Scientific Information Literacy Fri-Dec-13-2024 Wunch

Facilitator. Christopher Murphy
We have entered an age of mis- and disinformation, and it is becoming increasingly difficult for students to identify the reliable scientific information they need. This three-hour workshop provides participants with the tools they need to help students locate, evaluate, and use
scientific information.
 The importance of science information literacy
 Reliability vs. usefulness
 Criteria of reliability
 Activities to develop science information literacy
 A strategy for self-education when encountering new issues
 Authentic assessment of information literacy

Teaching Science through Issues to Increase Engagement, Meet the NGSS, and Prepare Citizens.  Mon-Mar-03-2025

Traditionally, the goal of science courses has been to teach students the important concepts in the discipline, often leaving students wondering about the relevance of the material to their lives (i.e., why do I need to know this?). By engaging students in relevant and current societal issues (e.g., climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic) or personal decisions (How much water should I drink in a day? Do I need to take all my antibiotics?), we give students a reason and a desire to learn scientific concepts. In addition to increasing student interest, the issues approach allows teachers to meet all three dimensions of the NGSS. Thoughtful choice of the issues explored in a course is all that is required to ensure coverage of the essential concepts in a discipline. The issues approach also prepares our students to use science in their everyday lives. Nationally, only 6% of high-school graduates go on to earn a bachelor’s or higher in STEM and are employed as STEM professionals, yet all students need to incorporate high-quality scientific information into the decisions they make in their personal, professional, and civic lives. As the pandemic has demonstrated, all persons, not just practicing scientists, need a high-quality science education if they are to engage effectively with our most pressing societal issues, and the issues approach trains students to do just that. At the conclusion of Teaching Science through Issues, you will have a thorough understanding of the issues approach and its benefits. You will identify an issue and the disciplinary content relevant to that issue for one of your classes, develop activities that connect the issue to NGSS standards and disciplinary content, and identify real-world scenarios to which students will apply the content knowledge related to the issue. You will leave the seminar with all the skills necessary to implement the issues-based approach in your classes.

Seminar Leader: Christopher Murphy, Ph.D.
Christopher Murphy is the Associate Provost for Curriculum and Liberal Learning and a Professor of Biology at The College of New Jersey. He taught his first class of general education biology 30 years ago as a post-doctoral associate, and since then, over 95% of his teaching has been with this population. For much of this time, he has used an issues-based approach to help students become interested in science and develop into empowered citizens capable of using reliable scientific information to make reasoned decisions. He conducts research in both biology and college education.

Facilitating Discourse to Create Chances for Student Success, grades 6-8 Wed-Jan-08-2025

Verbalizing mathematics, whether written or spoken, is often the barrier to student engagement; if you cannot articulate your thoughts, then how can you share them? We have to ensure opportunities for academic success while being mindful of students’ confidence levels, socioemotional needs, and psychological state. We will discuss how to identify student concerns, Talk Moves to employ during individual/small group/whole class discussions, creating questions, and crafting materials conducive to meaningful mathematical discourse.
Seminar Leader: Sevda (they/them) is Math Learning Center Coordinator at Monmouth University and has experience teaching mathematics at both the secondary and collegiate levels. They hold a master’s degree in Integrative STEM Education from The College of New Jersey and a K-12 Supervisor Certification from Monmouth University. Sevda has developed mathematics curriculum focused on building literacy, increasing confidence, and crafting cross-curricular learning experiences.

Practical Design Integration with Complex Tasks, 6-8  Mon-Feb-10-2025

Integrative STEM Education is anchored in crafting cross-curricular learning experiences…  so how do we do that? See these ideas in both theory and practice!  We will discuss the structures and benefits of Complex Tasks before diving in ourselves; dissecting various examples and creating a task of your own.  Bring an open mind and a mathematics standard that you would like to implement this with!
Seminar Leader: Sevda (they/them) is Math Learning Center Coordinator at Monmouth University and has experience teaching mathematics at both the secondary and collegiate levels. They hold a master’s degree in Integrative STEM Education from The College of New Jersey and a K-12 Supervisor Certification from Monmouth University. Sevda has developed mathematics curriculum focused on building literacy, increasing confidence, and crafting cross-curricular learning experiences.

