K-12 Science AMSTI-UAH
Summer 2022 Professional Learning Opportunties
#AMSTIisSTEM
Alabama is projected to need more than 850,000 STEM-related jobs by 2026. Students need to be equipped with project-based learning, inquiry, and problem-solving skills. Let AMSTI support you in preparing students for the jobs of the future! Join us this summer for high-quality science training!
New to AMSTI K-12 Science?
AMSTI Science Foundational Training is a prerequisite to grade-level science trainings. Teachers new to AMSTI are required to complete this one-day training. The core ideas of Science Foundational Training include:
- AMSTI's mission, vision, and beliefs
- Essential components of science notebooks
- Alabama Course of Study: Science
- Introduction to proficiency scales
- 3D assessment tasks
- Duty of Care
- K-12 science learning progression
KINDERGARTEN SESSIONS
Weather Walk
This 1-day training focuses on seasonal changes and the importance of weather forecasting. Participants use their senses and some meterologist tools to explore temperature, precipitation, wind, and cloud cover. Participants investigate how water changes form and how weather affects humans and other animals. We'll explore the warming effects of the sun by engineering a sandbox suncovering. (ALCOS K Science Standards: 7, 8, 9,10)
June 24, 8:30-3:30 PM
UAH, Shelbie King Hall
Trainers: Cayce Perry & Ann Iott
FIRST GRADE SESSIONS
Sound, Light, & Sky
This 2-day training focuses on developing an understanding of how to observe and manipulate sound and light. Participants explore how to change sound, volume and pitch and develop simple models to demonstrate how sound travels from source to receiver. Participants will also observe and record the patterns of the day and night sky by recording moon phases and creating sundials. We'll engineer a communication device using what we've learned about sound and light. (ALCOS 1st Grade Science Standards: 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9)
June 28-29, 8:30-3:30 PM
UAH, Shelbie King Hall
Trainer: Cayce Perry
SECOND GRADE SESSIONS
Soils & Shores
This 2-day training focuses on the properties of rocks, the components of soil, the results of weathering and erosion, and the role that earth materials have as natural resources. Participants explore how wind and water change the shape of land and compare ways to slow the process of erosion. We'll investigate the power of ocean waves and engineer a solution to beach erosion by creating models. (ALCOS 2nd Grade Standards: 1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 10, 11)
June 15-16, 8:30-3:30 PMUAH, Shelbie King Hall
Trainer: Cayce Perry
THIRD GRADE SESSIONS
Heredity & Diversity
This 2-day training focuses on how individual organisms have variations in their traits that may provide an advantage in surviving particular environments. We'll explore how our knowledge of animals that survived in the past can be inferred by studying fossil characteristics. Participants will investigage how organisms exhibit a variety of strategies for survival, have a variety of observable structures and behaviors, have varied but predictable life cycles, and reproduce their own kind by passing inherited characteristics to offspring. (ALCOS 3rd Grade Science Standards: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
June 1-2, 8:30-3:30 PM
UAH, Shelbie King Hall
Trainer: Shundra Morris
Weather & Climate
This 1-day training focuses on weather in diverse climates. Participants explore the properties of water, the water cycle, and interactions between water and other earth materials. Participants learn how humans use water as a natural resource and depend on new technologies that are being engineered to conserve and protect this natural resource. (ALCOS 3rd Grade Science Standards: 13, 14, 15)
June 27, 8:30-3:30 PM
Session FULL
UAH, Shelbie King Hall
Trainer: Shundra Morris
FOURTH GRADE SESSIONS
Water & Landforms
This 2-day training focuses on using a stream table to explore different interactions between land and water. Participants investigate how runoff causes stream formation; how groundwater forms; how soil is eroded, transported, and deposited; and how water shapes the land. Participants plan, create, predict, and test a landscape to see how the flow of water and the shape of land change over time. (ALCOS 4th Grade Science Standards: 12,13,14,15,16,17).
June 8-9, 8:30-3:30 PM
UAH, Shelbie King Hall
Trainer: Shundra Morris
Animal Studies
This 1-day training focuses on investigating live animals to determine different ways animals receive information using their senses, process that information, and respond to the information in different ways. Participants gather and synthesize information by investigating the internal and external structures of live dwarf African frogs, fiddler crabs, and millipedes to understand how body structure, habitat, survival needs, and behavior support their growth, survival, and reproduction. (ALCOS 4th Grade Science Standards: 9, 10, 11).
