Audubon Arkansas held a weeklong professional development workshop for educators across central Arkansas. The STEM Leadership Academy, led by Audubon Arkansas Director of Education, Mary Smith, focused on hands-on integration of field techniques as well as the real life connections to conceptual, classroom-based science. Participants were encouraged to develop collaborative connections with other local teachers in hopes of creating a team of educators dedicated to incorporating science education with the study of the natural environment. The diverse habitats located in the Audubon Center allowed teachers to develop outdoor projects for students in a variety of locations such as glades, forests, wetlands, and oxbow lakes. The workshop also trained teachers in using field equipment including GPS devices for geocache projects, handheld maps for topography and watershed education, water sensors to measure pH and turbidity, and insect traps. The educators were matched with professional mentors for long-term projects to incorporate students into high level, ongoing research. Among the daily presenters were entomologists, ornithologists, and limnologists, who introduced their own experience as field researchers as a tool for educational outreach.
The group held discussions on the current challenges with science education and ways to improve it as well as new ways to bring advanced field techniques into a classroom setting. Teachers were encouraged to collaborate in promoting advanced classes in ecology and environmental sciences both in their own schools and across the state and Audubon Arkansas will provide further training and support for these initiatives.
The workshop was funded by the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation through the STEM Professional Development program at the Arkansas Science & Technology Authority.