Experiential Learning

Earth Ed is a two-part program designed to help educators teach great science through professional development and long-term in-house outreach.

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Photo Credit: Doug Levere

Explore

Making science curriculum relevant is often a challenge for teachers. With assistance and support from research faculty and graduate students, explore how to incorporate local issues into your curriculum. Make the science relevant!

Incorporate real and locally relevant community projects and science into your curriculum with assistance from graduate students and research faculty. Heather Thuman (far left) and Kristin Wolfram (center) from Williamsville District High School, and Brian Stuhlmiller from Cuba-Rushford District High School taking sediment cores from Bizer Creek on UB North Campus.

Explore local nature centers and other educational resources in and around Buffalo-Niagara. Work with UB faculty at these locations! EarthEd 2021 Educators with Dr. Holly Schreiber at Penn Dixie Fossil Park and Nature Reserve, Hamburg, New York.

Touch and see the very things you teach from real life Glaciologists, Geochemists, and Climate Change Researchers. Chris Riley, educator from Lancaster District High School, and Dr. Jason Briner, Climate Change Group at UB.

Learn about Geohazards research and how research into volcanoes, landslides, and earthquakes is saving lives worldwide. Learn how you can model simple and inexpensive lessons brought to you by our faculty into your classroom. Ingo Sonder at the UB Geohazards Field Station.

Dr. Don Hass, Director of Teacher Programing at PRI (Paleontological Research Institution) at Cornell, Ithaca, New York, disusses carbon emission bi-products with UB-EE Educators and shares PRI resources on Climate Change.

Discover

Don’t have a research lab? Use your city as a laboratory! Carbon uptake, water supply, contamination and pollution solutions, migratory bird surveys; it is there to be studied. Discover how to incorporate citizen science into your curriculum and bring your classroom into the community.

Paul Caban, educator from Depew District High School using simple and free global information system (GIS) applications to integrate data from collected sediment cores at Bizer Creek, UB North Campus.

Environmental Studies professor Sandy Geffner with his class on a field trip to Art Park. Take a nature walk down Main Street, Anytown, USA!

Implementing STEM curriculum can be done anywhere! Discover how the city around you can be investigated and how your students can incorporate their new found content knowledge, math and analysis skills to solve local issues. Environmental Scientists from both the Department of Environment & Sustainability and the Department of Geology at UB can show you how any environment can make ecology relevant.

Dave O’Donnell (center) and Dr. Nick Henshue (right) at Eastern Monarch Butterfly Farm, Clarence New York

David Robison, educator from Wilson District High School, removing a 200 micron sized foraminifera from sieved sediments of the Oatka Formation, a Devonian (372 myo) shale sampled by Dr. Kimberly Meehan, in LeRoy, New York.

Ivan Parmuzin, researcher with UB Remote Sensing Lab, and Travis Nelson, IT and Lab-Dude Galore, assisting teachers with tablets supplied through outreach grant funds through the Remote Sensing Lab and Department Chair and Professor Beata Csatho.

Dr. Tracy Gregg, UB expert on planetary volcanology (INTER-planetary volcanology!), shows how to integrate GoogleEarthPro and NASA data sources for classroom use in Earth Science and Astronomy courses.

Experience

Memorizing content and formulas is the foundation of learning; experiencing the wonders of STEM is where the growth really happens. Connecting to the world around us only truly happens through interaction. Experience moments unattainable through chalk and talk.

Experiential learning has repeatedly been shown to benefit students comprehension, retention, engagement, and self-efficacy in all disciplines. Paul Parrinello, educator from Depew District High School. and Jerry Krajna, educator from Riverside High School Buffalo, examining their fossil finds at Penn Dixie Fossil Preserve in Hamburg, New York.

Amy Balling, educator from Lancaster District High School, testing out a viscosity lab activity presented by Dr. Stephan Kolzenburg.

Comparing fine-grained basalt pre- and post – lava at the UB Geohazards Field Station.

Dr. Elizabeth Thomas, Climate Change Group at UB, discussing her work on geochemical proxies and biomarkers as they relate to Climate Changes in the Artic and Greenland.

Dr. Chris Lowry, Water and the Environment Group at UB, introduced our educators to physical hydrology and water level monitoring and citizen science collaborations for their classroom.

EarthEd is Looking for Sponsors

Why should you sponsor?

This is a no cost educational opportunity for K-12 professionals in your area! Currently, EarthEd was launched in 2021 solely through volunteer commitments from research faculty and graduate students at the University at Buffalo with a limited budget supported by in-house donors. While our inaugural year was a great success, we firmly believe that we can do more. With support from local businesses and individuals, through financial or service donations, we will be able to accept more educators into our program and give them support in their classrooms throughout the school year. Consider becoming a sponsor today! Email us at earthed@buffalo.edu.

About Us

This outreach program is run by the clinical faculty in the Departments of Environment & Sustainability and Geology at the State University of New York at Buffalo. To contact Dr. Nick Henshue with EVS directly, click below.