Workshops for Teachers
New This Academic Year!!!
Use the links below to jump to a specific title, or just scroll down.
Communication Connection
All Grades
This three session workshop highlights selected forms of communication
that can enhance a language arts curriculum, providing teachers with an
awareness of, information about, and access to several modes of communication.
Each session includes alignment with the newly published Illinois and Chicago
Academic Standards for language arts, plus links to all fundamental learning
areas. Ways to use Lincoln Park Zoo as a learning resource are connected
to each communication mode. Chicago Public School teachers may receive lane
credit for successful completion of this workshop by registering through
the CPS Teachers Academy.
Program Description
How many ways are there to get an idea across? Do we use enough of them
in the classroom? Explore images in the form still pictures, make a video
of the zoo for your students to enjoy, and design a school or class web
page for the internet. Examine cultural images and the messages they communicate
to us. Apply animal image concepts to zoo exhibit design and investigate
how non-human primates communicate without written or spoken language. Find
out how to implement a student photography or video activity with minimal
expenditures, and how to best use Lincoln Park Zoo as a learning resource.
Teachers must bring their school's video camera to one workshop session.
Videotape, polaroid cameras and polaroid film will be provided.
Session I
Saturday, March 21
9:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Session II
Saturday, March 29
9:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Session III
Saturday, April 4
9:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Program Fee: $45
All About Birds
All Grades
This three session workshop introduces birds as a context for teaching
in all fundamental learning areas. Participants receive information and
ideas targeted at utilizing the zoo as a teaching resource, revitalizing
their curriculum, infusing inquiry into all subjects, and addressing new
academic standards. Chicago Public School teachers may receive lane credit
for successful completion of this workshop by registering through the CPS
Teachers Academy.
Program Description
Each workshop session highlights a particular group of birds that lends
itself to use in teaching selected concepts. In addition to personal experiences
with Lincoln Park Zoo's bird collection and keeper staff, participants meet
the zoo's bird ambassadors first hand. Featured bird groups include penguins,
seabirds, cranes, waterfowl, passerines, birds of prey and parrots.
Session I
Saturday, May 2
9:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Session II
Saturday, May 9
9:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Session III
Saturday, May 16
9:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Program Fee: $30
Passages to Wildlife
Grades 2-3
This three-session workshop is designed around the Passages to Wildlife
integrated environmental education curriculum, a four-lesson curriculum
designed to increase students' awareness of wildlife and their role in helping
to conserve the natural world. Each lesson is an independent unit so that
the curriculum can be implemented with or without a zoo field trip component,
and each lesson includes activities that emphasize reading and mathematics
as well as life and social science. Chicago Public School teachers may receive
lane credit for successful completion by registering through the CPS Teachers'
Academy.
Program Description
Help your students to become acquainted with local wildlife and use their
knowledge of these example animals to discover more about animals in general.
Animal classification and adaptation form the basis for study of habitats,
feeding strategies, food chains and the interconnectedness of a biological
community.
Session I
Saturday, July 11
9:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Session II
Saturday, July 18
9:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Session III
Saturday, July 25
9:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Program Fee $60 (includes all three sessions plus two curricula)
Wild Places
Grades K-5
This two-session workshop is designed around natural areas in Illinois.
It is designed to provide teachers with an awareness of, information about
and access to natural environments in Illinois. Innovative teaching strategies
and on-site field experiences are introduced which can be applied in the
zoological park or botanical garden as a setting as well as natural areas.
Chicago Public School teachers may receive lane credit for successful completion
of this workshop by registering through the CPS Teachers Academy.
Program Description
A study of biological communities found in northeastern Illinois includes
examination of zoo species, but also highlights easily obtainable insect,
plant, fungus and protozoan species. Content is designed around Illinois
Department of Natural Resources and Chicago Wilderness materials that highlight
natural sites and significant biodoversity within a short day trip of Chicago
schools.
Session I
[to be announced], July
8:30 a.m. - 5 p.m.
at Lincoln Park Zoo
Session II
[to be announced], July
8:30 a.m. - 5 p.m.
at Spring Valley Nature Sanctuary, Schaumburg
Program Fee: $45
Planet of the Arthropods
Grades 4-12
More than three fourths of the world's animal species are arthropods
(insects and their relatives). They are directly responsible for the survival
of most flowering plants and many animals. They are indirectly responsible
for our own survival! Compare our own vertebrate adaptations with those
of arthropods, examine some local and exotic arthropods from the Lincoln
Park Zoo animal collection, then see spectacular slides of selected representatives
from the major arthropod groups.
