooke Schmidt, Eric Hawker

Professional Learning Day

This presentation will cover how a typical introductory physics course has been transformed into one that is self-paced and proficiency graded. The changes were made so that each student would be challenged at his/her level and therefore be more engaged in the course. This structure allows the teacher to individualize instruction of the students. The presentation will also cover adjustments that were made to this model based on student feedback and experiences. The model used to make this course self-paced and proficiency graded should be transferable to other courses.

Session E-5: Anatomy Of A Learning Network, Tracy Miller

Professional Learning Day

In recent news articles, debates have challenged the quality of online classes vs. face-to-face. Participants will “storyboard” an online experience based off a typical classroom lesson and discover if they can create their own online extension activity. Get ready to work your creativity muscle in hopes of navigating the online frontier. March 2^nd, be part of a learning network! If you liked “Putting the ‘e’ in Learning” from last year, consider this your next step.

Session C-1: The U .S. Civil War: Global Perspectives, Steven Buenning

Professional Learning Day

In Lincoln’s words, the Civil War would preserve the United States as “the last, best hope of earth”. A crucial turning point in U.S. history, the Civil War, was also an important global event. Viewed from broader economic, political, cultural, and social perspectives, the causes and consequences of the Civil War resonated worldwide. By using recent scholarship, this session will provide a context for helping students understand the place of the Civil War in global history. An original, document-based question will be presented, along with teaching methods developed by an AP history exam reader.

Session C-2: Social Media And Crowdsourcing For Educators, Shawn Mccusker

Professional Learning Day

What if you had the ability to brainstorm with the best educators from around the country, sharing ideas, materials and strategies to create the best lessons possible? This is a reality. Using social media like Twitter and various web technology, teachers from all fields are generating peer reviewed and "crowd-sourced" resources that are available for free online. This process has recently been featured in the New York Times and the Washington Post as the leading edge in educational professional development. Most importantly it will save you time. Find the best resources faster and have more time for student instruction. Learn …

Session D-6: Teaching Modern Physics, Peter Dong

Professional Learning Day

Modern physics is an excellent way to get students interested in physics – the “weirdness” of relativity and quantum mechanics captures the imagination. This presentation discusses how to teach the subject in a way that encourages this interest. This year’s session will focus on teaching quantum mechanics in a way that is interesting to students and avoids common misconceptions.

Session D-3: Discrete Mathematics: A Great Curriculum Connector, Donald Porzio

Professional Learning Day

Many topics that fall under the umbrella of Discrete Mathematics cut across the traditional high school curriculum areas of algebra, geometry, and pre-calculus. Come try some classroom-ready hands-on Discrete Mathematics activities that illustrate the true interconnectedness of mathematics.

Session B-1: The Prize: Teaching Early Illinois History To Secondary School Students, Claiborne A. Skinner Jr.

Professional Learning Day

This presentation will outline ways in which Illinois can be placed at the center of the story of colonial America and the events which triggered the Revolutionary War. The discussion will be accompanied by a bibliography of relevant secondary readings for instructors, lists of public domain primary sources for students, websites where these can be obtained, lists of Illinois historical sites connected to these materials, and suggestions as to how to interpret these sites for students.

Session B-2: Docsteach – An Online Tool For Teaching With National Archives Documents, Kristina Maldre

Professional Learning Day

The latest National Archives web site, DOCSTEACH, invites teachers to explore thousands of documents in a variety of media from the National Archives holdings – items such as George Washington’s draft of the Constitution, photographs capturing WPA and Civil Rights activities across the country, and Ronald Reagan’s “Evil Empire” speech. This session will provide educators with an overview of DOCSTEACH and help prepare them to create and use primary-source based, interactive learning activities with their students.

