Minds of Sesame Street Part of Bay Campus Science Leadership Retreat Wednesday

NARRAGANSETT – Representatives from Sesame Street, Seattle public schools, the Carolina Biological Curriculum, the Rhode Island Department of Education, University of Rhode Island professors and the school districts of South Kingstown, North Kingstown, Narragansett, Jamestown and East Greenwich will be attending an education retreat on Wednesday.

URI’s Guiding Education in Math and Science Network 2011 Leadership Retreat is being held at in Narragansett from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The events are being held at the Coastal Institute Building – Click here for a map of the Bay Campus.

Professors and Rhode Island teachers will present overviews of the program and the resulting gains in science and math made by southern Rhode Island schools that participate in the network.

The keynote speaker will be Betsy Rupp Fulwiler, of Seattle Public Schools and author of Writing in Science, who will discuss students’ development of scientific thinking skills.  Personnel from Sesame Workshop, which produces the popular hit Public Broadcasting Service children’s shows Sesame Street and The Electric Company, will also be participating. 

Sara Sweetman, the director of education for the URI science education network, has been working regularly with actors, producers, set designers, game developers and book divisions of Sesame Workshop to help them incorporate best practices in science education in their shows. Sweetman and teacher-leaders in the program will use video clips and work samples to show how active, inquiry-based science and math teaching and learning improves teacher and student performance. 

As part of the program, participants will design and build parachutes that they will drop from a balcony.

The event runs from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., and Fulwiler will speak from 9:05 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. The parachute drop will take place at 11:30 a.m.

Release provided courtesy of the URI Department of Communications and Marketing.