[to be announced], July
10 a.m. - 12 noon
Program Fee: $10
Pablo Python Looks
at Animals
Grades K-3
Capitalizing on children's love of animals, this curriculum program combines
hands-on activities with zoo resources to teach science concepts and skills.
Evaluated by the U.S. Department of Education, Pablo Python is aligned with
the National Science Standards and is implemented by specially trained instructors.
Selected activities from this comprehensive $150 curriculum are provided
to teacher participants, and various avenues for funding teacher purchase
of Pablo Python are introduced.
[to be announced], July
10 a.m. - 12 noon
Program Fee: $10
Living Lightly in
the City
Grades K-6
Living lightly refers to people having less impact on the environment.
This workshop title is based upon the nationally acclaimed Schlitz Audubon
Living Lightly in the City curriculum, which provides an interdisciplinary
approach to environmental science activities. By allowing environmental
education to be integrated with all subject areas into existing lesson plans,
this curriculum is easily aligned with Illinois and Chicago Academic Standards.
Teacher participants will receive a copy of the curriculum appropriate to
their grade level (K-3 or 4-6) as well as sample aligned lesson plans.
[to be announced], July
10 a.m. - 12 noon
Program Fee: $25
Teachers may purchase both copies of the curriculum for an additional $25
Science in the Park
Grades K-8
This program is designed to enhance teachers' ability to implement hands-on
activities and to use several Lincoln Park museums as educational resources.
Each session meets from 4:30 to 10 p.m. Friday, then resumes from 8 a.m.
to 4:30 p.m. Saturday. Participants do not stay overnight at any museum.
Each teacher who successfully completes each session of this workshop is
eligible for one hour of graduate credit through Aurora University. A stipend
is not issued for this workshop.
Winter Session:
Friday & Saturday, February 6/7
Spring Session:
Friday & Saturday, May 15/16
Program Fee: $90
Graduate Credit Fee: $45
To apply for any or all sessions, call Hands-on-Minds-on Learning at
312/583-6074.
The Museum Partners
Science Program
Grades 5-8
A collaborative effort between Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago-area museums,
National Louis University, and the Chicago Systemic Initiative, the Museum
Science Program is designed to increase teachers' knowledge of integrated
science as applied within the context of a museum setting. This exciting
and unique program is now offered to an expanded grade range and divided
into three discreet courses during the year. Three hours of graduate science
credit is provided to each teacher who successfully completes each course.
For information on course prerequisites, teacher criteria, program fees
and registration availability, call the Lynne Hubert at 847/835-8280.
University Faculty
In-Services
Lincoln Park Zoo Education Department staff will address your departmental
meetings and provide information on how to enhance your course content by
using the zoo as a resource. Your department faculty/faculty representatives
are also welcome to visit the zoo for an on-site tour and in-service program.
Elementary and Secondary
Faculty Workshops
At your school or at the zoo, a variety of science staff development
opportunities are available. Workshops are implemented by Lincoln Park Zoo
Education Department staff and require a minimum enrollment of ten teachers.
Whole day or half day workshops are available. Workshops can address issues
of concern to teacher participants or may be chosen from the following topics:
- The Zoo as a Living Classroom
- Primate Biology
- Science as a Way of Learning
- Vertebrate Structure & Function
- Successful Observation Techniques
- Endangered Species
- Animal Behavior
- Evolution of Vertebrates/Mammals/ Primates
- Wildlife Conservation
- Ectothermic vs. Endothermic Physiology
Workshop fees are $100 per hour and meet requirements of Eisenhower ISIA
Title II or Senate Bill 730 funds, which can also be used to provide substitutes
teachers.
Lincoln Park Zoo's CPS vendor number is 13882.
To request a faculty in-service or workshop, or for more information
on funding procedures, call Susan Teller-Marshall, Manager of Academic Programs,
at 312/742-2044. When requesting an in-service or workshop, it is helpful
to have three alternative dates selected before you call. | 
