Activity

WMF GOES VIRTUAL! In many cases, when one door closes, another one opens.  In the WMF’s case, there has been a silver lining through all the stressful times of the COVID-19 outbreak.  When the WMF had to cancel the 2020 STEM Teacher Paleontology, Archaeology Summer Day Camp, Bronwyn Mayo – WMF and Mark Chaney – ESD105 STEM Coordinator began the process of offering a Virtual STEM Teacher Paleontology, Archaeology Summer Day Camp where teachers could earn 15 STEM clock hours upon completion of the class.  This is the first time that OSPI and STEM has offered an online class where teachers could earn clock hours online.  On April 15th, the first class met on ZOOM.  Teachers had 7 modules to complete in Canvas online, plus attend 4 weekly virtual meetings at 1 hour each.  The topics covered include: Getting Started, Geology of Wenas Mammoth Mountain, STEM Careers in Archaeology, Paleontology, and Geology, Maintaining Field Records, Laying Out the Dig Site Unit, Excavation, and Identification of Findings.  The first cohort registration filled, over 60 students, within one week.  The second cohort also filled quickly with an additional 60 plus students. a 3rd Cohort is planned for August.The ZOOM meetings were broadcast from the Wenas Mammoth Foundation’s educational facilities on Wenas Mammoth Mountain.  Mark and Bronwyn thought this would work out well, as they would have artifacts and tools accessible if students had any questions regarding what was found and what tools were used at the dig site.The topics that are in the Canvas program are divided into modules.  Each module consists of a lesson plan, Power Point presentation, videos, quiz and a discussion. One of the goals of the WMF is to give teachers’ resources in which they can utilize and bring local earth science into their classroom.  Teachers were asked how they would incorporate what they learned into their classroom.  Here are a few of their comments:   “This will fit right in and gives my students greater appreciation for the rock formations that surround them in Vantage and the Columbia Gorge.”“This is all great information to use in conjunction with a unit in reading that we use on natural disasters and earthquakes.”“An adaptation of this lesson that works for language arts to have a class do first-person oral narratives focusing on scientists in the fields of archaeology, geology, and paleontology.”“I could use the field records process to help my students collect information that they can write about in class (essay or short argument)”“The use of math is GREAT! In this situation, students will see the need for accurate measurements and how to use the Pythagorean Theorem in real-life!”.”“Using a topographic map would be fun for my students to locate active and ancient volcanoes.”The WMF is also working on lessons that can be available to teachers, students, youth and communities.  We are currently trying to get those set-up into Google Classroom.  Hope to have it available soon.