ReaL* Earth Inquiry Workshop Midwestern US, Cohort #2

Devil’s Lake State Park,

Baraboo, WI

Information for Participants


 
 
 

Scroll to the bottom of the page to see the Devil’s Lake VFE!


This page provides information for participants in our Teacher Friendly Professional Development Program on teaching local and regional Earth system science of the Midwestern United States. 


The workshop was held at Devil’s Lake State Park in  Baraboo, WI , July 13 -15, 2011.





















Click the map for directions to the park.


Things to Do Before the Workshop:

There are two pieces of homework that are ideally to be done before the workshop. 


  1. 1.Create a “Powers of Ten” Google Earth Tour for your school or institution. For an introduction, see Your Own Powers of Ten Or, go straight to the tutorials: http://virtualfieldwork.org/How_tos/How_tos.html.  If you’re comfortable with Google Earth, and have created Google Earth tours previously, this will probably take about two hours.  If you need help, don’t hesitate to contact Don at [email protected] or via Skype at dugganhaas. Using Skype allows screensharing, which makes trouble shooting much easier. The two key purposes of this task are to create a useful teaching resource and to provide some familiarity with a key piece of software we’ll be using in our work together. 




The second task is a reading that should be complete before the workshop.  


  1. 2.Read the executive summary of How Students Learn: History, Mathematics, and Science in the Classroom.  We’ll discuss this the first morning of the workshop.  Here are some things to consider as you read:

•How does how you learn compare to what the authors claim?

•How should research on learning inform how we teach?

•Note that the reading is not about whether people are visual or auditory learners. It’s more about how you put information together in your head.  How do you figure things out?


  2. This task is intended to both bring this research to your attention and to bring the research to bear on our own teaching.  As the reading describes, we are asking you to be metacognitive. The chapter and it can be downloaded from the National Academy Press website: http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=10126   Scroll down to the link for the free executive summary.


You may also wish to explore the project websites before the workshop:

    http://virtualfieldwork.org

    http://teacherfriendlyguide.org

Getting ready for the workshop...

Getting Ready:

  1. •Getting Ready Overview

  2. •Make Your Own Powers of Ten.

  3. •Reading: How Students Learn Executive Summary.  (pdf)


Here’s a link to the agenda which includes the pre-workshop homework (corrected hyperlink 6/9/11):

    .pdf

    .doc


VFE Template DRAFT (with Bio):

  1. •VFE Template Bio-ES V2























Site-specific Resources:

  1. •Devil’s Lake State Park

  2. •Devil’s Lake Visitors’ Guide

  3. •Devil’s Lake Google Earth File (with topographic map, profile instructions and geologic map information)

  4. •Devil’s Lake Picasa Page This page is where participants are sharing their pictures from Devil’s Lake.

  5. •The Ice Age National Scientific Reserve The reserve is an affiliated area of the National Park System and consists of nine units across Wisconsin.

  6. •A Gigapan image -- looking toward the Balanced Rock Trail from across the lake; and another.

  7. •Digital Geologic Maps of US State

  8. •The Leopold Center Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac was largely written at “The Shack” outside of Baraboo. On Friday afternoon, after the workshop ends, some of  us will make a visit to the Leopold Center.


Lodging Information:

  1. •Best Western Baraboo Inn A block of rooms is reserved under “Museum of the Earth”