Session C-1: What Goes Up Must Come Down – Are All Parachutes Created Equal, Mary Lou Lipscomb, Elizabeth Martinez

Professional Learning Day

Participants engage in a guided inquiry: making a parachute and investigating its falling behavior; then develop a list of questions about the behaviors and determine which are testable. Next, small groups each choose one question to test and do so. Finally participants reflect on the process skills used. Although designed as a professional development activity, the lesson may be used with students to focus on testable questions or process skills necessary for scientific investigation.

Session C-2: Putting The “E” In Learning, Tracy Miller

Professional Learning Day

Find out about web resources you can use with your class. Think creatively in designing an interactive environment to help foster collaborative teamwork. Wikis, blogs and electronic portfolios: what it all means, and how to meet students’ learning objectives.

Session A-1: Environmental Chemistry – Chemistry In Context, Branson Lawrence

Professional Learning Day

The use of the ACS curriculum combined with group and individual projects to teach entry level chemistry through the context of environmental chemistry.

Session A-1: The Cuban Missile Crisis: Understanding The Impact Of Personality On Leadership, Lee Eysturlid

Professional Learning Day

This session will explore the impact of the various types of personalities that were involved in the Cuban Missile Crisis. These differences had a direct impact on the way each leader reacted to the stresses and demands of the crisis as well as their own political objectives. Attendees will come away with an immediately teachable topic on world leadership and the Cuban Crisis as an event.

Session A-2: Leaders In World History: Role Play And Essay Writing, Steven Buenning

Professional Learning Day

Costumed students role-play world leaders in a classroom-tested simulation. This extended exercise builds skills in critical thinking, research, essay writing, oral communication, small group interaction and technological application. In the process, students develop their own ideas about the characteristics of a good leader.

Preparing Students For Careers That Do Not Yet Exist, Glenn W. "Max" Mcgee

Publications & Research

The Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA), as a self-described "teaching and learning laboratory for imagination and inquiry," has a history of pursuing innovations closely aligned with the vision and framework of the National Science Education Standards. Innovations include both methods and materials for inquiry-based student instruction as well as for delivering professional development for pre-service and practicing teachers. Instructional innovations described include yearlong student inquiry and research projects (SIR), self-paced physics instruction, student-driven energy and engineering projects, instruction in innovation and entrepreneurialism, and a host of student-led outreach activities to "ignite and nurture creative, ethical, scientific minds of students …

Our History: Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy

IMSA History

The internationally recognized Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA) develops creative, ethical leaders in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. As a teaching and learning laboratory created by the State of Illinois, IMSA enrolls academically talented Illinois students (grades 10-12) in its advanced, residential college preparatory program, and it serves thousands of educators and students in Illinois and beyond through innovative instructional programs that foster imagination and inquiry. IMSA also advances education through research, groundbreaking ventures and strategic partnerships.

Excellent Adventures In Global Collaboration, Glenn W. "Max" Mcgee, Aracelys Rios

Publications & Research

No abstract provided.

Discovering And Developing Diverse Stem Talent: Enabling Academically Talented Urban Youth To Flourish, Stephanie Pace Marshall, Glenn W. "Max" Mcgee, Eric Mclaren, Catherine C. Veal

Publications & Research

The Growing Excellence Gap in K-12 Education, Plucker, Burroughs, and Song (2010) provided compelling evidence that "the presence of an excellence gap is demonstrated on both national and state assessments of student performance," with "economically disadvantaged, English Language Learners, and historically underprivileged minorities representing a smaller proportion of students scoring at the highest levels of achievement" (p. 28). Three "case stories" of students from IMSA illuminate some of the (a) challenges and opportunities inherent in igniting STEM talent in urban youth and ensuring their success; (b) principles for designing and creating learning experiences and environments that ignite and nurture the …

Re-Imagining Specialized Stem Academies: Igniting And Nurturing ‘Decidedly Different Minds,’ By Design, Stephanie Pace Marshall

