Traineeships News
November 21, 2017
Growing a Water-Wise Citizenry
Part of iUTAH’s aim is to provide learning opportunities and foster experiences that promote water education for students of all ages. We have worked with our museum partners to create both stationary installations and traveling exhibits reaching well over 400,000 people at 412 public outreach events in the past five years. This number is still growing since many of these displays are still in active use.
August 1, 2016
Bringing Science to the People
What is the best way to help people to understand issues surrounding changing climate and water quality in Utah’s watersheds? If you can’t bring the people to the watershed, the next best way is to bring the watershed to them. That’s what iUTAH has done.
May 2, 2016
Award-Winning Author Coming To SLC
The iUTAH commissioned book Water Runs Through This Book, by Nancy Bo Flood and illustrated by Jan Sonnenmair, has received much recognition and praise from the literary community this year. It has been shortlisted for a Green Earth Book Award, is a finalist in the young adult category for Colorado Author's League 2016 Awards, and winner of the 2015 Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award (SONWA) for young adult literature.
Nancy Bo Flood says, “Water creates watersheds - communities that connect us all.” As both a writer and and educator, she has led discussions using Water Runs Through This Book at libraries, classrooms, museums, and teacher workshops in Utah. On a recent trip to the southeastern corner of Utah, one teacher said Ms. Flood’s “energy and passion…. engaged our students in [activities ranging] from an animated read-aloud with a large group of rapt four-year old preschoolers to a writing workshop for all of our sixth graders.” Copies of the book were handed out at each event.
Bo Flood will be in Salt Lake City the week of May 7 – 13, and will be attending various community events including a teacher workshop held at The Leonardo on May 7.
April 19, 2016
Educator Workshop at The Leonardo museum in Salt Lake City
iUTAH and The Leonardo museum in Salt Lake City are partnering to offer an educator workshop on Saturday, May 7th , 1:00 – 2:30 p.m. Author Nancy Bo Flood will present information about the beauty, mystery, and power of water with the goal of increasing a love affair between participants and water. Basic concepts about water cycles, conservation, watershed, etc., will be discussed. The heart of this workshop will be a variety of hands-on-activities for educators to bring to their classrooms (STEM + Write).
Activities and information are based on Water Runs Through This Book, and include experiencing “walking for water,” assessing daily water use; developing a home water conservation plan; creating a four-part (poetry, narration, interviews, art) statement about “seven ways of thinking about water,” and finally, assessing individual water footprints. Handouts include additional activities plus an annotated bibliography. Activities are designed for students 4th through high school. Registered teachers may bring one adult guest and up to two children (ages 5-12) for free.
at The Leonardo comes from iUTAH EPSCoR.
February 16, 2016
SUU Museums Partner for STEAM Festival
iUTAH researcher Jackie Grant shared news on the 2016 STEAM Festival and Children's Jubilee, which was held February 11-13, 2016 on the Southern Utah University (SUU) campus in Cedar City.
The event featured hands-on exhibitions with a STEAM: Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math theme. Students also learned about film music composition, and were treated to a music and dance performances by both the Southern Utah University Polynesian Club and the Orchestra of Southern Utah.
Grant estimated that 2,000 people attended the three-day event, participating in a wide variety of activities. Elementary school students led by SUU students learned about water conservation and integrating art & circuitry with the MaKey MaKey invention kit. Teachers and university educators were given three hours on their own on Saturday morning to visit and learn at STEAM booths. Among the many activities at the STEAM festival, participants explored structural engineering concepts, created catapults, welded, and learned about molecules.
Dr. Grant, an assistant professor of biology, is also the museum curator of the Garth and Jerri Frehner Museum of Natural History. She was the recipient of an iUTAH Research Catalyst Grant in 2014, which involved museum visitors in green roof infrastructures.
Photo credit : David Paystrup / The Spectrum & Daily News
