The 2008 EAST-WEST Fall Retreat was held Sept. 19-21 at the Alta Peruvian Lodge in Little Cottonwood Canyon.  We had over 50 teachers, undergraduates, graduates and faculty attend which made for an exciting weekend of sharing ideas, developing knowledge, and building science and technology skills.

The Fall Retreat began at the GK Gilbert Geologic Park at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon.  There, we viewed the classic landforms formed by Pleistocene glaciation, faulting, and wave action in Lake Bonneville.  Dr. Jim Ehleringer, a biologist from the University of Utah, introduced us to the native vegetation in the area in advance of leading a field trip up the canyon to observe  elevational changes in vegetation.  By the end of the field trip, we were able to identify several types of trees and had learned how aspect, temperature, and moisture affect ecosystems.  We also learned how to make elderberry pie!

The afternoon of the first day was filled with sessions on inquiry-based learning, working with English language learners, incorporating math and graphing into science lessons, and investigating the nature of science through indirect observation.  These workshops were presented by a distinguished group of "master" teachers from the Salt Lake Center for Science Education:  Machelle Dahl, Dr. Niki Hack, Diane Crim, and Matt Smith.

Day two of the retreat started off with an intense thunderstorm that traveled quickly up the canyon.  It was an appropriate introduction for our first speaker of the day, Dr. Haiyan Jiang, a research professor in the Dept. of Meteorology.  Dr. Jiang is in the process of creating a teaching module on extreme weather that WEST Fellows will help implement in schools in 2009-10.  She demonstrated her module to the teachers and fellows for feedback on content and design.  Click here to access the EXTREME WEATHER TEACHING MODULE.

Luckily, the weather cleared up just in time for the fellows to have a turn at sharing some ideas and information on a variety of topics.  We headed outside in small groups to rotate through several science learning stations.  Christy Wall, Meteorologist and WEST alumna, talked about various measurements of weather and what they mean.  Everyone got a chance to use the Kestral hand-held weather stations and took home some ideas about how to use them in their classrooms.  Kit Clemons, a geologist and current WEST Fellow, used tectonic squeeze boxes to demonstrate how the Wasatch mountains were formed.  WEST Alumni Emily Gaines, and Scott Hynek demonstrated how to test the quality of water with hand-held computerized water-quality probes.  The probes test pH, nitrate content, conductivity, turbidity, temperature, dissolved oxygen and more.  Chris Crockett, a biologist with the Utah Department of Wildlife Resources, talked about native and endangered species and shared a variety of resources with the group.

In the afternoon, we were honored to have Dr. Larry Lowery from UC Berkeley share his research on inquiry-based learning and how the brain works.  Dr. Lowery is the PI for both the EQUALS and FAMILY MATH programs and is the of the FOSS (Full Option Science System) kits. Dr. Lowery is also a prolific publisher of articles and books and is active in the field of cognitive neuroscience.  Click here to download a pdf file of "How the Brain Learns" (1998) by Dr. Larry Lowery.

The rest of the day was spent in small groups of teachers and fellows, planning lessons, field trips and activities for the upcoming year.

Sunday morning, WEST fellows were put through several "thinking drills" by Dr. David S. Chapman.  Dr.  Chapman strives to teach people to utilize what they DO know when solving problems rather than focusing on what they DON'T know.  For example, how would you approach answering the question, "How many gas stations are in Iowa?".  You are not allowed to Google for your answer, you just have a piece of paper, a pencil, and 15 minutes!  Fellows are always surprised to find that they can make  "back of the envelope" calculations that come within the same order of magnitude.

The Fall Retreat is one of the most important mechanisms we use to train teachers and fellows to work and learn together.  Everyone's skills are put to use during this time as faculty and fellows provide scientific information, teachers help fellows with pedagogy and planning, new technologies are introduced, and lessons are experimented with.  Most importantly, it's a time for everyone to bond together as a teaching community with the common goal of improving science education in the K-12 schools.  The real winners are the students!