The NYS Master Teacher Program (NYSMTP) and WNYPTA (Western New York Physics Teacher Alliance) bring together those interested in physics teaching across the elementary, middle school, high school, community college and undergraduate and graduate levels, and invite K-12 teachers, university physics teachers, preservice teachers, and retired teachers to join the conversation. We meet monthly during the school year to share ideas, discuss concerns and finds ways to further our own professional knowledge. Contact Dave Henry (henryd@buffalostate.edu) if you are interested in being on the list for WNYPTA.
Monthly meetings are held on Saturdays, 9:00am-12:00pm, SAMC 357
Sep 24, 2022 - Prof A. Pathak, new magnetic materials, HEPA Filter Make & Take
Oct 22, 2022 - AREN Kite Data Observations, Dr. Dave Henry
Nov 19, 2022 - Engineering Design Activities
Jan 14, 2023 - Dr. Jen Connelly, Associate Director, The Whitworth Ferguson Planetarium. Topic TBD, but we will be going into the Planetarium!
Mar 4, 2023 - TBA MacIsaac
Apr 15, 2023 - TBA MacIsaac
May 20, 2023 -TBA Henry
This workshop series will focus on learning more about the UN SDGs and engaging student in activities that turn them into problem solvers. We will be developing engaging activities for students either in class or after school to engage them in the SDGs, including GLOBE activities. In the spring, we hope to invite local teachers interested in starting or enhancing their environmental clubs, science clubs, social justice clubs, etc. to a full day "retreat" with their students. Roll out the activities with this group, have them spend time planning for how they could work with these ideas over the next school year. Ultimately, in 2023-24, we want to hold a UN SDG conference for teachers and their students to showcase the work they have accomplished. Dr. Mike Jabot and Lisa Brosnick will coordinate this workshop series. Contact Lisa Brosnick at brosnil@buffalostate.edu if you are interested in learning more.
All meetings are Wednesdays, 5:00pm-7:00 PM, SAMC 357
October 5, 2022
Nov 2, 2022
Nov 16, 2022
Dec 7, 2022
Thursdays, Dec 1, 8, 15
5:00 pm – 7:30 pm, Location TBA
To understand what the Desmos Computation Layer is, you first need to know what the Desmos Activity Builder is. The Desmos Activity Builder is a tool that allows teachers to create slide-based digital activities for students. It works by allowing teachers to add different components to slides such as text, graphs, tables, sketch pads, action buttons, multiple choice questions, images, videos, card sorting activities, and boxes to capture student typing.
On the surface, each component can be customized a bit. Beneath the surface, though, each component has a secret, behind the scenes window that allows teachers to customize the components even further. This secret, behind the scenes window is called the Computation Layer. This is what we will be learning how to use in this course.
In addition to more customization options, this Computation Layer for each component allows you to share information between components. For instance, you can animate a point on a graph (graph component) based on a freehand graph a student sketches (sketch component) or change the text a student sees (text component) based on what multiple choice answer they select (multiple choice component).
The Computation Layer opens up educational design possibilities that are unavailable in any other platform. In this course, we will learn how to use it.
Click here to register for the minicourse.
Science Mentor Teacher Professional Learning Community
Sept 26: What modeling looks like in your classroom, Ambitious Science Teaching (AST) essential characteristics and shifts see in new standards. Co-teaching models and leveraging co-teaching to facilitate shifts.
Oct 20: Identifying most important teachers' skills for preservice teachers ("What do they really have to be good at when they are done student teaching?"); Mentoring classroom management; Combined workshop with mentors and preservice teachers: choosing one AST essential characteristic and choosing a co-teaching strategy that can be used to help practice this strategy.
Landscapes of Learning Mathematics: Landscapes IV, Algebraic Development
SUNY Buffalo State- Nirmala Nutakki & Darlene Rombola
The Western Region of the New York State Master Teacher Program is excited to offer our sequence of courses in the mathematical landscapes of learning series that focuses on the big ideas, strategies, and models related to the development of algebraic thinking across the elementary and middle school grades. The content will be situated within a landscape of learning framework that is based on the premise that student’s mathematical thinking develops in a multitude of ways beginning with contexts or concrete tasks followed by pictorial representations and culminating in abstract perspectives. Exploration of Common Core strands across the grade levels will provide opportunities for participants to share their grade level expertise and to enhance their understanding of the coherent development of topics along the K – 8 spectrum. Each participant will receive a CTLE certificate for 12 hours of professional development. Dry-erase boards (24x32) will be used for small group work presentations during the minicourse and will be available for first-time participants to take home.
