Summer Environmental Science Institutes for Teachers
As part of its outreach work to K-12 teachers and students, the
EMSI has co-sponsored an Environmental Sciences Institute for Teachers
every summer since 1999. The first two week-long institutes, held in June
1999 and August 2000 at Biosphere 2,
were taught by a chemistry professor and a master high school science
teacher and were attended by teachers from all over the country. They use
lectures and hands-on workshops both in the lab and in the field to help teachers introduce measurements and techniques in support of environmental studies into their own curricula. The workshops were designed around dedicated laboratory hardware that allows the participants to measure important parameters such as conductivity, pH, CO2, nitrogen oxides, CH4, humidity, and temperature in soils, in run-off, and in the atmosphere within the seven biomes of Biosphere 2. The teachers who participate also gain experience using graphing calculators,
probes, CBL equipment, and various pieces of computer software. The
institutes were co-sponsored by Texas Instruments, who collaborated with EMSI on hardware, software, and the dedicated probes.
The Summer 2002 institute was held in New York City in July of
2002. It included students as well as teachers, with
each teacher recruiting a student to bring with him or her. The format continued to be project-based. Lab work was done in Columbia's chemistry labs, which are the sites of real chemical research, and field work was done in various locations throughout the city. The subject of the summer's research was water, and the curriculum was constructed so that it can be easily adapted for use in other regions of the country. The Summer 2002 institute was sponsored by Vernier, whose interface will work with any calculator or computer and whose products are more commonly found in K-12 schools.
For more information about the Environmental Science Institutes, please contact Professor Len Fine at fine@chem.columbia.edu.