Gardening Professional Development

November 11, 2011 by Brooklyn Children's Museum

Earlier this week, the New York Botanical Garden offered a workshop introducing educators to the basics of school gardening. If you’re interested in a more in-depth offering, check out their institutes in 2012 (which coincide with public school breaks):

School Gardening 101: Creating a Garden

Dates: February 20–25, 2012 (Monday–Saturday)

Seedlings Program for Teachers of Grades K–2

Dates: July 9–14, 2012 (Monday–Saturday)

School Gardening 201: Curriculum Connections

Dates: July 23–28, 2012 (Monday–Saturday)

For information, registration, fees, details about P-credits, and more, check out the New York Botanical Garden’s brochure on school and teacher programs.

Election Day Professional Development

October 24, 2011 by Brooklyn Children's Museum

If you are looking for a great sustainability-focused training on election day, here are two options:

School Gardening Workshop at New York Botanical Garden

8:30 am – noon; Cost: $20

Come learn about the benefits of having a garden on your school site. Join NYBG staff and other gardening organizations to learn about logistics, resources, and curriculum connections for creating, maintaining, and integrating gardens into your students’ learning. This half-day workshop is the perfect primer for helping you begin planning or even rekindling a garden on your school site.

For more information, contact Judith Hutton, at 718.817.8140 or jhutton@nybg.org. To register, contact Registration at 718.817.8181 or school_programs@nybg.org.

4Es of Energy/Take Action at Home at Brooklyn Children’s Museum

9 am – 4 pm; Cost: free with lunch provided; for teachers of 4th to 8th grade

This interactive workshop promotes an understanding of energy’s relationship
with the environment, our economy, efficiency AND the all important “E” – education. You will use hands-on activities to explore energy forms and sources, global climate change and actions we can take to address the energy challenges we face. Participants will walk away with both the 4Es of Energy (4th-6th) and the Take Action at Home (4th-6th) curricula.

To register, visit www.getenergysmart.org/EnergyEducation or you can call 1-877-NY-SMART (Option 6).

The Brooklyn Children’s Museum has another energy workshop coming up, this one for teachers of 6th-12th grade. This workshop, Energy and Our Changing Earth, will focus on using data to teach about climate science. Also hosted by NYSERDA, it will be held on Friday, November 11th. Call 1-877-NY-SMART (Option 6) to register.

Upcoming Free Teacher Workshops

October 15, 2011 by Brooklyn Children's Museum

Just a reminder – next week, Brooklyn Children’s Museum is offering free professional development workshops for educators. The same My Green Community workshop is offered twice:

Thursday, October 20th, 4pm – 7pm

Saturday, October 22nd, 10am – 1pm

Join Brooklyn Children’s Museum’s educational team for a workshop on inquiry-based, hands-on experiences exploring what it means to live in a “green community” like New York City. We will give you a copy and walk you through “My Green Community,” a unit plan designed by BCM that ties in with NYC curriculum and standards for pre-K through grade 6 and explores green community features. Activities and lessons include links to literacy, math, science, social studies and the arts.

Come by to receive a print copy of our educator’s guide, free teacher resources from other New York City institutions, and lots of hands-on lesson ideas for your classroom.

We hope to see you on Thursday or Saturday!

NYC Compost Project

September 27, 2011 by Brooklyn Children's Museum

So, you’ve introduced worms to your classroom and you know what composting is. Here are some resources to help you implement composting in your classroom or school garden.

Checking out worms at the Brooklyn Children's Museum's indoor worm bin

The Department of Sanitation’s NYC Compost Project provides some incredible resources for composting. Here are some highlights:

Free “worm”shops for NYC teachers
Classroom workshops for grades 1-8: a representative from the local compost demonstration center will come to your classroom and demonstrate composting, with live worms included
Field trips for students: visit your borough’s compost demonstration site
Service learning opportunities: contribute to compost projects in your community
Low-cost starter worm bins and red wiggler worms at cost (for $55, or a discounted $44 if you complete a “worm”shop)
Other websites for composting education (we will be featuring a few of these on the blog soon!)

Starting a worm bin or outdoor composting site may seem like a lot of work, but with all these resources, it should be much easier… Happy Composting!

Carbon Footprints For Middle School Teachers

September 23, 2011 by Brooklyn Children's Museum

This is a surprise post for any middle school teachers out there. The NY Hall of Science is releasing a new curriculum for middle school called My Carbon Footprint. To launch the curriculum, they are holding a free professional development session on Saturday, November 5th.

NY Hall of Science says: “As part of this exciting professional development workshop, you will receive a copy of the My Carbon Footprint curriculum, a one-year educator membership to NYSCI, and access to new online resources. During the workshop, you will have the chance to participate in activities from the curriculum, and have an opportunity to make connections between global climate change and topics you already teach.”

For more details and to sign up, go to their website: http://www.nysci.org/learn/education/teachers/mycarbonfootprint

Please share this resource with any middle school teachers you know – it sounds like a great workshop.

Free Teacher Workshops

September 2, 2011 by Brooklyn Children's Museum

Who doesn’t love free professional development? Join the Brooklyn Children’s Museum this fall for a training session all about green communities. You will learn the five elements of a green community, learn and practice hands-on sustainability activities, and receive a copy of the My Green Community teacher’s guide, as well as teaching resources from other sustainability focused organizations based in New York City. The workshop is designed for teachers with grades pk-6, but will have activities that can easily be adapted to all grades.

The training will be held twice:

Thursday, October 20th from 4pm to 7pm

Saturday, October 22nd from 10am to 1pm

To RSVP, email gogreen@brooklynkids.org or call 718-735-4400 x328.

We look forward to seeing you there. Keep your eyes posted on this blog for future links to free professional development at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum and around New York City.

Green Threads