Professional Development

We offer standard and custom-designed professional development trainings.  Focus is on strengthening content knowledge and teaching methods in earth, life, and physical sciences, while incorporating the best practices of environmental education in your classroom. See listing below for upcoming and ongoing professional development offerings.

Teaching STEM Outdoors 

10 teachers in Grades K-5
One 90 minute session
Fee: $300.00 plus travel

Are you looking for creative and innovative ways to teach outdoors at your school? What new techniques will you need to have in your toolkit to create a supportive structure for your class?  Outdoor programs are a way of connecting students to their surroundings in ways that are meaningful to their lives.  Being outdoors is also known to reduce anxiety and increase focus in children, as well as increase their interest in their local environment.

This workshop will demonstrate how to guide your students to develop strong STEM identities, skills and practices. A Hitchcock educator will work with you on your own school grounds to find learning opportunities, including habitats to explore and organisms to discover. We will identify safety hazards and ways of reducing or working around these while teaching outside. And we will share engaging activities and management strategies to ensure that your outdoor instructional time meets your curriculum goals.

We will model active explorations of:

• Ecosystem dynamics
• Plant and animal adaptations
• Engineering and design challenges 

Math and writing practices as well as literature connections will be woven throughout our outdoor discoveries. You will leave with many tools and best practices to share with your colleagues.

Registration and Questions
For more information on trainings, please contact Dan Butterworth, Education Program Manager via email or 413-256-6006.

Trainings

The following trainings are designed to assist teachers in implementing curriculum units that have been  developed by Hitchcock Center educators and can be custom-designed to meet your school’s professional development needs, whether it be a two, six or 10+ hour training. These units are aligned with the national NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards) and are environment-based. They aim to make learning relevant to students’ lives and to prepare them to be critical thinkers and 21st century problem solvers. Workshops can be held at your school site or at the Hitchcock Center.

Program Fees
Professional Development Training: $200 per hour + travel fee
Consulting Fee: $150 per hour + travel fee

Registration and Questions
For more information on trainings, please contact Dan Butterworth, Education Program Manager via email or 413-256-6006.

Implementing New Science Units in Your School

• Making and Tinkering: Discovery-based STEM Learning for Teachers – Grades: PreK-5 (3 hr. session)
  Making and Tinkering is hands-on Science and Engineering. It can be an effective means to engage in STEM concepts and practices. It provides opportunities to make discoveries across disciplines and content areas as well as connections between art, science, and technology. As the first step to Engineering and Design, tinkering allows children to learn about the properties of materials and what tools can do. Tinkering is a fun and exciting way to engage in serious learning and problem-solving.
• Creativity, Imagination and Big Ideas! Grades: PreK-2 (2 hr. session)
  The future demands creative problem solvers, innovators, scientists, engineers and collaborators. How do we encourage children to expand on their ideas, ask good questions and find solutions? Giving students the time and support to generate and explore through imagination and play allows for a creative and open process whereby new and exciting ideas may emerge. In this workshop we will use simple materials to practice strategies for expanding our own ideas in order to help us model this process with students.
• Digital Ecology (2 hr. session)
  There are many benefits of using photography as an integral part of a child’s education. The camera is a great tool for collecting data and promoting observation. Images can be used to recall information, analyze data, demonstrate conclusions, and reflect on the process of learning. Digital photography involves using the camera to make ideas visible, to communicate and collaborate with each other, and to help children explore and understand the natural world around them.
• The Pond Ecosystem – Grade 3
  This unit explores ecosystem concepts through the study of a pond. Through a story, students learn about the interconnections between plants, animals and human activity in an aquatic system. Students visit a pond, collect data, observe animal adaptations and create a pond food web. Using their observations, drawings and research, students create a pond field guide to share with the school community.
• Energy is Electrifying! – Grade 4
  This award-winning curriculum will help you and your students understand where our energy comes from in Massachusetts and how it is generated. You will explore both renewable and non-renewable energy sources and generate electricity using a simple generator, solar collectors, wind turbines, and hydro turbines. There is an emphasis on sustainable technologies and carbon emissions, and making the connection between human activities and climate change. The materials used in the workshop are affordable and sturdy for use by students!
• The Hydrosphere, Water, and How We Use It – Grade 5
  Students explore the Earth’s major systems and then focus on the hydrosphere. They research Earth’s water and investigate how they themselves get water. They carry out an inventory of how much water their classroom (or school) is currently using. This leads to an Engineering Design process, whereby students work in groups to design water conservation approaches for their classroom or school. Students implement their inventions and track subsequent water use and any changes resulting from their designs.
• The Practices of STEM Learning
  In this training teachers will engage in leaning experiences that model STEM practices. We will explore how to make the connections with science, technology, engineering and math in the classroom and outdoors. Participants will play games, investigate inquiries, learn songs, and explore outdoor mini-trips that develop important science skills and attitudes.

Free online curriculum units

Hitchcock Center education staff have developed the following comprehensive curriculum units to teach environmental concepts to young people:
The Pond Ecosystem – Grade 3
Energy is Electrifying!! – Grade 4
Hydroshphere, Water and How We Use It – Grade 5

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