NASA Professional Development Opportunities

Register Today for IPY/NSTA Web Seminars -- Arctic and Antarctic Living Systems
Join NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Science Foundation and the National Science Teachers Association for three, free Web seminars on the topic of the International Polar Year. Designed for educators of grades 5-8, the seminars will focus on land and marine adaptations to extreme conditions, species migration, and the role of humans in polar ecosystems. The presenters will share their expertise, answer questions from the participants and provide information regarding Web sites that students can use in the classroom.

The Web seminars are 90-minute, live professional development sessions that use online learning technologies to allow participants to interact with nat ionally acclaimed experts, scientists, engineers and education specialists funded by NASA, NOAA and NSF. Each Web seminar is a unique, stand-alone program. Archives of the Web seminars and the presenters’ presentations will be available online.

The Web seminars in this series are scheduled for Dec. 30, 2007, Jan. 17 and Jan. 24, 2008. Each seminar will begin at 6:30 p.m. EDT.

Online registration for each is now open.
http://learningcenter.nsta.org/products/symposia_seminars/fall07/IPY_Birmingham/webseminar.aspx

Astronomy Professional Development for Teachers
The Center for Astronomy Education announces a series of educator workshops for astronomy educators. Advanced workshops are available for participants who have taken part in previous CAE workshops.

The Teaching Excellence Workshops focus on learning how to create productive learner-centered teaching environments for college-level introductory astronomy classes. Participants will achieve this through reviewing research on the nature of teaching and learning; setting course goals and objectives; and using interactive lectures, peer instruction, engaging demonstrations, collaborative groups, lecture-tutorials, ranking tasks, and online homework systems. These workshops culminate with participants learning how to implement these teaching strategies into effective learning sequences for the learner-centered classroom.

One-day Regional Teaching Exchanges are also available. The Regional Exchanges bring past workshop participants, as well as those local to a particular region who were not able to participate in a past workshop, the opportunity to network with their local community of instructors.

Jan. 6-7, 2008 -- Austin, Texas
Improving the College Introductory Astronomy Survey Course for Non-Science Majors Through Active Learning: A Tier I (Introductory) Workshop

Mar. 1-2, 2008 -- Orange, Calif.
Advanced Strategies for Creating a Learner-Centered Introductory College Astronomy Course: A Tier II (Advanced) Workshop

Mar. 14-15, 2008 -- Berkeley, Calif.
Improving the College Introductory Astronomy Survey Course for Non-Science Majors Through Active Learning: A Tier I (Introductory) Workshop for Future Instructors

Apr. 12-13, 2008 -- Jamestown, N.C.
Improving the College Introductory Astronomy Survey Course for Non-Science Majors Through Active Learning: A Tier I (Introductory) Workshop

Apr. 12, 2008 -- Kalamazoo, Mich.
NASA CAE Great Lakes Regional Teaching Exchange

May 31-June 1, 2008 -- St. Louis, Mo.
Improving the College Introductory Astronomy Survey Course for Non-Science Majors Through Active Learning: A Tier I (Introductory) Workshop

July/August/Sept. (Dates to be Determined) -- Cleveland, Ohio
Improving the College Introductory Astronomy Survey Course for Non-Science Majors Through Active Learning: A Tier I (Introductory) Workshop

For more information and to register for workshops online, visit
http://astronomy101.jpl.nasa.gov/workshops/index.cfm