During these three days, a group of 11 middle school teachers from the New York State areas of Syracuse, Tully, Ithaca and New York City met in Clark Hall (the new home to CLASSE Outreach) and went through a series of science and engineering activities put together by the outreach team.
On the first day of the workshop, CBB officially launched the two new middle school lending library activities for the STEP UP! Outreach Program, on electromagnets and light energy. Teachers were trained on how to facilitate these activities in the classroom and built a loudspeaker and a solar-powered device by the end of the day. Teachers also listened to a presentation on photocathodes research by Chris Pierce, CBB graduate student, followed by a tour of electron beam instrumentation and diagnostic equipment located in his laboratory.
The following two days were spent testing two new ideas for lending library activities on DIY Circuits and Microscopy applications. The outreach team obtained great feedback from the teachers on how to implement these ideas in the classroom and align them to current curriculum. During this workshop, the outreach team announced their new collaboration with the Cornell Institute for Biology Teachers (CIBT) and introduced Florianna Blanton as the new high school Lending Librarian at CLASSE. Florianna presented the CIBT lab on microscopy and cell biology. Richard Gillilan, CHESS Research Scientist, gave a talk on optics and demonstrated using a water drop as a lens to look at specimens floating in water using a green laser beam.
On the last day, the How-A-Microscope-Works activity developed by the Cornell Center for Materials Research was presented by Berit Goodge and CBB graduate student Duncan Sutherland, followed by a tour of their electron microscopy lab.
It was a very productive and fruitful Snapshot Workshop. Teachers discussed ways to integrate these activities in their science and technology classrooms to address the New York State Science Learning Standards. It also provided the team with helpful feedback to improve our lessons and reach a broader audience.
