Keystone Science School (KSS) is offering a 2-day teacher training, Beyond the Classroom: Exploring Environmental Issues, June 6-7, 2019. Teachers will learn the KSS non-biased framework for exploring controversial issues within the classroom. Meals, lodging, and digital copies of all lesson plans are included. CEU’s are also available for an additional cost.
“Polarized” is a word that creeps into almost all aspects of our life. Education can provide students with opportunities for the development of personal opinions and more importantly strategies of collaboration and consensus building. It’s not just about forming opinions but communicating those opinions and being open to a wide variety of perspectives.
For over 46 years, Keystone Science School (KSS) has had the mission of inspiring curiosity and broadening perspectives and been achieving this through our school field trip programs, camping based programs, and summer camp programs. With this mission in mind, we have developed several curricula focused on engaging students in the study of contentious issues.
Through these curricula, students explore all sides of an issue and learn about the importance of meaningful dialogue and collaboration when developing solutions to these controversial topics. We have taken this student curriculum and developed a framework which can be used by any teacher to lead their students in an issue-based unit. For over the last 25 years we have been training teachers on this framework, providing each teacher with the skills and lessons to go into their classroom and explore challenging topics within their classroom.
The next teacher training, Beyond the Classroom: Exploring Environmental Issues will be held on June 6-7, 2019. Teachers will receive curriculum and training to explore local and regional issues using Keystone Science School’s non-biased framework. Participating teachers will receive a complete set of lesson plans allowing teachers to facilitate an issues-based curriculum within their classroom. Teachers are also provided dedicated time towards designing their specific curriculum to be used in their classroom. With the assistance of the Keystone Science School education team, all participating teachers will walk away with their unit planned and ready to implement in their classroom.
Specifically, teachers will learn how to identify stakeholders, conduct field-based research, and gain background information to support policy recommendations within a chosen environmental issue. The closing activity will be a “Town Hall Meeting” which will allow students to collaborate across differing opinions as they develop policy recommendations within the topic they are exploring. We will be using the regional issue of water management in a demonstration of our issues-based curriculum. CEU’s will be available to all teachers through the Colorado School of Mines.
Beyond the Classroom Details
Location: Keystone Science School
Dates: June 6-7, 2019
Cost: $100 with additional cost for CEU’s
More Information: (970) 468-2098 or Support@KeystoneScienceSchool.org
