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Nebraska Math & Science Summer Institutes 2012

Professional development courses for K-12 teachers

2012 Course Catalog

 

NMSSI Course Catalog Filters
All Courses|Math|ScienceAll Grades|K|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|12All Regions|Western|South Central|North Central|Eastern
The catalog of courses displayed below has been limited by the filters you have selected above (in bold)

Click course numbers for full course information Audience Legend Primary Audience Highlight =primary audience Secondary Audience Highlight =secondary audience

NMSSI Courses for Mathematics Teachers

EDPS 991 - Cognition and MotivationPaired With: MATH 810T (Lincoln)

Audience: K123456789101112
Credit Hours: 3
Location: Lincoln
Dates: June 4-8, 11-15, 1pm - 5pm
This course is designed to provide mathematics and science teachers with a framework for thinking about how human cognition, motivation and self-regulation influence students and instructional practices. More specifically, this course emphasizes core concepts in educational psychology.

MATH 804T - Experimentation, Conjecture & Reasoning

Audience: K123456789101112
Credit Hours: 3
Locations: Lincoln, Columbus
Dates: multiple
This course focuses on problem solving, reasoning and proof and communicating mathematics. The overall goal for this course is to bring participants to the next level in the development of their mathematical habits of mind: A person who is an effective mathematical thinker has a toolbox of skills and knowledge to experiment, conjecture, reason, and ultimately solve problems.

MATH 805T - Discrete Mathematics for Teachers

Audience: K123456789101112
Credit Hours: 3
Location: Kearney
Dates: June 25-29, 8am - 4:30pm
Designed to deepen knowledge of discrete mathematics as it relates to topics covered in middle through high school curricula. Course topics (such as graph theory and counting techniques) are introduced through "hands-on" explorations through which various problem-solving strategies are emphasized.

MATH 806T - Number Theory & Cryptology for Secondary Teachers

Audience: K123456789101112
Credit Hours: 3
Locations: Lincoln, Scottsbluff
Dates: multiple
This course focuses on basic number theory results which are needed to understand the number theoretic RSA cryptography algorithm (an encryption algorithm which is in use today to secure information sent via the internet). The course emphasizes connections to middle level mathematics and promotes a deep understanding of the integers and their properties. Elementary methods for encoding and decoding are introduced to elucidate the nature of cryptology. These methods are readily adaptable as enrichment activities in the classroom.

MATH 810T - Algebra for Algebra TeachersPaired With: TEAC 851P (Lincoln), EDPS 991 (Lincoln)

Audience: K123456789101112
Credit Hours: 3
Locations: Lincoln, Lincoln
Dates: multiple
The main goal of the course is to help Algebra I teachers better understand the conceptual underpinnings of school algebra, and how to leverage that understanding into improved classroom practice. Emphasis is placed on developing the habits of mind of a mathematical thinker.

MATH 811T - Functions for High School TeachersPaired With: TBA

Audience: K123456789101112
Credit Hours: 3
Location: Lincoln
Dates: June 4-8, 11-15, 8am - noon
A study of functions in the pre-calculus, high school mathematics curriculum from an advanced viewpoint. Functions will be investigated by examining their utility in more advanced courses and applications, enabling teachers to better understand the important aspects and appropriate emphasis of a concept. Content will include polynomial, circular (trig), and exponential functions, and their connections to calculus.

MATH 812T - Geometry for Geometry TeachersPaired With: TEAC 892 (Omaha)

Audience: K123456789101112
Credit Hours: 3
Location: Omaha
Dates: June 18-22, 25-29, 8am - noon,
The main goals of the course are to strengthen your mathematical background for teaching Geometry. We will focus on undamental concepts of Euclidean geometry, with explorations of non-Euclidean geometry for contrast. We will make extensive use of manipulatives and the dynamic geometry software GeoGebra.

MATH 896 - Mathematical Modeling for High School TeachersPaired With: TEAC 892 (Lincoln)

Audience: K123456789101112
Credit Hours: 3
Location: Lincoln
Dates: July 9-13, 16-20, 8am - noon
This course is designed around a series of projects in which students examine the mathematics underlying several socially-relevant questions which arise in a variety of academic disciplines (i.e. real-world problems, such as how to use mathematics to understand the spread of a disease).  Students learn to extract the mathematics out of the problem in order to construct models to describe them. The models are then analyzed using skills developed in this or previous mathematics courses.   

STAT 892 - Statistics for High School TeachersPaired With: TEAC 892 (Lincoln)

Audience: K123456789101112
Credit Hours: 3
Location: Lincoln
Dates: June 4-8, 11-15, 8am - noon
This course will cover the statistical concepts typically taught in a high school Statistics class. These include: linear regression, two-way tables, sampling distributions, statistical inference for means and proportions, chi-square tests, and inference for regression. Some experience with basic statistical concepts (mean, standard deviation, elementary probability) is necessary. The course will be inquiry-based, and will emphasize applications and statistical thinking. Software and calculators will be used for most analyses.