June 6, 8:30-3:30 PM
UAH, Shelbie King Hall
Trainer: Shundra Morris
Energy & Waves
This 3-day training focuses on different kinds of energy, the transfers and transformations that occur between them, and how energy is used in the world. Participants investigate the two main types of energy and participate in interactive demonstrations to draw comparisons between them. You will learn about waves by examining energy patterns and making connections to forms of communication. Nonrenewable and renewable energy sources are introduced and participants explore the benefits and detriments of different types of alternate energy. (ALCOS 4th Grade Science Standards: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
June 14-16, 8:30-3:30 PM
Session FULL
UAH, Shelbie King Hall
Trainer: Shundra Morris
FIFTH GRADE SESSIONS
Dynamics of Ecosystems
This 3-day training focuses on setting up two habitats to create an "ecocolumn" in order to observe the relationship between the ecosystems and the organisms living within them. Participants simulate the effects of pollutants on the environment to discover how they can negatively impact the organisms in the ecosystem and how engineers must consider the effects of pollutants on the organisms in a given ecosystem. Participants generate possible solutions to pollution problems and explore the trade-off's necessary to reach mutually acceptable solutions to environmental problems by designing a process to clean an oil spill in a model river. (ALCOS 5th Grade Science Standards: 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16 ,17)
June 21-23, 8:30 - 3:30 PM
UAH- Shelbie King Hall
Trainer: Shundra Morris
Matter & Interactions
This 2-day training focuses on matter and its interactions in our everyday life. Participants investigate with mixtures, solutions, solubility, concentration, and chemical reactions to develop the understanding that matter is conserved when it changes state, dissolves in another substance, and when it is part of a chemical reaction. They also engage in engineering experiences with the separation of materials. (ALCOS 5th Grade Science Standards: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
June 29-30, 8:30 - 3:30 PM
UAH- Shelbie King Hall
Trainer: Shundra Morris
SIXTH GRADE SESSION
Researching the Sun-Earth-Moon System
This 3-day training focuses on how interactions within the Sun-Earth-Moon system cause the occurrences of day/night cycles, length of year, seasons, tides, eclipses, and lunar phases. Students understand the Sun-Earth-Moon system through the use of models, computer simulations, and outdoor investigations. (ALCOS 6th Grade Standards: 1, 3, 11)
June 1-3
8:30 AM - 3:30 PM
UAH - Shelbie King Hall
Trainer: Mary Headrick
Exploring Planetary Systems
This 3-day training focuses on our solar system's planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and meteroids. Students clarify and expland their knowledge of gravity and various planetary features through a series of engaging, hands-on activities, discussions, presentations, and reading selections. (ALCOS 6th Grade Standards: 2, 3, 4, 5, 15, 16)
June 7-9
8:30 AM - 3:30 PM
Kate Smith DAR Middle School
6077 Main St, Grant, AL 35747
Co-Trainers: Stephanie Guffey and Bess Shannon
SEVENTH GRADE SESSION
Studying the Development and Reproduction of Organisms
This 5-day training focuses on cell structure, cell function, and how organisms transfer their traits to the next generation. Activities are centered around what organisms need to survive, grow, and reproduce, as well as how knowledge of DNA and biotechnology has impacted society. (ALCOS 7th Grade Science Standards: 1, 2, 3, 5b, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
June 14-16 and June 21-22
8:30 AM - 3:30 PM
UAH - Shelbie King Hall
Trainer: Mary Headrick
EIGHTH GRADE SESSIONS
Experimenting with Forces and Motion
This 3-day training focuses on how forces and energy transformations make the motion of our world possible. Students investigate the nature of energy, the different forms it can take, the nature of different forces, and how those forces affect the motion of objects. (ALCOS 8th Grade Standards: 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16)
June 7-9
8:30 AM - 3:30 PM
Kate Smith DAR Middle School
6077 Main St, Grant, AL 35747
Co-Trainers: Barbara Hunt and Rachael Willoughby
Electricity, Waves, and Information Transfer
This 4-day training focuses on electric circuit components, optical fibers, neurological disorders, and the storage and use of information. Students design and test real-world technologies for investigating electricity, information transfer, and wave characteristics. (ALCOS 8th Grade Science Standards: 11, 15, 16, 17, 17a, 18, 19)
June 27-30
8:30 AM - 3:30 PM
UAH - Shelbie King Hall
Trainer: Mary Headrick
ASIM High School Sessions
Physics: Introduction to Energy & Momentum
June 10
8:30-3:30 PM
UAH, Shelbie King Hall
Trainer: Dr. Charles Holloway
Physics: Introduction to Forces
June 17
8:30-3:30 PM