This minicourse builds on the ideas introduced in Landscapes I, II & III, as we explore the landscape of learning for algebra and the associated big ideas, strategies, and models. New participants are welcome- you need not have attended previous landscapes courses to register! Discussions will focus on fostering a conceptual understanding of equivalence and variable, the generalization of numeric relationships and properties, patterning, and functional thinking. Models from Landscapes I, II & III will be refined and developed to support a concrete-pictorial-abstract progression leading to deeper algebraic knowledge and understanding. Classroom routines (e.g. number/algebra strings), that foster algebraic reasoning and take advantage of the range of grade level perspectives represented will be featured.
The Science of Climate Systems: How Carbon and Energy Drive Change
SUNY Buffalo State
Participants in this course will be developing a model to explain the role living things play in the cycling of matter and flow of energy. Then we will analyze data to support an argument that amount of carbon cycled through the system has changed over time. Finally, we will study the science of the greenhouse effect and how changes in earth’s systems affect global temperatures.
Activities from GLOBE, the Global Learning and Observations to benefit the Environment Program, will be used to engage you in climate science data collection. These GLOBE activities are easily transferred into your classrooms.
AREN Kite Data Observations Workshop
SUNY Buffalo State
The AEROKATS and ROVER Education Network (AREN) is a NASA-supported project designed to train the next generation of scientists, engineers, and other professionals to observe and understand our planet Earth through experiential learning using NASA technology and data in real-world settings.
AREN uses kite-based, low-cost instrumentation systems to gather remotely sensed Earth observations. The project enables the delivery of NASA remote sensing and in-situ observation concepts, technology, and data to help in the integration of this science and engineering into the curriculum. AREN intersects with the GLOBE program (the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment), which, since 1995, has provided students and the public worldwide with the opportunity to participate in data collection and the scientific process. We will be having more GLOBE activities offered throughout the year.
Mike Jabot is offering this workshop that introduce these ideas as well as getting us outside to try this out!! Participants will be eligible to get their own kite system to use with their students (the kites are backordered due to some supply chain issues.)
Design Challenges for Elementary Math with Physical Computing
SUNY Buffalo State
The Design Challenges for Elementary Math with Physical Computing Mini Course will expose participants to various coding activities that meet both elementary Common Core Math and Computer Science & Digital Fluency Standards at the same time. We will explore operations and algebraic thinking, measurement, and geometry with a fun, creative, hands-on use of various inputs and outputs. Participants will learn to program Ozobots to skip count and solve division problems, code Elsa from Frozen to create geometric patterns, connect boolean logic to shape attribute sorting, and get creative while constructing a fact-fluency game with Makey Makey and Scratch. No prior experience with coding required as this mini course has a low floor and high ceiling approach! The lessons and activities are designed for educators of any subject in grades k-5, especially those brand-new to coding. Participants will need a laptop for this course.
Climate Justice in Education, Dr. Alexandra Schindel
University at Buffalo
This minicourse is designed to support learning and engagement about climate justice in education. Climate justice involves recognizing the deeply intertwined relationships between people and the natural world and that the climate crisis has a disproportionate effect on the most vulnerable populations on the planet--historically marginalized communities and the natural world. The course is designed around the driving question: How do we heal our relationships with people and the natural world during a time of climate crisis? To address this question, we will examine the historical and ethical dimensions of climate justice; explore our historically, culturally, and socially mediated relationships to places; and examine how multiple species inhabit lands near and far and experience climate vulnerability. We will learn about birds as sentinel species that provide us with warning signs of climate change. The Saturday session of the course will take us outdoors and into the natural world.
Leader In Me Workshop
This workshop will introduce you to a process that develops your leadership qualities as well as those of your students.
Learn about The Leader in Me process that is unfolding in over 5,000 schools in 55 countries around the world.
Learn to create a classroom that focuses on leadership, culture, and academics to foster greatness.
Do you believe that every child possesses unique strengths and has the ability to be a leader? If so, this workshop will help you learn about this amazing process.
Buffalo State Arboretum Tour
Join teacher candidate and Arboretum expert, Chloe Mokadam, on a tour of Buffalo State's Arboretum. We will explore how to use the Arboretum and the online resources available through the Arboretum website as teaching tools. Please wear comfortable shoes and weather-appropriate attire.
