Practice Makes Perfect: MITS Announces the 2014 Professional Development Institutes

The Museum Institute for Teaching Science announces its 2014 Professional Development Summer Institute series.  Eight institutes will be offered in 7 regions of Massachusetts offering professional development opportunities for educators across the Commonwealth.

To be responsive to the interests and needs of elementary, middle and high school educators, MITS has developed three formats for these summer institutes:

• One-week institutes for elementary and middle school educators during which participants visit MITS’ partner organizations and participate in inquiry-based investigations and science content sessions.
• One-week institutes for middle and high school teachers with researchers, guest-lecturers and field trips to field, research and engineering facilities.
• Hybrid institute consisting of online learning modules and a full week of on-site sessions at various MITS partners’ institutions during which participants engage in inquiry-based investigations.

Graduate credit is available for all of the institutes. Credit granting institutions include Cambridge College, Fitchburg State University, Framingham State University and the Massachusetts College for the Liberal Arts.

All of MITS’ Professional Development Institutes are collaborations of science and cultural institutions and organizations within each region.  The education staff of these organizations work together to offer current and relevant science and engineering content and hands-on investigations that can be used in K-12 classrooms.  Activities and science content are aligned to the Massachusetts Science/Technology and Engineering Frameworks and the NGSS Science and Engineering Practices that are essential elements of science instruction.

Our one-week traditional institute will be offered for elementary and middle school educators July 7-11 in the Merrimack and Fitchburg regions with a residential option for the Fitchburg institute. Partners include Mass Audubon’s Broad Meadow Brook Wildlife Sanctuary, Tower Hill Botanical Garden, Nashua River Watershed Alliance, The Tsongas Industrial History Center, The American Textile Museum, and Groundwork Lawrence.

For our one-week content-based institute middle and high school educators will have the choice of participating July 7-11 or July 14-18 in three different regions: Berkshires, Southeastern MA Cape Cod (Buzzards Bay), and Central MA, with a residential option for the institute in Buzzards Bay. Collaborating institutions include the National Marine Life Center, Mass Maritime Academy, Berkshire Museum, Catch the Science Bug, Samson Environmental Center, Armeno Coffee Roaster, Clarion Plastics, Sabic Innovative Plastics and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Building on the success of our 2013 pilot year hybrid courses will be back in full force. This year MITS is offering three hybrid institutes June 30-August 8 (with July 21-25 meeting in person) for elementary and middle school educators. These institutes will allow educators the chance to learn both on-line and in-person through MITS’ collaborating partners. Our 2014 hybrid courses will feature  Mass Audubon’s Drumlin Farms, Stony Brook and Oak Knolls Wildlife Sanctuaries, the National Marine Life Center, Garden in the Woods, the McAuliffe Space Center,  Lloyd Center for the Environment, Buttonwood Park Zoo, Zoo New England, Learning By Design, and the Metropolitan Waterworks Museum.

For more information on the 2014 MITS Summer Professional Development Institutes and other MITS programs visit the MITS website at www.mits.org.

The Museum Institute for Teaching Science specializes in providing hands-on, minds-on, inquiry-based STEM professional development for formal and informal educators.  For more information, visit www.mits.org or call 617-328-1515
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