UAH, Shelbie King Hall
Trainer: Dr. Charles Holloway
Physics: Introduction to One-Dimensional Motion
This 1-day training focuses on investigating and analyzing the motion of an object in one dimension using graphical and mathematical models. Participants will graphically determine the relationship between circumference and diameter, create equations that describe the motion of a car, use a motion sensor to explore the relationship between the position and time or the velocity, and collect data from a fallying marble to study acceleration. (ALCOS Physics Standard: 1)
June 23
8:30-3:30 PM
UAH, Shelbie King Hall
Trainer: Dr. Charles Holloway
Physics: Introduction to Two-Dimensional Motion
June 24
8:30-3:30 PM
UAH, Shelbie King Hall
Trainer: Dr. Charles Holloway
Physics: Introduction to Rotational, Thermodynamics, & Waves
June 3
8:30-3:30 PM
UAH, Shelbie King Hall
Trainer: Dr. Charles Holloway
Chemistry: Bonding
June 7
8:30-3:30 PM
Kate Smith DAR Middle School
6077 Main St, Grant, AL 35747
Trainer: Dr. Charles Holloway
Chemistry: Intermolecular Forces
June 8
8:30-3:30 PM
Kate Smith DAR Middle School
6077 Main St, Grant, AL 35747
Trainer: Dr. Charles Holloway
Chemistry: The Periodic Table
This 1-day training focuses on using the periodic table as a systematic representation to predict the properties of elements and derive formulas/names of ionic and covalent compounds. Participants will collect and analyze data, create naming rules, and sort and group elements based on their properties to deepen understanding of the importance of valence electrons and the incredible usefulness of the periodic table. (ALCOS Chemisty Standards: 3, 3a, 3c)
June 9
8:30-3:30 PM
Kate Smith DAR Middle School
6077 Main St, Grant, AL 35747
Trainer: Dr. Charles Holloway
Biology: Homeostasis
June 6
8:30 - 3:30
UAH, Shelbie King Hall
Trainer: Mylina Samples Dillard
Biology: Order & Composition
June 7, 8
8:30 - 3:30
UAH, Shelbie King Hall
Trainer: Mylina Samples Dillard
Meet Your AMSTI-UAH/AAMU K-12 Science Specialists
Mary Headrick
Mary is the Middle Grades Science Specialist at AMSTI-UAH. She also serves as a member of the AMSTI Digital Literacy & Computer Science Committee and the AMSTI STEM Committee. She taught middle school science for 25 year before joining AMSTI. During that time, she was named Mobile County Public School's Outstanding Middle School Teacher of the Year in 2003 and Wal-Mart Teacher of the Year in 2008. Mary is a member of the National Science Teaching Association, the Alabama Science Teachers Association, and the Alabama Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers.
Shundra Morris
Shundra is the 3-5 Science Specialist for AMSTI-UAH. She has completed her fourth year in this capacity. Shundra taught 3rd grade for 23 years in Decatur City Schools. She is a governing board member for the AAMU/UAH Regional In-Service Center. As an Engineering is Elementary Ambassador, she helps collaborate with other STEM teachers across the country. She is a member of the Alabama Science Teacher Association and of the National Science Teacher Association. She is also a Common Sense Certified Educator.
Cayce Perry
Dr. Charles Holloway
Mylina Samples Dillard (AAMU)
Mylina is the Alabama Science in Motion Biology Specialist for the AAMU/UAH In-service Center. Mylina previously served as a 7th grade science teacher at Huntsville Junior High School. During her science career, she has taught 7th grade life science, 8th grade physical science, biology, physical science, environmental science, anatomy and physiology, AP biology, forensics, applied biology/physical science, applied math, and psychology. She has GLOBE, AMSTI, ASIM, ARI-PALS, Microsoft Educator, and Apple certifications. She also worked with Workforce Development at Snead State Community College and Wallace State Community College where she participated in summer Biotechnology programs with HudsonAlpha. She has been named Who’s Who Among America’s High School Teachers three times. She was also chosen as one of fifty middle school teachers across the nation to participate in the Society for Science and the Public middle school conference. Mylina holds an Education Specialist degree in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Alabama, a Master’s degree in Biology with a concentration in Secondary Education from the University of Alabama, Bachelor’s degree with a double major in Biology & Psychology from Jacksonville State University, and an Associate’s degree from Snead State Community College. She also has an Advanced Emergency Medical Technician certification from Gadsden State Community College. She has been a certified EMT for 20 years and is a certified basic emergency instructor, also CPR/AED instructor through American Heart.
AMSTI-UAH
University of Alabama Huntsville
188 Sparkman NW
Shelbie King HallRoom 214C
Email: amsti@uah.edu
Website: https://www.amstiuahstem.com/
Phone: 256-824-6156
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1499271690212416/
Twitter: @amstiuah