OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY ACCREDITED TEACHER WORKSHOPS

Oregon Forest Resources Institute Natural Resources Summit Held at Newton Creek Wetlands in Philomath
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On June 14 and 15, 2008, the Philomath School District hosted the OFRI Natural Resources statewide Natural Resource Summit in Philomath. Over 100 teachers, administrators and private educators attended the workshop that featured the work that Philomath Schools, industries and government agencies are doing to educate our youth and the public. The MPNRIC student research site was featured in an all-day workshop entitled “Newton Creek Wetlands: Evaluation of an Ecosystem”.   Philomath High School students, recent graduates and alumni staffed six rotational learning stations. The goal was to model relevant student research investigations and engage teachers in the role of scientists. Stations included aquatic ecosystems, mammal surveys, oak forest habitat analysis, biocontrol of invasive weeds, wetland soils and plants and monitoring insect populations.

In an evaluation survey of the workshop, every teacher who turned in the survey rated the workshop a perfect “4”, indicating that they had learned a lot and enjoyed the experience. Comments such as; “I gained a greater insight into what schools need and I am excited about bringing this type of experience to my classroom and school.  I saw a need for more coordination and partnerships between natural resource agencies and my classroom”, “We need to get the students outside as well as involving other students as teachers for peers.  Natural resources are a big part of our environment and can teach in many subjects”, and “I learned that I need to take students out in nature with a purpose and how to teach the students how to treat the outdoors as a classroom.”  These comments indicate that teachers realize the opportunity that natural resource investigations offer in meeting state mandated science inquiry experiments and that high school students can make important contributions in community service learning projects that involve data gathering, ecosystem management and on-the-ground restoration projects.

Wetlands Workshop for Teachers: Analysis of a Wetland Ecosystem
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During the summer of 2004, MPNRIC and OSU Science Education PartnershipS (SEPS) collaborated to offer a four-day workshop to help teachers work with students to conduct original research outside the classroom. “Wetlands Workshop for Teachers: Analysis of an Ecosystem” attracted twenty teachers from around the state. Four Philomath High School student interns assisted with the workshop and taught lessons in areas of their interest and expertise. In addition to discussing how to insure safe, exciting and productive field experiences for kids, hands-on learning activities focused on water quality, plant ecology, wildlife, GPS/GIS applications, data collection and data analysis.

Teachers unanimously affirmed that the highlight of the workshop was interacting with high school students who were so knowledgeable, passionate and professional in their pursuit of science. One teacher commented that their enthusiasm and dedication helped her realize that she could have much higher expectations of her own students.