Kansas City Teachers Turn Up Their Game in STEM

The end of June can be just when things slow down in many school districts, but Kansas City, MO public schools lit up with activity on June 25th and 26th when NJCTL came to town to support the local education community, responding to an invitation from Phillip Jones, Director of Curriculum.

A highly interactive two-day workshop focused on giving K-12 Kansas City teachers a full perspective on the breadth of NJCTL offerings and how to use them. The action-packed days included training in how to activate our pedagogy, information on leveraging our online courses to create much-needed local physics and chemistry teachers, as well as an introduction to our new phenomena-based middle school science courses.

The impressive team of Kansas City teachers dove right into the training, asking illuminating questions and providing insights into the information and materials.

Some of the teachers’ observations included:

Hannah Goforth, Middle School Science and Biology teacher: “The phenomena-based approach will be very engaging for teachers and students. I can see my students going home and explaining how hurricanes work with their parents.”

Cobina Lartson, High School Chemistry Teacher: “I am excited to use the self-guided courses with my students. I expect to get through a lot more material and in a lot more depth this year.”