Denver has mild summers with dry heat & manageable, but sometimes unpredictable, temperatures. The best way to plan for Denver weather is to dress in layers. Some recommendations would be to bring a light jacket or sweater for the evenings & a light rain jacket or umbrella for afternoon storms. There can be a difference of as much as 30 degrees Fahrenheit between daytime temperatures & nighttime temperatures! The saying goes… “If you don’t like the weather in Denver… wait 10 minutes!”
It’s my favorite teacher training of the entire year – Science in the Rockies. It’s a three-day workshop held in the foothills just outside of Denver. The dates for this year’s workshop are July 8-10, 2009. The training typically attracts 150-200 elementary and middle school teachers who are looking for unique ways to make science more exciting and meaningful in their classrooms. At the core of the workshop is learning strategies and better practices for integrating science into an educator’s daily teaching routine.
If you’ve ever read my blog before, you know that any experiment I can construct in the aisles of Home Depot is a good experiment. Yes, it’s true, my family – and even my co-workers – have had to drag me out of the store after a full day of experimentation in the plumbing aisle. I can’t help myself… I love hardware store science. The Singing Pipes is one of my favorite classic experiments. My friend and mentor, Doug Hodous, and I perform this “trick” year after year for a captive audience at Science in the Rockies. Read the experiment to find out more and watch the video below… then head out to Home Depot for a little experimenting of your own.
What happens when you put 150 teachers from 23 states and three countries in the same room for three days with a team of instructors who are over-the-top excited about teaching science? Enthusiasm for making science fun spreads like a virus. Concerns about test scores, curriculum changes or the ever-changing pressures of being a teacher seem to vanish. For three days, these teachers put their worries aside and focus on ways to bring wonder, discovery and exploration back into their classrooms.
Not all of the participants who come to Science in the Rockies start out loving science. Hilary Vanderveen admits she was a student who didn’t like science all that much, but this experience taught her how to avoid that attitude in her classroom. Vanderveen believes the key is raising the “I wonder factor” in her students’ minds as they approach various scientific questions.
To the untrained eye, it might look like teaching science is all fun and games, but there’s a serious side to all of this fun. Many of the participants at this year’s event shared the same fears and concerns that were raised even three
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We just wrapped up our first ever MOSAIC science workshop for teachers… and we had a blast. Here’s the idea behind MOSAIC – amazing teachers from diverse backgrounds coming together to share best practices and to learn how to the tools in their classrooms to create unforgettable learning experiences. All of this year’s participants received a special invitation from our workshop team because they had previously attended our week-long Hands-on Science Institute from Regis University or, more recently, they attended a three-day workshop called Science in the Rockies. I as said, this was the first time we ever offered a small-scale, very one-on-one training of this caliber. Judging from response… I think we’ll do it again in 2010.