Practice Design Integration with Alternative Assessments, grades 6-8 Wed-Mar 05-2025

Integrative STEM Education is anchored in crafting cross-curricular learning experiences… so how do we do that?
See these ideas in both theory and practice! We will discuss the structures and benefits of various Alternative Assessment before diving in ourselves; dissecting various examples and creating an assessment of your own. Bring an open mind and both a formative and summative assessment that you would like to revamp!
Seminar Leader: Sevda (they/them) is Math Learning Center Coordinator at Monmouth University and has experience teaching mathematics at both the secondary and collegiate levels. They hold a master’s degree in Integrative STEM Education from The College of New Jersey and a K-12 Supervisor Certification from Monmouth University. Sevda has developed mathematics curriculum focused on building literacy, increasing confidence, and crafting cross-curricular learning experiences.

Teaching students to think as a Mathematician using the Pósa method, Grades 6-12.  Thu-Mar-27-2025 or Mon-Feb-24-2025

Born in 1947, Pósa was a child prodigy, silver and gold medalist in the International Mathematical Olympiads in 1965 and 1966. He was only 15 years old when he wrote his first research paper with Paul Erdős, one of the most celebrated mathematicians of the 20th century. Pósa was Erdős’ favorite “epsilon”, his most talented “student”. After finishing his Ph.D. in Mathematics, Pósa stopped producing research papers in mathematics and he became a full-time teacher. Using his boundless mathematical creativity, Pósa developed unique sequences of math problems that taught students how to think like a mathematician. His problem sets pose and abandon, repeat or vary different mathematical ideas. Different threads of problems run parallel, intersect, intertwine. Fundamental mathematical ideas return in various forms and at various levels over multiple years in Pósa’s method, enabling students at the end to think freely and creatively. The Budapest Semesters of Mathematics Education was founded by Pósa’s students in 2017. This study abroad program for North American college students immerses pre-service teachers in the Hungarian approach to teaching mathematics through the unique method of Lajos Pósa. In this workshop, we will immerse participants in the Pósa method first as a student, using problem sets of Pósa. Then we will look at the problem sets from a teacher’s perspective and learn how to apply the Pósa’ s discovery method in one’s own teaching.

Seminar Leader: Judit Kardos
Judit is an Associate Professor of Mathematics at TCNJ. She grew up in Hungary, a country that has a long tradition of superb Mathematics Education. Judit studied Mathematics and worked with the famous educator, Lajos Pósa, in 1997-1998. In 2007-2008, Judit regularly observed Pósa’s classes for talented students and then in 2023 she took a class on the Pósa method in the Budapest Semesters in Mathematics Education program. She learned a simple recipe from Lajos Pósa for teaching Mathematics: the more students enjoy doing Mathematics, the more likely that they will stay engaged and ultimately succeed. As a teacher, Judit strives to deeply engage her students, fostering their own passion for Mathematics through collaboration, inquiry, the use of games and Pósa’s discovery learning.

Teaching Science Through Issues to Increase Engagement, Meet the NGSS, and Prepare Citizens

Science plays a critical role in society, providing us with the knowledge we need to understand the universe and to better our lives. All persons, not just practicing scientists, need a great science education, and this education must provide students with the ability to use science in their everyday lives, a necessity made crystal-clear by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite the importance of science to all, many students are less than enthusiastic about their science courses. Participants will explore how teaching science through personal and current societal issues increases student interest in science, while simultaneously meeting the NGSS and creating citizens capable of applying high-quality scientific information to address these issues. Participants will develop an issue and a module based on that issue that they can implement in their courses.

Seminar Leader: Christopher Murphy, PhD.
Christopher Murphy is the Associate Provost for Curriculum and Liberal Learning and a Professor of Biology at TCNJ. He taught his first class of non-majors biology 30 years ago as a post-doctoral associate, and since then, over 95% of his teaching has been with this population. For much of this time, he has used an issues-based approach to help non-majors become interested in science and develop as educated citizens capable of using reliable scientific information to make reasoned decisions. He conducts research in both biology and college education.

Game On: Harnessing the Power of Games for Teaching Mathematics – K-5 teachers.

