Courses and workshops

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR INFORMAL EDUCATORS

The following workshops and courses are designed to support lifelong learning and professional development for ocean educators and interpreters working in informal education venues including aquariums, zoos, science and nature centers, museums, and national parks. These programs are offered through Oregon Sea Grant in partnership with the Communicating Ocean Sciences Informal Educators Network and the Center for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence, Pacific Partnerships. Oregon State University faculty and instructors lead all workshops. Both face-to-face and on-line workshops are available:

Face-to-face courses are generally offered on-site for up to 30 participants.
On-line workshops are offered throughout the year for individual participants.
Multi-unit workshops are designed for an entire staff to participate and encourage long-term growth within an organization.

NEW! Oregon Sea Grant is sponsoring a series of web-based presentations entitled "Research and Engagement: Learning from each other". The first discussion topic, "Effective Science Communication" was broadcast live on December 3, 2010. Visit the What's New page to view videos of the discussion.

Face to Face Workshops for Educators
Learning Theories 3 hours	Understanding how people learn can make us better communicators. For this workshop, we compare our own theories of learning and teaching with cognitive, constructivist, and socio-cultural accounts of learning. Hands-on activities help participants articulate their own understanding of what it means to create accessible learning environments for diverse audiences.
Inquiring Minds 3 hours	Inquiry is often promoted as the key to developing lifelong interest in science. But how does inquiry look in informal education settings? Participants in this course examine their own understanding of inquiry, participate in an inquiry activity, and compare inquiry in formal and informal settings.
Promoting Conceptual Understanding 3 hours	Often informal education and interpretation focuses on delivery of surface level content and memorable ideas without addressing underlying conceptual understanding. This course explores strategies for eliciting prior conceptions and developing activities to build strong conceptual understanding in informal, free-choice learning settings.
Designing Activities 3 hours	Designed as a follow-up to the Promoting Conceptual Understanding course, this workshop challenges participants to design new activities for their audiences or redesign existing activities to support inquiry toward conceptual understanding. Participants leave with tools and templates they can use for designing activities with learning outcomes in mind.
Nature and Process of Science for Communicators 3 hours	Much misunderstanding of current ocean and climate science stems from a lack of comfort with the nature and process of science. This course challenges educators and interpreters to articulate their own understanding of the nature of science, presents a model of scientific processes as complex and iterative, and explores strategies for helping free-choice learners grapple with similar questions.
Guided Questioning as a strategy for facilitating learning 6 hours	Participants explore their own understandings of learning and communication and explore tested techniques for facilitating free-choice learning of marine and aquatic science concepts with any audience. In addition to discussing learning cycles and how to use them to promote life long learning and conservation awareness, we explore tools for guided questioning that will: help learners connect new experiences to their prior knowledge, encourage more directed observation and interaction with environments and organisms, help us understand “if they got it”, and help learners reflect on their experiences after they leave our programs.

Face to Face Workshops for Educators

Learning Theories

3 hours

Understanding how people learn can make us better communicators. For this workshop, we compare our own theories of learning and teaching with cognitive, constructivist, and socio-cultural accounts of learning. Hands-on activities help participants articulate their own understanding of what it means to create accessible learning environments for diverse audiences.

Inquiring Minds

3 hours

Inquiry is often promoted as the key to developing lifelong interest in science. But how does inquiry look in informal education settings? Participants in this course examine their own understanding of inquiry, participate in an inquiry activity, and compare inquiry in formal and informal settings.

Promoting Conceptual Understanding

3 hours

Often informal education and interpretation focuses on delivery of surface level content and memorable ideas without addressing underlying conceptual understanding. This course explores strategies for eliciting prior conceptions and developing activities to build strong conceptual understanding in informal, free-choice learning settings.

Designing Activities

3 hours

Designed as a follow-up to the Promoting Conceptual Understanding course, this workshop challenges participants to design new activities for their audiences or redesign existing activities to support inquiry toward conceptual understanding. Participants leave with tools and templates they can use for designing activities with learning outcomes in mind.

