This summer and fall, teachers in Arizona, New Mexico and Oregon will have the opportunity to attend a week-long professional development course designed to promote student-centered learning and 21st century skills. Throughout the week, participants will be trained on data-collection technology, create a standards-based unit, plan experiments, learn to create effective assessment tools, and discover how to engage students with scientific inquiry using data collection technology. Teachers will also learn innovative uses of Web 2.0 technologies.
The Intel® Teach Essentials STEM Course is a special pilot that will allow educators to participate in free training. Events are being coordinated through regional education service agencies in Oregon and the Arizona Department of Education. Educators who participate have the option of becoming certified Intel Teach Master Instructors which will allow them to deliver the Essentials Course to other teachers.
Vernier Software & Technology is helping Intel® Teach educators to integrate technology and project-based approaches into Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education as part of its participation in the pilot program in Arizona and Oregon. The Arizona pilot will also be open to teachers from New Mexico schools.
“We are proud to partner with Intel® and serve STEM education with this pilot. Training teachers to integrate science, technology, engineering and math concepts using engaging techniques with probeware is an essential part of our commitment to science education,” said David Vernier, co-founder of Vernier and a former physics teacher.
As part of Vernier’s participation in the pilot, the company is donating a school copy of LoggerPro software, a LabQuest Mini, and several sensors for the subject he or she teaches to each participating educator.
“Our Intel® Teach program has trained more than 370,000 U.S. educators in all 50 states and we are very excited to pilot STEM-specific professional development with Vernier,” said Steve Andrews, U.S. Manager of Intel® Teach. “We anticipate full enrollment in two pilot workshops and we plan to evaluate the pilots and share outcomes via our online teacher community.”
