ORAU offers free teacher professional development courses throughout June

ORAU will offer a variety of free professional development courses throughout the month of June to equip STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) educators with valuable new skills and experiences.

All professional development courses are free, but registration is required. All times listed are Eastern Standard Time.

Register for a workshop

• Digital Tools for Reflection and Feedback. Monday, June 5, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. This is a virtual session designed for kindergarten through 12th-grade teachers who will learn how to use Seesaw and Flipgrade to facilitate communication, reflection and feedback in both in-person and virtual classroom settings.
• Digital Breakouts. Tuesday, June 6, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. This is a virtual session designed for kindergarten through 12th-grade teachers who will learn how to create easy and engaging digital breakouts using Google Forms and Genially that can be used for in-person and virtual classrooms for review, practice and remediation.
• Ready for Industry. Wednesday, June 7, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. and Thursday, June 22, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. This is a virtual session for kindergarten through 12th-grade teachers who will learn about Ready for Industry, a free online resource provided by the Tennessee Chamber that creates a bridge between standard education and the knowledge needed for success in the most in-demand industries. Participants in this session will learn how to navigate online lessons, set up classes and make a unique plan for implementation in the classroom.
• Google Suite Tips and Tricks. Monday, June 12, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. In this virtual session, kindergarten through 12th-grade teachers will learn tips and tricks to make documents, sheets and slides work better for them and their students. Participants will also look at Canva and how it can be used to make their products look more professional with little effort.
• CODAP and Google Forms. Tuesday, June 13, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. In this virtual session, kindergarten through 12th-grade teachers will learn the basics of how to use the Common Online Data Analysis Platform (CODAP) program and Google Sheets to manipulate data with their students.
• More Than a Field Trip. Wednesday, June 14, 9 a.m. to noon. This is an in-person session on ORAU’s main campus, 100 ORAU Way in Oak Ridge, designed for pre-kindergarten through fourth-grade teachers. Classroom educators know about museums and other places of informal learning as field trip destinations, but these organizations offer so much more for K-12 educators. In this workshop, teachers will learn about examples of services and resources provided by museums, zoos, aquariums, planetariums and more.
• Design Thinking Basics. Thursday, June 15, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. This is a virtual session for kindergarten through 12th-grade teachers. Participants will learn the basics of the Design Thinking Process and how to apply it in classroom instruction. Design Thinking teaches innovative problem solving through questioning, feedback and multiple iterations.
• Minecraft Education – Introduction for Beginners. Friday, June 16, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. In this virtual session designed for kindergarten through 12th-grade teachers, participants will learn the basics of Minecraft Education and how it can be used in nearly any subject and at any grade level.
• Minecraft Education – Advanced. Friday, June 16, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. This virtual session for kindergarten through 12th-grade teachers will delve a bit deeper on how to create and host worlds where students can collaborate on projects or work independently.
• Intro to Coding. Tuesday, June 20, 8:30 a.m. to noon. During this virtual session for fifth- through ninth-grade teachers, the course will explore the new "Intro to Coding" resource in Learning Blade, which is designed to provide an easy way to introduce students to coding. The course contains 20 hours of online and offline student learning including robust teacher lesson plans.
• Learning Blade: Hundreds of Ready-to-Use STEM Lessons. Tuesday, June 20, 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. During this virtual session for fifth- through ninth-grade teachers, participates will discover how Learning Blade and Career Blade highlight how STEM principles are used to solve real-world problems. In this workshop, teachers will learn how to navigate the online lessons and offline resources, set up classes and make a unique plan for implementation in their classrooms.
• Adaptation and Exploration. Thursday, June 22, 8 a.m. to noon. This is an in-person session on ORAU’s main campus, 100 ORAU Way in Oak Ridge, designed for kindergarten through eighth-grade teachers. Join the team from Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont to get away from your seat and explore outside while encouraging observation, conversation, and reflection. During this session, we’ll put on the learner hat and explore a hands-on, plug-and-play lesson to use in your schoolyard aligned to standards on patterns and adaptations.
• Minecraft Education – STEM and Project Based Learning. Friday, June 23, 9 a.m. to noon. This virtual session for kindergarten through 12th-grade teachers will focus on how students can use Minecraft Education as a STEM tool and how it can easily be used for PBL opportunities. Teachers will learn the successes and roadblocks of piloting Minecraft Education.
• Wishes Granted: Finding Grants for Your Classroom. Monday, June 26, 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. This is a virtual session designed for kindergarten through 12th-grade teachers who have ever wondered how to write a grant. Whether private or public, there is money out there waiting for you to ask. This workshop will share tips, tricks and how to spend just one weekend a year on grant writing.
• Vectors: Concepts and Technologies to Improve Comprehension by Appealing to Vectors’ Geometrical Nature. Tuesday, June 27, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. This is a virtual session designed for sixth- through 12th-grade physics, math and physical science teachers. This workshop proposes a novel and unified teaching approach by relating a vector’s abstract nature of magnitude and direction to its geometric nature as length and unit vector.
• Math and Movement. Wednesday, June 28, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. This is an in-person session on ORAU’s main campus, 100 ORAU Way in Oak Ridge, designed for kindergarten through second-grade teachers. Math & Movement is designed to keep kids feeling good about math. Math & Movement stations use kinesthetic strategies to enhance learning specifically connected to the Common Core math standards.
• Vectors: Concepts and Technologies to Improve Comprehension by Appealing to Vectors’ Geometrical Nature. Thursday, June 29, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. This is a hybrid session designed for sixth- through 12th-grade physics, math and physical science teachers. Teachers attending in person will meet in the classroom on ORAU’s main campus, 100 ORAU Way in Oak Ridge. This workshop proposes a novel and unified teaching approach by relating a vector’s abstract nature of magnitude and direction to its geometric nature as length and unit vector.
• Math and Movement. Friday, June 30, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. This is an in-person session on ORAU’s main campus, 100 ORAU Way in Oak Ridge, designed for third- through fifth-grade teachers. Math & Movement is designed to keep kids feeling good about math. Math & Movement stations use kinesthetic strategies to enhance learning specifically connected to the Common Core math standards.