Professor of Biology and Marine Science Sandra Gilchrist will lead three one-day workshops at New College for science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics K-12 educators in Sarasota and Manatee counties. Gilchrist received a $5,869 grant from the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program to fund the workshops, which can accommodate 15 teachers during each session.
“Each workshop is designed to engage the teachers in connecting impacts of humans on the environment,” said Gilchrist, “and the impact of the environment on humans.”
The grant also provides funding for two students to participate in the project. In addition to helping with field and lab preparations, the students will prepare digital resources the teachers can take with them and incorporate into their curricula.
“As in the past,” explained Gilchrist, “we will continue to use several resources from NOAA … resources from the National Institutes of Health Oceans and Human Health Initiative, VIMS Bridge Ocean Education Teacher Resource Center, and PBS Learning Media, among others. Materials for the workshops will be from free resources available online or available from agencies.”
Gilchrist has partnered with the estuary program to host similar workshops in the past and is incorporating feedback from those sessions into the upcoming programs. Teachers indicated they want to incorporate mobile applications into their classrooms, and Gilchrist is showing them how they can create their own apps or use existing ones to supplement their lessons.