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The conference will present new developments in teacher preparation, professional development, youth activism and educational policy, teacher recruitment and retention projects, citizen science and new research opportunities.

Nearly 200 science teachers, science teacher educators and future science teachers will learn about the latest developments in curriculum, cultural studies, digital technology and gaming, eco-justice, experiential learning and outdoor classrooms during the 2011 Southeastern Science Teacher Education Conference at the University of Georgia College of Education Oct. 14-15.

The two-day conference will feature a wide variety of science education-related events for beginning teachers, experienced teachers, teacher educators and administrators beginning with a series of morning and afternoon sessions on Friday at the State Botanical Gardens of Georgia.

Glasson

A special guest speaker, George Glasson, professor and science education program leader at Virginia Tech University, will deliver a lecture titled, “Ecojustice Education in Marginalized Cultures,” Friday evening at the Botanical Gardens’ Callaway Conference Center.

The conference opens Saturday with poster sessions and a room with live Georgia organisms and natural history archives from the UGA Natural History Museum from 8 a.m. to noon.

At about 11:45 a.m., UGA science education faculty and students will release a group of Monarch Butterflies outside Aderhold Hall so that they can begin their journey South. They’ve raised the butterflies from caterpillars after finding them on milkweed in the College of Education’s Science Learning Garden and have monitored them for parasites as part of the Monarch Health program that will be introduced during an experiential session on Friday.

Tobin

The luncheon Saturday will feature special guest speaker Kenneth Tobin, Presidential Professor from the Graduate School of Education, City University of New York, who is known widely for his 30 years of research on the teaching and learning of science.

In 2004, he was awarded a Director’s Award for Distinguished Teaching Scholars, the highest honor bestowed by the National Science Foundation, which was accompanied by NSF support for research on improving the quality of science education in urban high schools, Tobin’s area of focus for the past seven years.

Zeidler

Dana Zeidler, a professor and program coordinator of science education at the University of South Florida who is internationally known for his research in socioscientific issues, discourse, moral reasoning, epistemology and the nature of science, will deliver the keynote address Saturday afternoon titled, “EcoJustice, Citizen Science and Youth Activism: Enacting Transformative Transformations Through Socioscientific Issue.”

Visit the 2011 SASTE Conference website.