- Year 2019
- NSF Noyce Award # 1240059
- First Name Thomas
- Last Name Manning
- Institution Valdosta State University
- Role/Position PI on grant, Professor of Chemistry
- Workshop Category Track 4: Noyce Research
- Workshop Disciplines Audience Other: General Science
- Target Audience Non-Profit Organization Personnel, Noyce Teaching Fellows, Project PIs / Co-PIs / Other Faculty/Staff, School and District Administrators, Undergraduate and/or Graduate Noyce Scholars
- Topics Culturally Relevant Pedagogy
- Session Length 30 minutes
Goals
It will be presented in two parts:
Part A. Puzzles
1. Present new types of STEM puzzles developed by Noyce interns that can be used from 5th – 12th grade (and higher).
2. Allow teachers to work with the novel puzzles.
3. Discuss how they are used in teaching middle and high school students.
Part B. Marine Art
Currently one of our Noyce students is working with the city of Valdosta to bring/develop a large mural composed of marine invertebrate art as a mural to a downtown location. Murals in small towns in the south often depict historical pictures of farms and farmers. The Noyce summer internship (4 students working on it as part of project) are using invertebrate images they took on a recent trip to the Florida Keys as subjects of the mural. The goal is to bring attention to the current state of our oceans and to bring science to the general population. The pictures taken range from sea urchins to star fish. A picture is worth a thousand words. The use of art to bring students into and promote science will be discussed.
Evidence
For the puzzles, a paper in a science education journal was published with a book (800 pages) included in the publication as supporting material. One of the Noyce students was recently invited to and gave a presentation at the state capital on her invertebrate art project.
Proposal
This workshop will be broken into two components: The first is the use of a novel series of puzzles (3 types; Word Strings, Famous Quotes, Box). Their use in a middle and high school level courses will be outlined. They familiarize students with new words or concepts, and build strategic skills. The second component will focus on the use of art in math and science. This project focuses on students taking pictures of obscure marine creatures than using them to draw the general public into STEM activities. Along the way they found themselves spending many hours related on their project, learning about different topics, from photography to federal regulations that impact the ocean. The students are currently lobbying the local city government to install a marine invertebrate mural they created.