Publications & Research

This article offers a personal vision and conceptual design for reimagining specialized science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) academies designed to nurture decidedly different STEM minds and ignite a new generation of global STEM talent, innovation, and entrepreneurial leadership. This design enables students to engage actively in the authentic work, modes of inquiry, and practices that distinguish four STEM learning cultures, environments, and communities: (a) Inquiry and Research Laboratory and Interdisciplinary Learning Center—develops disciplinary, interdisciplinary, and inquiry-based thinking; (b) Innovation Incubator and Design Studio—ignites innovative and design-based thinking; (c) Global Leadership and Social Entrepreneurship Institute—nurtures change leadership and systems-based thinking; …

Beyond Competition--Innovation For A Sustainable Future, Stephanie Pace Marshall

Publications & Research

Dr. Marshall outlines her belief that the current context and conditions of schooling are far too constrained, prescribed and risk-averse for our children’s imagination, and as a result, actually mitigate against innovative thinking and creative and collaborative problem-solving. Authentic learning is a live encounter. She feels that we cannot mandate, punish or test our children into greatness and provides recommendations for educational transformation--not reform--to design the educational experiences needed by today's children.

Blessed Unrest: The Power Of Unreasonable People To Change The World, Stephanie Pace Marshall

Publications & Research

In her keynote address at the 2008 NCSSSMST Professional Conference, Dr. Stephanie Pace Marshall addresses what work can be done with the collective resources of its Consortium members which beg to be shared and connected--and also explores what the source of "...our Blessed Unrest that will give us the courage to become unreasonable advocates for our children and for STEM transformation?"

Fostering Preservice Teacher Identity In Science Through A Student-Selected Project, D.J. Wink, J. Ellefson, M. Nishimura, D. Perry, S. Wenzel, Jeong Hwang Choe

Faculty Publications & Research

This article addresses the problem of authentic student engagement in the science classroom by incorporating a semester long research and writing assignment that enables students to investigate scientific topics related to strong personal, career, or health interests.

Managing Scarce Resources In Training Projects, Richard D. Busby, James J. Goldsmith

Publications & Research

Every training organization has a limited amount of people, time and/or money available to complete a project, and this limited resource availability undoubtedly will affect the scope and success of projects the organization undertakes. Busby and Goldsmith discuss the knowledge and skills thing in the instructional design field will need to successfully address these circumstances. The authors begin the chapter by defining what they mean by "resources" and "resource scarcity," and then go on to describe how resource availability and the scope of a project affect one another. They then discuss such basic economic concepts as supply and demand and …

Imsa20: Bold Ideas, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy

IMSA History

In the mid 1980s, the state of Illinois, recognizing a sharply increased need for highly skilled leaders in mathematics, science and technology, founded the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy®. Twenty years later, the national demand for mathematics, science and technology leaders has never been greater. The National Academies report - Rising Above the Gathering Storm and President Bush's American Competitiveness Initiative - address the growing concern that the United States is losing its competitive advantage as countries abroad invest heavily in the education and training of scientists and engineers. Both initiatives call for increased commitments in scientific research and in …

The Emeritus Teacher, Raymond J. Dagenais, Betty E. Steffy, Billie J. Enz

Publications & Research

Mary, Clara, and Harry are part of what they call "the gray brigade." They met 6 years ago at a Retired Teachers Association meeting, warmed up to one another immediately, and began a lasting friendship. The trio has reached the emeritus phase of the Life Cycle of the Career Teacher model. They cared passionately about their profession when they were teachers, and that passion continues today. All are actively involved in helping schools improve and children succeed. Each of them goes about this quest in a very different way. Mary is a political activist well known in the halls of …

The Power Of An Idea..., Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy

IMSA History

It is our privilege to share with you the First Decade Report of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, an educational laboratory engaged in serious inquiry about critical issues of teaching and learning.

Ten years ago, IMSA opened its doors with 210 students, 12 faculty members, 21 courses, no residence halls, no computers, no external programs, many unanswered questions and an uncertain future. During our early years, we faced many challenges; these strengthened our resolve and deepened our commitment to transform teaching and learning in mathematics, science and technology.

While IMSA is still a very young enterprise, in ten short …