Advanced Physics Lab Workshop
The Master Teacher Program and the Buffalo State Physics department are partnering together to offer Advanced Physics Lab workshops for physics teachers. Physics teachers will do an advanced lab using some of the new equipment that Buffalo State has in their new science building. Instruction will include a prelab review of some physics, conducting the experiment, and post lab analysis of data. There will be two different sessions, and each lab will be completed over two mornings. Teachers can participate in both or just one of the lab sessions.
Landscapes of Learning Mathematics: Landscapes III
SUNY Buffalo State
Number Sense: Fractions
The Western Region of the New York State Master Teacher Program is pleased to offer our sequence of minicourses that focus on the big ideas, strategies, and models as described in the mathematical landscapes of learning framework.1 The framework is built on the premise that a student's mathematical thinking develops in a multitude of ways beginning with contexts or concrete tasks followed by pictorial representations and culminating in abstract perspectives. Exploration of NYS Next Generation Standard strands across the grade levels will provide opportunities for participants to share their grade level expertise and to enhance their understanding of the coherent development of fractional reasoning along the 1 – 8 spectrum. Each participant will receive a CTLE certificate for 12 hours of professional learning. Participants will also receive a set of six dry-erase boards (24x32) for small group work presentations.
New participants are welcome! Those that have participated in Landscapes I & II will see the work as building on previous ideas as we explore the changes to traditional instruction on fractions that are central to in the NYS Next Generation standards. Specifically, we will explore the concept of fractions as measures, unit fractions as building blocks for fractions and whole numbers through the processes of partitioning and iterating, and the conceptual underpinnings of fraction arithmetic. We will also examine how models such as number bonds, ratio tables, bar models, area models, and number lines naturally extend from whole numbers to fractions.
NYSSLS Science Content Minicourses for P-8 Teachers and Administrators
Energy & Ecosystems
Grades K, 2, 5, and MS: LS2
SUNY Buffalo State
*CANCELLED*
Energy absorption and conversion are at the heart of most interactions within an ecosystem. Most people know that energy comes from food, but where does the food/energy come from? How does food get converted to energy so that living things can stay alive? We will explore these questions and see what happens to the actual food molecules during this conversion process and learn how energy and matter move through an ecosystem. [Note: Not intended for Life Science certified teachers]
NYSSLS Science Content Minicourses for P-8 Teachers and Administrators
Light & Vision
Grades 1, 4, and MS: LS4
SUNY Buffalo State
*CANCELLED*
How do we “see” things? We will learn about the nature of light and how our eyes work with our brain so we can see. Teachers will complete activities that lead to understanding of fundamental ideas in light, shadows, images, color and vision. [Note: Not intended for Physics certified teachers]
Science Content Minicourses: NYSSLS Implementation for P-8 Teachers and Administrators
NYSSLS Storyline: Heredity (NYSSLS LS4 Grades 2, 3, MS)
SUNY Buffalo State- Lisa Brosnick
New York State Master Teacher Program in partnership with the Western Section of the Science Teachers Association of NYS are offering NYSSLS minicourses. Please join us in this professional development in preparation for the Next Generation of NYS Science Learning Standards. In this course you will explore the science ideas of heredity and variation using a storyline that is aligned with the NYSSLS Standards. Participants will learn about patterns of inheritance and the molecular basis of inheritance; make observations to provide evidence to explain why offspring look similar to but not identical to their parents; and develop a scientific argument to defend their claim. After completion of the storyline, participants will make connections to their own classroom by identifying key pedagogical strategies and methods of making student thinking [Note: Not intended for Life Science certified teachers]
Science Content Minicourses: NYSSLS Implementation for P-8 Teachers and Administrators
NYSSLS Storyline: Energy & Electricity (NYSSLS PS2 Grades k, 3, 4, MS)
SUNY Buffalo State- Brad Gearhart
The New York State Master Teacher Program in partnership with the Western Section of the Science Teachers Association of NYS are offering NYSSLS minicourses. Please join us in this professional development in preparation for the Next Generation of NYS Science Learning Standards. In this course you will explore the science ideas of electricity and energy using a storyline that is aligned with the NYSSLS Standards. You will learn about electric circuits and how energy is transformed. You will make observations to provide evidence that energy can be transferred from place to place by sound, light, heat, and electric currents. The science practice of arguing from evidence will be foremost as you defend your ideas about electric current based on evidence. [Note: Not intended for Physics certified teachers]
Landscapes of Learning Mathematics: Landscapes II
SUNY Buffalo State- Nirmala Nutakki, Darlene Rombola, David Wilson
Number Sense: Multiplication & Division
Extending the discussion from Landscapes I, this minicourse will look at the big ideas relating to number sense development with a focus on multiplication and division and the associated big ideas, strategies, and models. Discussions will include use of open array and area models for developing pictorial representations across the grade levels, as well as number talks, number strings, and other contexts for thinking about multiplication and division. Partitive and measurement models for division will be developed and extended from whole numbers to fractions. We will share classroom practices that foster students’ growth across the Number Landscape and take advantage of the range of grade level perspectives that will be represented. The content in Landscapes II will be the basis for development of ideas central to the focus of Landscapes III & IV coming in May and July of 2022.
