As part of this program, the Thompson Earth Systems Institute hosts a series of teacher professional development workshops. During these workshops, teachers work alongside scientists to learn the latest research trends and develop hands-on lesson plans.
Professional Development Opportunities
Current & Upcoming
You can be one of the first to hear about new PD opportunities by:
- Joining our SEFS Facebook group
- Subscribing to our newsletter
- Following us on Twitter (@UFEarthSystems)
Request a teacher training workshop at your school by emailing Brian Abramowitz at babramowitz@floridamuseum.ufl.edu (for north Florida) and Stephanie Killingsworth at skillingsworth@floridamuseum.ufl.edu (for south Florida).
Past
Visit these links to learn more about our past teacher professional development workshops and to access the resources developed.
- TESI Immersive Environmental Education Fellowship for Miami-Dade County Middle and High School Teachers (June 2023)
- Silk Protein Innovation and Novelty (SPIN) Program for Florida Elementary School Teachers (April 2023)
- Plants Get Sick Too! Professional Development for Teachers (May 2023)
- Stellar Spectroscopy and the Origin of the Elements for Middle School Teachers & Students (March 2023)
- Cohort I: AI Learning in K-12 with Fossil Sharks (July 2022-May 2023)
- Cohort I: Research Experience for Florida High School Teachers in Plant Pathology (July 2022-May 2023)
- Chewing on Change: Using Fossil Horses to Teach About Macroevolution (October 2022-March 2023)
- Fossils, Paleontology, and Ancient Life of Florida (January-April 2022)
- Adaptations, Evolution and Climate Change – Miami-Dade PD (January 2022)
- Summer Scientist in Every Florida School Summer PD Workshop -The Hydrosphere (July 5-9, 2021)
- Summer Scientist in Every Florida School Summer PD Workshop – The Nature of Science (July 6-10, 2020)
- World Wetlands January Summit PD (January 2020)
- Montbrook Teacher Professional Development (November 2019)
- Montbrook Pre-Visit Webinar Training (November 2019)
- Florida Association of Science Teachers (FAST) Conference (October 2019)
- Imaging and Digitization for Avocational Paleontologists Workshop (July 2019)
- Human Evolution Summer Teacher Workshop (July 2019)
- Connections to the Biosphere Summer PD (July 2019)
- Scientist in Every Florida School Kickoff Retreat (January 2019)
K-12 On-Demand Teaching Resources
- ‘Virtual Q&A with a Scientist’ events and supplemental K-12 resources: These 30-minute discussions and field trips include a brief overview of a particular research area, followed by a question and answer session. Select presentations also include virtual tours of museums, research vessels and laboratories. SEFS also provides supplemental resources such as readings, writing prompts, and activities for select topics.
- SEFS Science Segments: Short video interviews with a scientist organized by learning standard.
Request a new topic or chat with our team:
Do you have a topic in mind that we haven’t covered yet? We want to hear from you to make it happen!
- Request a virtual scientist visit for your students.
- Schedule a chat with our team by emailing Stephanie Killingsworth at skillingsworth@floridamuseum.ufl.edu.
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