Summer 2012

Development and Refinement

Over the summer, the WOW Lab team has been hard at work revising and editing a number of activities that had been developed in previous summers and earlier in the year. All of the blueprints have been translated into French and are available on our website.

Reach-out Workshops

The WOW Lab team has been out and about all over the city of Montreal and surrounding areas presenting workshops to students and teachers alike. In April, the WOW Lab headed to the Queen’s University Horizon conference where two days of workshops were presented to over eighty pre-service teachers who are attending Queen’s Education faculty. The WOW Lab also presented a two day workshop at the STEM symposium in May. Following these workshops, the summer WOW Lab team has been presenting at many summer camps in the area to campers ranging in age from 5-15 and teachers.

Alignment with Nationwide learning objectives

The WOW Lab's blueprint activities have been closely aligned with specific learning objectives outlined by the Quebec Progressions of Learning. We hope that our blueprints will assist teachers in helping their students achieve a comprehensive understanding of key grade-level concepts identified by Quebec leaders in science education.

In-Service Teacher Workshop

In April and May ten teachers from various boards across Quebec attended a two-day workshop at McGill. These teachers were exposed to the WOW Lab activities on the first day and worked together with the WOW Lab team to develop comprehensive assessments for various activities. The teachers then returned to their schools, implemented the WOW Lab activity and recently developed assessment. On the second day of the workshop, teachers gathered to reflect on the chosen assessments and discuss how the WOW Lab activities benefit student learning. Leaders in the science community such as directors and science consultants also attended these workshops.

Pre-Service Science Teaching Courses

The WOW Lab Blueprints have been used in the High School Science methods class. In these classes, pre-service teachers were able to complete many of our activities, including the building of a speaker and Jell-o. These pre-service teachers will soon enter into the workforce and the WOW Lab activities will become an invaluable resource to their teaching.

WOW Lab Gala

The WOW Lab will also be hosting a one day workshop for over 70 in-service teachers on August 21st at McGill University. The teachers will be exposed to the WOW Lab activities and have a chance to try out all of them. Each participant will leave the workshop with a kit of materials to prepare them to return to their classrooms and complete the WOW Lab activities with their students. This Gala marks the culmination of the dissemination phase of the project.