You may think that playing games in a math class is a loss of precious time that should be devoted to “coverage.” However, in my experience, the time devoted to games pays a great dividend by making students focus and think harder, by fostering community, and by creating intrinsic motivation and buy-in. In the great words of Sir Ken Robinson, “Education is not a mechanical system, it is a human system. People either do want to learn or do not want to learn.’’ Creating classes that are interactive and fun is a great way to foster students’ interest and motivation in learning mathematics at any age. In this workshop, we will learn, play and discuss 12 different games that are proven to develop basic mathematical skills in K-12 Mathematics Education. I will share lots of interesting research and a wealth of resources on using games in teaching Mathematics. We will also discuss how to balance the use of puzzles and games with coverage, and how to respond to parents’ and administrators’ questions about teaching Mathematics in a playful way.

Seminar Leader: Judit Kardos
Judit Kardos is an Associate Professor of Mathematics at TCNJ. She grew up in Hungary, a country that has a long tradition of superb Mathematics Education. She learned a simple recipe from her own teachers for teaching Mathematics: the more students enjoy doing Mathematics, the more likely that they will stay engaged and ultimately succeed. The recipe worked for Judit, she never stopped learning and received a Ph.D. in Mathematics with a focus on Real Analysis. As a teacher, she strives to deeply engage her students, fostering their own passion for mathematics through collaboration and the use of games and puzzles. Judit recently published an article about her interest in using games in teaching on the MAA’s Math Values Blog.https://www.mathvalues.org/masterblog/game-on-harnessing-the-power-of-games-for-math-learning-in-the-classroom

Inquiry Based Learning in the Mathematics Classroom – K-12 teachers. Two dates available !

Inquiry Based Learning, or IBL for short, is a broad range of empirically validated teaching methods which emphasize (a) deeply engaging students and (b)providing students with opportunities to authentically learn by collaborating with their peers. Students in an IBL mathematics classes engage with a sequence of problems that are rich and support inquiry to the heart of big mathematical ideas. The solutions are discussed in class, with the students leading both the presentations and the questioning. The process is also deeply engaging for the teacher as she or he has a chance to learn about how students actually learn mathematics. According to the NCTM Equity principle: Excellence in mathematics education requires equity—high expectations and strong support for all students. Students can do more than memorize, mimic, perform algorithms and apply computational skills, if we ask them to. In this workshop you will get a taste of the IBL experience both as a student and as a teacher as we share IBL resources, problem sets, stories and evidence for the method’s effectiveness.

Seminar Leader: Judit Kardos
Judit Kardos is an Associate Professor of Mathematics at TCNJ. She grew up in Hungary, a country that has a long tradition of superb Mathematics Education. She learned a simple recipe from her own teachers for teaching Mathematics: the more students enjoy doing Mathematics, the more likely that they will stay engaged and ultimately succeed. The recipe worked for Judit, she never stopped learning and received a Ph.D. in Mathematics with a focus on Real Analysis. As a teacher, she strives to deeply engage her students, fostering their own passion for mathematics through collaboration and the use of games and puzzles. Judit recently published an article about her interest in using games in teaching on the MAA’s Math Values Blog.https://www.mathvalues.org/masterblog/game-on-harnessing-the-power-of-games-for-math-learning-in-the-classroom

Facilitating mathematical discussions: putting the 5 practices into practice

Smith & Stein’s 5 Practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematics Discussions (2011) include anticipating, monitoring, selecting, sequencing, and connecting. This workshop will begin with setting goals and selecting tasks and then delve into the five practices in order to learn how to successfully orchestrate mathematical discussions at the middle and high school levels.

Seminar Leader: Dr. Cathy S. Liebars
Dr. Cathy S. Liebars is an Associate professor of Mathematics Education and the Mathematics Education Coordinator at TCNJ. She teaches courses for pre-service teachers at all levels in the content area of mathematics, including methods and content courses. Dr. Liebars has presented workshops in several school districts in New Jersey on a variety of topics for teachers at all levels K-12. She has worked with middle grades and elementary teachers, assisting in their implementation of reform-based mathematics programs like the Connected Math Program (CMP) and TERC Investigations in Number, Data, and Space. Most recently, she has offered workshops on student-centered learning in mathematics and on algebra tiles and other manipulatives for teaching algebra for middle school and high school teachers from all over the state. Dr. Liebars is a Past-President of the New Jersey Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (NJAMTE), currently serves on their Executive Board, and is former chair of the New Jersey section of the Mathematical Association of America.