Summer professional development for teachers in grades 3-8

Massachusetts Professional Development Institute

Title: Student Conceptions in Physical Science
Date: July 16-19 (Tues.-Fri.) and July 22-24(M-W)
Time: 8:30 am-3:00pm; one afternoon 4-7pm in fall
Location: Worcester State University, Fuller Room, Student Center
Credits: 3 graduate credits from Worcester State College @$100/credit /67.5 PDP’s
Information: Register here, and contact Sandra Mayrand for more information.

This course (intended for grade 3-8 teachers) will focus on identifying and developing students' conceptual thinking about physical science, whether concrete, emerging, or mis-constructed. Participating teachers will see how to support the connection and development of concepts across and within grade spans by actively engaging with colleagues in investigations. They will learn about tools, strategies and approaches to assess students' initial ideas, including possible misconceptions. Course participants will learn how to plan for and support student learning to advance student conceptual thinking in productive ways as they learn science. Multiple resources will be used for effective planning and instruction, including the Massachusetts Science Curriculum Standards, formative assessments, differentiation strategies, models of student work, learning progressions and strand maps. Through this course participating teachers will also deepen their fundamental knowledge in physical science concepts and learn how students’ conceptual thinking develops in: Force and Motion, Properties of Matter, and Energy Transformation.