South Shore Natural Science Center to hold climate change workshops for 3rd to 6th grade teachers
NORWELL | September 5, 2019: The South Shore Natural Science Center, celebrating its 54th year of service to the South Shore, is proud to announce that it will hold multiple two-day workshops for elementary and middle school teachers this fall.
This series of two-day workshops is designed to introduce third-to-sixth grade teachers to climate change programs and projects they can conduct in their classrooms and schoolyards to excite, educate and engage their students about environmental science, and through which students may see the effects of climate change in the natural world. The content and materials will support the Massachusetts STE Frameworks.
Teachers will be visited by guest lecturers from our partner environmental education and conservation organizations and attend field trips to local institutions conducting climate change research and facilitating Citizen Science projects. Working in groups, teachers will be challenged to develop and facilitate the implementation of a hands-on participatory climate change project for families to use as a demonstration at an SSNSC public program in early December 2019.
A $25 non-refundable registration fee will be assessed per workshop. Each participant will receive a curriculum kit tailored to the workshop theme, a $100 stipend for classroom use and 15 PDPs per workshop. Lunch is provided. Programs will be held on Fridays and Saturdays, and include the following themes: Phenology and Migratory Patterns, September 20 and 21, with Manomet Center for Conservation Science, Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary and Mass Audubon’s Museum of American Bird Art; Watershed and Coastal Impacts, October 4 and 5, with North and South Rivers Watershed Association, Cohasset Center for Student Coastal Research and Holly Hill Farm; Weather vs. Climate, October 18 and 19, with meteorologist Rob Gilman and a field trip to the Blue Hill Weather Observatory; Using Citizen Science to Introduce Climate Change, November 1 and 2, with naturalist and historian John Galluzzo, and colleagues from Mass Audubon; and Climate Change & Inquiry-based Programming, November 15 and 16, with the Wade Institute for Science Education.
To apply for the program, please fill out the application form found on www.southshorenaturalsciencecenter.org. Please direct any questions to Chris Jacobs, Executive Director, at 781-659-2559 or cjacobs@ssymca.org. This program is funded by Battelle and the Cedar Tree Foundation.
The South Shore YMCA is a charity serving eleven local communities: Quincy, Randolph, Weymouth, Braintree, Milton, Hingham, Hull, Cohasset, Scituate, Norwell and Hanover. For information on how to support its work through volunteering or donations, contact Mary Orne at morne@ssymca.org or 781-264-9400 ext. 3306. Financial Assistance is a Y community benefit available to all families in need, applicable to all Y programs and services.