Professional Learning Opportunities

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 Facilitators: 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, Brianna Harlan, and fefe yamaguchi

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