Re-Charging Teachers at GEAR UP Science Day 2022
STEM educators from USU STARS! GEAR UP schools explored new ways to engage students and deepen their understanding of abstract concepts at our annual science workshop. GEAR UP Science Day invites teachers of science, physics, biology, and chemistry to get involved and learn new lessons.
GEAR UP Science day included a hominid skull activity using 3D printed skulls.
Balloons are used in a lesson about equilibrium.
Teachers are shown the difference between weight and mass using a yardstick and a phone app.
Teachers from schools across the USU STARS! GEAR UP program grants two, three, and four gathered at Oak Canyon Junior High School in Lindon, UT, on Mar 5. Duane Merrell, teaching professor in the physics department at Brigham Young University, returned to lead activities focused on life and physical sciences.
Merrell has many years of experience leading USU STARS! GEAR UP and Utah Science Teachers Association (UtSTA) sponsored teacher workshops. Other instructors included Clint Goldman, Josh Stowers, and Matt Wooley from BYU, and Darren Hodges, a teacher from Oak Canyon Junior High. Activities this year included lessons on equilibrium, fidget spinner hot wheels cars, hominid skulls, the biology of skin color, and mass is fundamental.
One of the reasons that this training is so popular is that it offers teachers the chance to be students for a day. Participants are excited to learn new activities while imagining how each lesson will be received in their own classrooms. After the Science Day workshop, each lesson packet is made available to attendees. Teachers then work directly with their school’s GEAR UP site coordinators to order the materials they need to replicate the lessons in their classrooms.
“I really liked the mass balance (using a yardstick and phone app) because it didn't rely on weight to measure mass, '' said Liz Richey, Cottonwood High School physics and math teacher. “It will be a really great activity for students to help them understand the difference between weight and mass. It was a great way to use my phone without being on my phone.”
Adrienne Hall, a Logan High School science teacher, has attended GEAR UP Science Day every year for the past few years. She has found many of the lessons interesting and is already planning to use the hominid skull activity next term when students learn about evolution. Hall already has a student making seven sets of skulls on the 3D printer for the lesson.
In the lesson with fidget spinner hot wheels cars, Mark Wahl, a Cottonwood High School chemistry and physics teacher, was excited how it addressed elastic/inelastic collisions. He already has the lesson slotted into the potential to kinetic energy conversion portions in his physics strand 2.
Science Day offered lessons for everyone. From first time attendees to returning teachers, the workshop focuses on different areas each year with new lessons. GEAR UP Science Day takes place annually, often around the same time as the Utah Science Teachers Association (UtSTA) conference.