Lab Crawl Workshops 2008

As Big Bend residents, we are surrounded by working scientific laboratories. Local scientists, often at the leading edge of their fields, research nearly everything from alligators to zooplankton. This rich environment serves as the perfect backdrop to the summer Lab Crawl workshop series for teachers.

The unique Lab Crawl workshops, offered to Leon County educators at no cost for the second year in a row, are focused around two main objectives: adding to a teacher’s background knowledge of concepts taught in their classrooms, and helping them translate that material into a variety of classroom activities for students K-12.

Teachers sort and catalogue macroinvertibrates to assess the health of Bear Creek Educational Forest during the 2007 Lab Crawl.

This year's workshop has been expanded to two sessions. Each morning, participants will be taken to a working research lab, where they will engage in different aspects of the research being conducted at each institution. Following lunch, participants will work on translating the day’s experience into classroom lessons and activities. Participants will receive a stipend from Leon County Schools, a set of materials to do the activities in their classrooms and the chance to earn 30 in-service points.

Lab Crawl 1

Workshop Dates:
Middle School and High School Teachers: June 9 - 12
Elementary School Teachers: June 16 - 19

The first of the Lab Crawl workshops takes advantage of the following working laboratories in the Big Bend area: the Mag Lab (MRI research), Bear Creek Educational Forest (stream health assessment), Florida State University’s geology department (isotopic dating of rocks) and FSU’s Antarctic Core Research Lab (atmospheric and global climate research).

Lab Crawl 2

Workshop Dates:
Middle School and High School Teachers: June 23 - 26
Elementary School Teachers: June 20 - July 3

The second of the Lab Crawl series will take participants to the following research sites: a private electron microscopy research facility, a reptile research lab (interpretation of fossilized reptile remains), Florida Department of Law Enforcement (crime scene investigations) and the Doyle Conner Agricultural Complex at the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (food/drug quality research and testing).

Even if you have lived in Tallahassee your whole life, you will be surprised at the breadth of research that occurs within walking distance of our own Capital.

Archives

• 2007 Workshop

For more information, contact Pat Dixon at pdixon@magnet.fsu.edu or (850) 644-4707.