Flagstaff Academy Charter School held its ScienceFest 2023 on Friday — a professional development learning experience dedicated to science and technology.
Educators participated in immersive sessions about how they can teach environmental, earth, physical and life science to students.
The professional development day began with an award-winning keynote speaker, Gianna Sullivan, coordinator of science programming for the University of Colorado Boulder and the Museum of Natural History.
Sullivan emphasized the importance of making all students “feel like they belong” in scientific fields.
“A lot of us sort of stumbled in through the back door of science instead of strutted up the front steps,” she said in her speech.
Sullivan, who is also the director of education for the Mobile Earth + Space Observatory, said including students with diverse backgrounds in science is imperative for the advancement of all fields of research.
“Their divergent brains are critical in the way that they look at the world,“ Sullivan said.
ScienceFest offered educators the opportunity to explore microscopes, telescopes, pendulums, an electrostatic generator and an immune system STEM kit from Colorado State University.
Jake Masterson, a 6th Grade science teacher at Flagstaff Academy, said the interactive nature of the sessions helps educators immensely.
“I’m a firm believer in the value of experience,” he said. “Experience is the thing that people are going to walk away with actually remembering, versus kind of just listening to someone talk. Experience is something that sticks in your memory more, and it tells you and shows you a whole lot more than just listening.”
Masterson hosted a session for fellow teachers on how to inspire students’ creativity through linking science fiction to applied science.
“Every single science class I’ve ever taught … some student makes that connection between what is on the board that we’re teaching and something they’ve seen in some kind of fiction,“ Masterson explained. “So I think it’s important to understand the relationship between those two things because a lot of science fiction does come from real science backgrounds.”
Another session, hosted by Kate Salgato, middle school assistant principal at Flagstaff Academy, taught participants about cognitive load and how the brain processes information.
“I think teachers have a huge impact on student achievement, and if we can learn how the brain works, then we can start to maximize what our students are able to accomplish,” Salgato explained.
Sessions also featured designing, interpreting, note-taking and description techniques, as well as discussions about how science can help students learn other subjects.
