Sand Creek Teachers Attend State Science Conference

two science teachers sitting together at a table
Sand Creek science teachers Hope Bigwarfe (left) and Stacey Sebert.

Science Teachers Association of New York State (STANYS) held their annual conference in Rochester this month and two Sand Creek Middle School science teachers were in attendance, Hope Bigwarfe and Stacey Sebert.

The conference concentrated on teaching 3-Dimensional learning standards that the NGSS (and NYSSLS) are based on. Some workshops they attended together were on How to use Tree Rings and Ice Cores to Discover Ancient Climates, and using Claims, Evidence, Reasoning (CER) in the classroom.

Bigwarfe attended a workshop on the History of Earth’s Atmosphere while Stacey attended the Physics of Baseball and won a virtual field trip to the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame for her seventh grade students. Both attended a keynote address about Climate Change by SUNY Albany professor Dr. Mathias Vuille and a Antarctic Ice Shelves presentation by Dr. Margie Turrin with the Earth Science Teacher Institute.

As a New York State Master Teacher, Sebert also attended a Master Teacher conference which showed how to use break out boxes in the classroom. Both Sand Creek teachers are excited to bring back new ideas from the conference to their respective classrooms and South Colonie.