TEAC 800 - Inquiry into Teaching and Learning

Audience: K123456789101112
Credit Hours: 3
Location: Lincoln
Dates: June 4-8, 11-15, 18-22, 1:30pm - 4pm
This course will introduce you to the assumptions about what counts as knowledge underlying particular approaches to scholarly inquiry and will help you identify the factors, forces and audiences that shape any and all forms of educational research.

TEAC 851P - Learning and Teaching Secondary MathematicsPaired With: MATH 810T (Lincoln)

Audience: K123456789101112
Credit Hours: 3
Location: Lincoln
Dates: July 9-13, 16-20, 23-27, 1pm - 5pm
Exploring innovative methodologies related to teaching and learning secondary school mathematics.

TEAC 892 - Teaching High School StatisticsPaired With: STAT 892 (Lincoln)

Audience: K123456789101112
Credit Hours: 3
Location: Lincoln
Dates: June 4-8, 11,15, 1pm - 5pm
The course will focus on current research and practices of teaching, learning and assessing statistics from multiple perspectives. Participating teachers will be challenged to understand statistics at a deeper level and become more effective through improved lesson design, reflection, and collaboration. This course is designed to be taken concurrently with STAT 892: Statistics for Statistics Teachers.

TEAC 892 - Integrating Geometry Teaching and LearningPaired With: MATH 812T (Omaha)

Audience: K123456789101112
Credit Hours: 3
Location: Omaha
Dates: June 18-22, 25-29, 1pm - 5pm
The course focuses on current research and practices of teaching, learning and assessing geometry from multiple perspectives. Participating teachers will be challenged to understand geometry at a deeper level and become more effective through improved lesson design, reflection, and collaboration. This course is designed to be taken concurrently with Math 896: Geometry for Geometry Teachers.

TEAC 892 - Teacher Learning about Reasoning & Sense Making in Secondary MathematicsPaired With: MATH 896 (Lincoln)

Audience: K123456789101112
Credit Hours: 3
Location: Lincoln
Dates: July 9-13, 16-20, 1pm - 5pm
This course will focus on three main issues: exploring the nature of reasoning-and-proving in secondary mathematics; establishing criteria for judging the validity of mathematical arguments; and, developing strategies for modifying current textbook tasks to provide more reasoning opportunities for students. Course materials include math tasks, cases drawn from real secondary mathematics classrooms, related student work, and prompts for mathematical and pedagogical discussions and reflections. This is an excellent course to help secondary teachers make immediate improvements to their mathematics classrooms in order to better prepare students for the NeSA-M.

TEAC 923 - Seminar in the Curriculum & Teaching of Secondary School Mathematics

Audience: K123456789101112
Credit Hours: 3
Location: Lincoln
Dates: in person: June 1, July 2-3, 8am - 5pm, online: TBA
TEAC 923 is an advanced course in mathematics education research. To enroll in this course, you should hold a master's degree in mathematics/education and/or have taken TEAC 800 and 801 or equivalent.

This course is designed to give K-12 math teachers an opportunity to read and analyze research in the areas of mathematics teaching, preservice teacher education, and professional development. We will examine various ways of studying these topics and analyze what has been learned from their study. The main goal of this course is for teachers to become knowledgeable about the theoretical and empirical research literature on mathematics teaching and teacher education. The course is also designed to help teachers cultivate practices that are important for scholarly work such as critical analysis, argumentation, and writing.
NMSSI Courses for Science Teachers

CHEM 898 - Matter Matters: Chemistry, Society & Popular Culture

Audience: K123456789101112
Credit Hours: 3
Location: Lincoln
Dates: June 4-8, 9am - 5pm
The goal of this course is to generate enthusiasm for chemistry among young people. The course will explore many ways to increase the appreciation of chemistry among both science-interested and non-science-interested students. One focus will be chemistry as an intellectual enterprise that is deeply embedded in our society, with references and imagery from popular culture. A few low-cost, safe, and effective laboratory exercises will be introduced.

GEOS 898 - Methods in Geoscience Field Instruction

Audience: K123456789101112
Credit Hours: 3
Location: Fieldwork
Dates: June 8 (on campus), June 9 (depart at 8am), June 23 (return by 5pm)
A 15-day, inquiry-based geology field course in which participants will enhance their inquiry skills and experience learning (and camping) in the great outdoors across Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming. The primary aim of this course is to improve educators' ability to teach inquiry, gain knowledge and understanding of geoscience, and to demonstrate effective teaching methods for 6-12 learning environments. Participants will discover, observe and study a variety of natural phenomena, focusing on Earth processes and geological history. Enrollment is limited to 12.

GEOS 898 - Geology of North America

Audience: K123456789101112
Credit Hours: 3
Location: Lincoln
Dates: July 9-13, 16-20, 1pm - 5pm
This course will discuss how the geology of the North American continent contains classic examples of nearly every geologic process that has acted to form the crust of the Earth (e.g the San Andreas Fault, Yellowstone National Park, Nebraska Sandhills) and will explore the processes of plate tectonics and the way that the surface of the Earth (and life thereon) has evolved throughout geologic time.