Next professional development offering is March 28
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| Tech Valley High School teacher Leah Penniman, standing, aids a teacher during a professional development lesson last week. |
About a dozen educators spent a day recently behind the desks of Tech Valley High School, learning how to integrate biotechnology and the nanosciences in their own classrooms.
The teachers were taking part in the second of three grant-funded professional development days provided by TVHS and the Center for 21st Century Teaching and Learning.
The days are paid for by Hudson Valley Community College's Northeast Advanced Technological Education Center (NEATEC), which also provides participating faculty members with supplies.
Led by TVHS teacher Leah Penniman, the March 14 session on biotechnology and nanoscience led teachers through a process of creating projects for students that focused on how harmful bacteria or other microbes can be reduced or eliminated from medical devices. The projects used the device’s surface topography or incorporated specific nanoparticles into the material itself to reduce the amount of bacteria on the devices. The projects mirror those that TVHS students have been completing for the past several years.
Teachers completed the unit and left with the equipment necessary to implement the project in their respective classrooms.
The next nanotech workshop is scheduled for March 28, with the subject being chemistry and nanoscience.
The curricula for the workshops were developed by Tech Valley High faculty in conjunction with UAlbany’s College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, RPI and Hudson Valley Community College faculty, and is designed to “introduce students to new concepts, using the lens of nanoscale science to explore traditional science disciplines,” said TVHS teacher Diana “Dee” Weldon.
The workshops are being delivered not only in person at TVHS, but to other teachers through a Tandberg VC distance learning unit that was funded by a grant from The Bender Scientific Fund of the Community Foundation for the Greater Capital Region.
For specifics on the
training sessions, go to:
http://www.techvalleyhigh.org/PDFs/January_2012/Nano_curriculum_flyer.pdf.
“With the Tech Valley region
poised to become a global nanoscience center, it is crucial for the
region’s students to become acquainted with core concepts in this
new field of science,” said Raona Roy, director of institutional
advance at TVHS.
For a complete list of professional development opportunities, follow this link:
http://www.techvalleyhigh.org/Miscellaneous_Pages/Dissemination_Info.html
