Future Math, Science Teachers Invited to UMaine Conference March 24

Contact: Amie Gellen, 581-1021; George Manlove, 581-3756

ORONO — Organizers of a day-long conference March 24 at UMaine hope to attract promising new teachers to science and math fields, and also to help make the subject matter more interesting for tomorrow’s classrooms.

The conference is UMaine’s student-run Mathematics and Science Future Teachers Club’s (MSFTC) Seventh Annual Spring Conference, co-hosted by the University of Maine’s Center for Science and Mathematics Education Research.

Event coordinators expect college students will be most interested in the conference, but they also hope to attract middle and high school students who might consider science and math teaching as a career, according to Katie Martin, president of MSFTC, and Amie Gellen, assistant director of the Center for Science and Mathematics Education Research and advisor for the student future teachers club.

Workshops will: involve active learning; provide resources; include ideas for teaching with technology; and will be in alignment with national science and mathematics education standards and the State of Maine Learning Results. Topics include ideas for ensuring gender equality in the classroom, global citizenship, forest bioproducts technology and life cycle-based sustainable consumption — topics closely related to Maine’s changing forest-based industries.

Though young people are the focus of the conference, Gellen says, it also is designed for anyone in Maine with an interest in becoming a science or math teacher, including people considering a change in careers.

Nine exemplary, award-winning Maine math and science educators will share their expertise and experiences, and furnish lesson ideas that pre-service teachers can readily implement in their prospective classrooms, Gellen explains. The conference is a showcase for best practices in math and science teaching, she notes.

The conference is cosponsored and supported by an Education Outreach Award from the Maine NSF EPSCoR Forest Bioproducts Research Initiative, which seeks to “engage Maine teachers and students in learning activities that have relevant connections to the use and health of Maine’s forests.” Presentations will address that theme, and also will include teaching strategies for encouraging participation by underrepresented groups in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields.

Martin, of Mashpee, Mass. and a fourth-year elementary education major with a science concentration, says she is excited about conference topics because they will bring additional relevance to the fields of science and math — a relevance geared toward teaching those subjects more effectively in Maine.

Gellen says the event is unique and worthwhile because it offers prospective teachers a rare opportunity to interact with some of Maine’s most outstanding mathematics and science classroom educators at a professional conference created and implemented solely by students for their peers.

Additionally, Gellen says, this year’s conference “is special because of our connection to the Maine NSF EPSCoR Forest Bioproducts Research Initiative.”

The conference provides a natural vehicle for bringing the excitement of forest bioproducts research to the classroom, she says.

“With its mentoring and networking opportunities, the event has the potential for playing a long-term role in increasing the number of well-prepared math and science teachers in Maine classrooms, who will effectively pass their knowledge and enthusiasm on to future Maine scientists, mathematicians and engineers,” Gellen says.

State Rep. Emily Cain (D-Orono) is the scheduled keynote speaker. Susan McKay, professor of physics and director of the Center for Science and Mathematics Education Research, Vicki Nemeth, director of research administration and Maine NSF EPSCoR associate project director, and Nicole Gillespie, senior program officer, Science

Knowles Science Teaching Foundation, will deliver opening remarks following a welcome by Martin, Sarah Desjardins and Tim Brown, officers of the Mathematics and Science Future Teachers Club.

The conference opens with registration, a poster session and continental breakfast at 8:30 a.m. in the D.P. Corbett Business Building on the Orono campus and ends at 3 p.m. Lunch at the Memorial Union, a conference tee-shirt, door prizes and a certificate of attendance also are provided for participants. Advance registration is required through the club at the UMaine WADE Center in the Union or, for people who are off campus, by calling Gellen at 581-1021. WADE Center registration hours this week are March 22, 8 a.m.-3 p.m. and March 23, 9-11 a.m. A $10 registration fee will be refunded the day of the conference.

Conference speakers and topics for the day include:

Patricia Bernhardt, 21-year veteran science educator currently teaching grade 7 life sciences at James F. Doughty Middle School, Bangor, “Overcoming Gender Issues in the Classroom”;

Steve DeAngeles, Presidential Award winner for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching 2005, who currently teaches physics at Maranacook Community High School, Readfield, “The Science and Art of Teaching Science”;

Jon Doty, K-12 coordinator of Gifted and Talented Services, Old Town School Department, “Differentiation Strategies for Mathematics and Science”;

Donald R. Sprangers, Presidential Award winner for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching in 2003 and the 2007 Maine Agriculture in the Classroom Teacher of the Year, who teaches biology, environmental science and field ecology at Washington Academy, “Best Practices: Batching Biodiesel”;

Todd Zoroya, a part-time math instructor at UMaine, “Can Smart Boards Make Our Students Smarter?”

Pat Maloney, Maine Project Learning Tree coordinator since 1999 and former science teacher, “Project Learning Tree Integrates Math & Science with the Outdoors for grades K through 5”;

Tad Johnston, mathematics specialist and acting science specialist for the Maine Department of Education and a Presidential Award winner for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching in 2000, “Outside Influences Coming through Your Classroom Door”;

Michele Mailhot, GRACE Master Teacher for NASA, currently teaching mathematics at

Messelonskee Middle School, Oakland, “Literacy for Understanding across the Content Areas”;

And Greg Norris, founder and director of Sylvatica, a life cycle assessment research consulting firm in North Berwick, and founder and executive director of New Earth, a global network and foundation for community-based sustainable development and continuous environmental and social improvement, “Sister Schools Project, Latin and North America, for Life Cycle-Based Sustainable Consumption.”

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