Day 2 of UTeach Institute PBI Workshop/Field Based Experience at Blanton Museum and McKinney Falls

Today, some of our student teachers took their high school students from Manor New Tech High School on two field trips that serve as culminating events for Projects. Only the Biology groups and Geogebra groups had a field trip component built into their Projects. Yet students who were neither enrolled in Biology nor Geogebra volunteered to come along on the field trips.

The Biology group took their students to McKinney Falls State Park. Since this Project involves the growing conditions necessary for growing native Texas rice, high school students were able test out take the various experiments and hypothesis they’ve generated in class in an outdoor setting. This trip was heavily coordinated and planned by Ms. Ekberg, the master teacher.

The Geogebra group took their students to the Blanton Museum of Art. Their Project involved creating a mathematical language to describe specific works of art in order to thwart art thieves. Geogebra students worked in groups to tour the museum and build mathematical descriptions of pre-chosen works of art. Matthew Chalker, one of the Teaching Assistants for the course, coordinated and planned this experience for the students.

Overall, the trip was well attended by Manor New Tech students, parents, and teachers, PBI students, instructors, as well as a number of visitors in town to learn more about the PBI course for UTeach replication sites. Because of this, the ratio of adult to student sometimes seemed 1-to-1, making the overall experience of the trip very engaging for students. On Monday, the two PBI sections will come together to debrief on the field trip.