GLOBE Carbon Cycle Workshop
Dr. Michael Jabot, SUNY Fredonia
The GLOBE Carbon Cycle Project is one of the four Earth System Science Projects (ESSPs) funded by NASA and the NSF to develop hands-on, science-based activities for intermediate and secondary school students in the GLOBE Program.
This full-day session will address ways that we can help students understand the Carbon Cycle as well as the ways that the Carbon Cycle is deeply integrated across Earth Systems. The morning portion of our day will focus on systems thinking as well as quantitative thinking around the Carbon Cycle using classroom activities as well as the use of remotely sensed data. The afternoon session will be in the field modeling how students can collect data around measures of carbon storage.
NYSSLS Workshop: Invigorating Science Instruction with the NYS Science Learning Standards
SUNY Buffalo State- Lisa Brosnick & Alayla Ende
New York is embarking on great change in science education! The SUNY Buffalo State Master Teacher Program is providing workshops for teachers and administrators to prepare for the new science standards.
Moving from awareness towards implementation of the NYS P-12 SLS requires a knowledge of 3D instruction as well as how the standards can be assessed both formatively and summatively. Teachers need to be able to unpack assessments in order to build cohesive 3-D lessons with fidelity to the science standards.
This workshop is designed to allow participants to explore best practices for 3D instruction, and increase familiarity with instructional and assessment resources.
Computational Thinking: Introductory Computer Science for P-8 Teachers and Administrators
SUNY Buffalo State- Christina O'Malley
This 12 hour mini course will eliminate any fears of not knowing where to start with coding! We will start with the basics of how to think like a computer and first solve puzzles that are fun and challenging without a computer in order to recognize how we, as humans, naturally go through the process of computational thinking; observing patterns, trends, and regularities in data (decomposition), identifying the general principles that generate these patterns (abstraction), develop step by step instructions (algorithm), and devise tests for finding and fixing errors (debug).
The learning experiences are designed to teach the teacher about coding and are appropriate to be easily modified for students of any grade K-8. We will address many of the new NYS Computer Science and Digital Literacy Standards’ concept areas. We will look at how to implement NYSSLS engineering standards through design challenges. Finally, we will learn and practice the basics of block based coding through code.org and pull it all together with a fun, hands-on, and creative make and take with Makey-Makey.
Landscapes of Learning Mathematics: Landscapes I
SUNY Buffalo State- Nirmala Nutakki, Darlene Rombola, David Wilson
Number Sense, Addition and Subtraction
From counting and cardinality through place value, this minicourse will look at the big ideas relating to number, addition & subtraction from whole numbers to fractions, the strategies students utilize in developing those big ideas, and models that promote concrete understanding. Our discussions will focus on sharing classroom practices that foster students’ growth across the landscape and take advantage of the range of grade level perspectives that will be represented. Number talks, number strings, tape diagrams, tools for thinking including the rekenrek and Digi-Blocks, all will be an integral part of the course as we consider how best to develop students conceptual understanding in concrete and pictorial representations and that lead to more abstract thinking. The content in Landscapes I will be the basis for development of ideas central to the focus of Landscapes II.
Science for P-8 Teachers: NYSSLS Grades 1, 3 and MS
SUNY Buffalo State- Lisa Brosnick **CANCELED**
In this minicourse, the new standards, specifically for grades 1, 3 and 6-8, will be explored using the content area of heredity. Ideas about the role DNA plays in transmitting traits from generation to generation will be developed using effective 3-dimensional science teaching practices. These teaching practices can be transferred to any subject and are necessary to teach to the new standards.
The new science standards are here and the new assessment are on their way! In this 12-hour minicourse, we will develop ideas about the role DNA plays in transmitting traits from generation to generation and discover why organisms are similar but not exactly the same as their parents. The ideas and pedagogy in this course will help prepare you for teaching to the new standards.
New York State Master Teacher Program
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