TCU hosts FWISD teachers to learn about environmental issues

Fort Worth, TX

7/18/2008

Some teachers travel over the summer. Some go back to school. One group of teachers in FWISD is participating in a year-long professional development experience to learn more about the environment and sustainable education beginning with a summer environmental academy.

TCU’s Andrews Institute of Mathematics, Science & Technology Education has been awarded two Teacher Quality Enhancement Grants to host an environmental academy. The summer phase will begin July 18 and end August 1. Nineteen teachers from South Hills High School, Rosemont 6th and Rosemont Middle School and 15 teachers from FWISD area elementary schools will participate. The focus of the environmental academy is for science teachers to experience integrated, hands-on approach to learning and teaching techniques in outdoor settings and how to apply them back to the classroom.

Activities of the environmental academy will emphasize using inquiry and outdoor spaces for teaching science. Topics will include lessons on exotic species, insect collecting, guided field hikes, and a biology scavenger hunt. The academy will also include overnight experience at FWISD’s Outdoor Learning Center.

The Andrews Institute was established as a collaborative venture between TCU’s College of Education and the College of Science & Engineering to address, among other things, the issues of teacher education in mathematics and the sciences. The mission of the Andrews Institute is to provide an environment for innovation and change in mathematics, science, and technology education through creative research and teaching by faculty and students at TCU.

For more information on the environmental academy or Andrews Institute, contact Molly Weinburgh, director of the Andrews Institute, at 817-257-6115 or m.weinburgh@tcu.edu.

 

Read the article in the Star-Telegram about the Andrews Institute and the environmental academy.