gear up news & events
GEAR UP News & Events |
iMATHination Workshops a Success |
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How does water absorb salt?
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January 2010- The Water Dance workshop at the recent iMATHination Conference was just one of the 25 successful workshops offered over the weekend of January 21, 2010 by GEAR UP. Teachers came together from the Chicago GEAR UP high schools to learn how to help their students gain a better understanding of math. In Waterdance, teachers learned creative ways to help students apply math skills in their science classes. “We’re blending in science,” said Wendy Thomas, iMATHination coordinator. “We want to make a purposeful connection between math and other content areas.” The workshop got high ratings from Linda Kato, Dunbar High School teacher. “The waterdance, relating the freezing and warming of H2O was an excellent tool to assist students in retaining concepts academically and relating to real life situations.” Charles Abrams, assistant professor at Truman College, guided teachers through a dance to demonstrate how students can figure out how molecules are likely to act at different temperatures. He then added in sodium and chloride molecules to the mix to see how water molecules break apart and absorb salt. |
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Charles Abrams from Truman |
Charles Abrams conducted a series of workshops over the summer for high school teachers. Sara Hughes, one of his summer students and a second year teacher at Curie High School, was so impressed by the class that she recruited several of her school colleagues to take the follow up workshop offered at the iMATHination conference and at the high school. Abrams and Hughes are also working to have students use college instrumentation tools for a special project they will be working on this semester. Plans include bringing students to the community college to gain some hands-on experience at the college. GEAR UP students who will be attending Truman College in the future are in for a treat. They may take one of Charles Abram’s chemistry classes, or perhaps a class on geology, meteorology or instrumental analysis. Helping students become familiar with the many resources available to them at their local community colleges is part of the GEAR UP mission. |
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