SHERBURNE – Plans are in the works to bring an education workshop to the Sherburne area that will help STEM teachers get engaging ideas for their students through hand-on training while also filling requirements for professional development.

The SUNY Morrisville Norwich campus is partnering with Friends of Rogers in Sherburne to make “Advanced Methods: Using Nature and Research in the Classroom” happen. Teachers, namely those with a concentration in science, are invited to sign-up.

The workshop will work with teachers on the grounds of Rogers Environmental Education Center in Sherburne to learn how to identify acquitic insects and vertebrates found in streams and ponds. Participants can also learn about the tools that help analyze organismal data and discuss modifications to field techniques to make research appropriate for their students’ grade level.

“The focus of these workshops is to offer hands-on training to instructors of various grade levels in public and private schools as well as daycare and home school instructors in passive techniques that are used in wildlife science,” said Eric Diefenbacher, workshop facilitator and professor at the Morrisville State College Norwich campus. “Children and even older students are naturally drawn to the outdoors. Often instructors want to harness this natural curiosity but don’t know what tools to use or how to use them.”