In partnership with the University of Wyoming, the year-long Place Learning and Civic Engagement professional development program begins its second year. The PLACE program serves elementary school teachers from Cheyenne, Laramie, Casper, and Saratoga, WY by providing 4 workshops over the course of a calendar year focused on teaching science in a place-based way.
This year the content topic of the program is energy. Twenty-one teachers from the four communities attended a 7-day workshop in Jackson at the end of June to kick-off the year-long program. Over the course of the 7 days, teachers learned about where their energy comes from, toured to the Jonah Field and Pinedale Anticline Natural Gas fields near Pinedale, WY, and explored the movement of energy through ecosystems.
Now, Stephanie Lewis & I from Teton Science Schools and Dr. Kate Welsh from the University of WY are traveling to the teachers’ home communities to help them explore energy production, use and movement near home.
Throughout the school year, teachers will receive support in the form of outreach programs taught in their schools, a NEED Project workshop, paid planning days, and a two-day closing retreat in April.