Nature and Process of Science for Communicators

3 hours

Much misunderstanding of current ocean and climate science stems from a lack of comfort with the nature and process of science. This course challenges educators and interpreters to articulate their own understanding of the nature of science, presents a model of scientific processes as complex and iterative, and explores strategies for helping free-choice learners grapple with similar questions.

Guided Questioning
as a strategy for facilitating learning

6 hours

Participants explore their own understandings of learning and communication and explore tested techniques for facilitating free-choice learning of marine and aquatic science concepts with any audience. In addition to discussing learning cycles and how to use them to promote life long learning and conservation awareness, we explore tools for guided questioning that will:

help learners connect new experiences to their prior knowledge,
encourage more directed observation and interaction with environments and organisms,
help us understand “if they got it”, and
help learners reflect on their experiences after they leave our programs.

On-line Workshops for Educators
Learning Theories 2 session course	Understanding how people learn can make us better communicators. For this workshop, we compare our own theories of learning and teaching with cognitive, constructivist, and socio-cultural accounts of learning. Hands-on activities help participants articulate their own understanding of what it means to create accessible learning environments for diverse audiences.
Questioning Strategies and Promoting Discussions 2 session course	This course introduces participants to the concepts of learning cycles, discussion maps, and questioning strategies. Participants explore how to use these concepts to promote life long learning and conservation awareness and explore tools for guided questioning that will help learners connect new experiences to their prior knowledge, encourage more directed observation and interaction with environments and organisms, help us understand “if they got it”, and help learners reflect on their experiences after they leave our programs.
Inquiring Minds 2 session course	Inquiry is often promoted as the key to developing lifelong interest in science. But how does inquiry look in informal education settings? Participants in this course examine their own understanding of inquiry, participate in an inquiry activity, and compare inquiry in formal and informal settings.
Promoting Conceptual Understanding 2 session course	Often, informal education and interpretation focuses on delivery of surface level content and memorable ideas without addressing underlying conceptual understanding. This course explores strategies for eliciting prior conceptions and developing activities to build strong conceptual understanding in informal, free-choice learning settings.
Designing Activities 2 session course	Designed as a follow-up to the Promoting Conceptual Understanding course, this workshop challenges participants to design new activities for their audiences or redesign existing activities to support inquiry toward conceptual understanding. Participants leave with tools and templates they can use for designing activities with learning outcomes in mind.
Nature and Process of Science for Communicators 2 session course	Much misunderstanding of current ocean and climate science stems from a lack of comfort with the nature and process of science. This course challenges educators and interpreters to articulate their own understanding of the nature of science, presents a model of scientific processes as complex and iterative, and explores strategies for helping free-choice learners grapple with similar questions.
Beyond the WOW! Helping public audiences make sense of scientific visualizations 2 session course	This two-part workshop examines some of the theoretical issues and empirical work surrounding visualizations as communicative and cognitive tools. Participants work to improving visualizations and develop some common tools, techniques, and questions that can guide our future work.
Conceptual Networks for Ocean Educattion and Interpretation 2 session course	Oceans and coasts exist for people as complex networks of ideas, feelings, and past experiences with physical, social, and cultural bases. This 2-session course focuses on strategies for cueing up those networks and helping people reshape and rework them in informal, free-choice interpretation and education experiences using concept mapping.
Did They Learn Anything? Assessment in free-choice learning 2 session course	Assessment is a typical activity for educators, but how do we assess learning that is driven by learner choice and control? This two-part on-line workshop explores techniques for assessing learning in free-choice, informal environments focusing on collecting useable data for making claims about that learning.

On-line Workshops for Educators

Learning Theories

2 session course

Questioning Strategies and Promoting Discussions

2 session course

This course introduces participants to the concepts of learning cycles, discussion maps, and questioning strategies. Participants explore how to use these concepts to promote life long learning and conservation awareness and explore tools for guided questioning that will

help learners connect new experiences to their prior knowledge,
encourage more directed observation and interaction with environments and organisms,
help us understand “if they got it”, and
help learners reflect on their experiences after they leave our programs.

