Monday, September 20, 2010

Summer Fellows

No rest for the weary!

After the Summer Institute, the fellows continued their summer training with weekly meetings. We had some great meetings this summer and would like to extend a special thanks to all the mentors and previous fellows who lent their expertise on various subjects.

Dr. Jennifer Lipton gave a great hands on lesson on how to incorporate GPS units and mapping into the classroom. We spent a hot, sunny afternoon learning how to use the hand held GPS and then retreated to the cool of the ArcGIS computer lab to plot our points on a map. We also learned some basic ArcGIS skills.















Dr. Dion Rivera reviewed some important water chemistry knowledge and we learned how to use the probes and Hach kits to test for various water quality parameters. We also got to see a couple of really cool chemistry explosions! Mel demonstrates her keen eye for detecting color change as Tabitha carefully titrates.





Remember! If you are interested, CWU Chemistry Club can come visit your classroom and do some pretty awesome demos!

We also had a chance to discuss and plan some education research methods with Drs. Ian Quitidamo and Jenny Dechaine. Dr. Mike Pease and fellow Tiffany Bishop were able to give us an overview of water budget and rights in the Kittitas Valley and we were introduced to a great water rights activity created by Dr. Pease. Jack Lester, a 2009-2010 fellow, met with us to discuss implementation of student research projects in the classroom. We had some great discussion, learned some new skills, and shared some good food!

Many of our fellows have also been busy conducting their summer fieldwork in addition to preparing for their WATERS fellowship and already learning the benefits and struggles of time management!

Stay tuned for updates on the fellows as they begin the school year!