Professional Learning Opportunities

IN PERSON AT THE MUSEUM

With 35,000 known species and counting, fishes form the largest group of vertebrates. They've been so successful that they have even colonized land! But what even is a fish? At first glance, the question might seem a bit silly. However, if we ask an evolutionary biologist to define the group Fishes, they will probably say that fishes don't exist. In this workshop, participants will engage with museum resources to learn how that claim makes sense in the evolutionary context of the Tree of Life of Vertebrates.

Museum Facilitator: Adriana Aquino and Conor Odell

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IN PERSON AT THE MUSEUM

Learn how to connect your classroom curriculum to the Museum's newest exhibit, Impact: The End of The Age of Dinosaurs.Museum Facilitator: Ben Taylor, Adriana Aquino, and Conor Odell

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IN PERSON AT THE MUSEUM

Wonder is lurking right in our backyard. We will take a little hike over to the Lake in Central Park and collect our own plankton samples and return to the classroom to observe this remarkable phenomenon under the microscope, develop a model of the micro-ecosystem and generate our own questions about our world. Along our journey we will learn a little about the history of science and microscopy and explore the tiny life all around us that makes our world tick.

Museum Facilitators: Jay Holmes and Ben Taylor

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IN PERSON AT THE MUSEUM

Climate change is one of the most urgent global challenges of our time. But how can we teach it in ways that are engaging, inquiry-driven, and grounded in evidence? This professional learning session explores how the American Museum of Natural History addresses climate change through its exhibits and public-facing resources—including videos, interactives, data visualizations, games, and digital tools. Participants will look at digital resources, investigate onsite exhibits and experiences, engage in activities that can be adapted for use in their own classrooms, and discuss ways climate change affects NYC students.

Museum Facilitators: John Sapida and Conor Odell

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IN PERSON AT THE MUSEUM

In this session, educators will build a shared understanding of what AI is, how it works, and how it is shaping museums, classrooms, and everyday work by examining research, use cases, and engaging reflective discussions. We'll explore ethical, creative, and equitable considerations—including bias, privacy, accessibility, and environmental impact—while examining implications for teaching, learning, workforce readiness, and institutional practice in an AI-informed future.

Museum Facilitators: Colleen Owen and John Sapida

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IN PERSON AT THE MUSEUM

During this in-person session, participants will investigate the Urban Heat Island phenomenon. AMNH is situated within a city park and next to one. However, the museum itself, is made of many hard, non-living surfaces. How does a city balance its needs to grow, house people, house industry, with making it a place that is comfortable to do so? How can we build sustainable cities that comfort our inhabitants instead of heat islands that constrict them? By exploring Museum resources, climate data, and exploring our surroundings outside of the museum, participants will gain an understanding of the phenomenon, its effects, and consider mitigation strategies that cities can adopt.

Museum Facilitators: Ben Taylor, Jake Sienko, and Candyce Johnson

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IN PERSON AT THE MUSEUM

Publication is central to the activity of the scientific community, with scientists sharing information about new discoveries and responding to the work of their peers. In this session, participants will learn approaches to introducing articles into classroom learning including studying the anatomy of a scientific paper and participating in literature circles for non-fiction texts. Participants will discuss strategies for both reading and communicating what has been learned for various audiences.

Museum Facilitators: Benjamin Taylor, Jake Sienko, and Jonathan Milard

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IN PERSON AT THE MUSEUM

We will introduce our new, open-access curriculum materials for teaching computational techniques in the context of astrophysics. This scaffolded mini-unit will introduce coding as a tool for scientific inquiry, inviting students who may be unfamiliar with computational thinking to engage in this 21st century skill. Participants will work through the materials alongside a museum astrophysicist and collaborate to establish best-practices for bringing the module into their classrooms, so that students can experience how coding is used to do science, learn new skills relevant to the modern job market, and be exposed to careers in STEM.

Museum Facilitators: Maya Pincus and Sabrina Appel

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IN PERSON AT THE MUSEUM

Museums can be overwhelming to all visitors. They also offer unique and hands-on learning experiences that our students cannot access in the classroom. In this workshop, teachers will learn the benefits of bringing students on the Autism Spectrum to experience museums and share strategies to make these visits as rich and comfortable as possible. Teachers will be exposed to using Strength-Based Models of Disability for planning. This workshop will be co-facilitated by a museum educator and DOE teacher in an ASD Horizon classroom.

Museum Facilitator: Margaret Hoffman
Teacher Facilitator: Courtney Spector

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IN PERSON AT THE MUSEUM

Bird nests have attracted human interest throughout history, both for their beauty and for their importance to birds' life cycles. Although we may know more about birds than any other group of animals, there is still a lot to discover about these wonders of animal architecture, such as the extent to which nest building is based on instinct or reason. In this workshop, participants will engage with the remarkably realistic dioramas and the nest collection in the Education Collection to learn about the diversity of nests through the lens of ecology and evolution.

Museum Facilitators: Adriana Aquino and Conor Odell

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IN PERSON AT THE MUSEUM

During this session, participants will explore the usage of literacy strategies and storytelling in an elementary science classroom and beyond. With a mix of picture books and museum dioramas, participants will engage in the stories of science and nature while considering how to apply this to their classrooms. Participants will have opportunities to build connections between science, engineering practices and literacy skills.

Museum Facilitator: Margaret Hoffman and Bridget Hidalgo

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IN PERSON AT THE MUSEUM

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) identify seven crosscutting concepts (CCCs) as tools for students to understand phenomena from a scientific point of view. Human curiosity and creativity have led cultures throughout the globe to explore phenomena through these concepts for millenia. In this session, participants will learn how scientific practices can be explored in cultural halls at the American Museum of Natural History and identify how the cultural backgrounds of students are assets when discussing topics in science.

Museum Facilitators: Jonathan Milard and fefe yamaguchi

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