Inquiring Minds

2 session course

Promoting Conceptual Understanding

2 session course

Often, informal education and interpretation focuses on delivery of surface level content and memorable ideas without addressing underlying conceptual understanding. This course explores strategies for eliciting prior conceptions and developing activities to build strong conceptual understanding in informal, free-choice learning settings.

Designing Activities

2 session course

Nature and Process of Science for Communicators

2 session course

Beyond the WOW!
Helping public audiences make sense of scientific visualizations

2 session course

This two-part workshop examines some of the theoretical issues and empirical work surrounding visualizations as communicative and cognitive tools. Participants work to improving visualizations and develop some common tools, techniques, and questions that can guide our future work.

Conceptual Networks for Ocean Educattion and Interpretation

2 session course

Oceans and coasts exist for people as complex networks of ideas, feelings, and past experiences with physical, social, and cultural bases. This 2-session course focuses on strategies for cueing up those networks and helping people reshape and rework them in informal, free-choice interpretation and education experiences using concept mapping.

Did They Learn Anything?
Assessment in free-choice learning

2 session course

Assessment is a typical activity for educators, but how do we assess learning that is driven by learner choice and control? This two-part on-line workshop explores techniques for assessing learning in free-choice, informal environments focusing on collecting useable data for making claims about that learning.

Multi-unit Workshops for Educators
Reflective Educators Workshop 10 unit course of workshops for whole staff 30 hours, face to face	This IMLS-funded 10-unit course is designed to promote the use of video as a tool for educators’ self-reflection on their teaching and interpretation. It encourages the development of a community of practice within an organization and across the field. The course is appropriate for education staff at aquariums, zoos, science and nature centers and museums. For more information, contact Shawn Rowe (shawn.rowe@oregonstate.edu T: 541-867-0190)
Communicating Ocean Sciences with Informal Audiences 5 unit course 15 hours, face to face	This NSF-funded course is based on the award-winning COSIA course offered at more than 15 universities and colleges nationwide. OSU faculty have modified the 10-week university course to a 5 unit professional development workshop series. The course may be offered in a 1-week intensive format (3-4 hours per day for five days), a five-week format (3-4 hours one day per week for five weeks), or other formats. For more information, contact Heidi Schmoock (heidi.schmoock@oregonstate.edu T: 541-829-9805).

Multi-unit Workshops for Educators

Reflective Educators Workshop

10 unit course of workshops for whole staff

30 hours, face to face

This IMLS-funded 10-unit course is designed to promote the use of video as a tool for educators’ self-reflection on their teaching and interpretation. It encourages the development of a community of practice within an organization and across the field. The course is appropriate for education staff at aquariums, zoos, science and nature centers and museums. For more information, contact Shawn Rowe (shawn.rowe@oregonstate.edu T: 541-867-0190)

Communicating Ocean Sciences with Informal Audiences

5 unit course

15 hours, face to face

This NSF-funded course is based on the award-winning COSIA course offered at more than 15 universities and colleges nationwide. OSU faculty have modified the 10-week university course to a 5 unit professional development workshop series. The course may be offered in a 1-week intensive format (3-4 hours per day for five days), a five-week format (3-4 hours one day per week for five weeks), or other formats. For more information, contact Heidi Schmoock (heidi.schmoock@oregonstate.edu T: 541-829-9805).

GRADUATE PROGRAMS

PH.D. IN FREE-CHOICE/NON-FORMAL SCIENCE EDUCATION

Oregon State University's Department of Science and Math Education is now offering a Ph.D. track in free-choice and non-formal science education.

Information is available at the department's Web site.

M.S. DEGREE IN FREE-CHOICE LEARNING

Oregon State University's Department of Science and Math Education is now offering an MS degree in free-choice learning.

Information is available from the department's Web site.