Luther College
EN-11: Continuing Education

Whole Wellness, Whole Curriculum
The rising trend of childhood obesity and inactivity has become a national focus. Today’s schools are being asked more and more to help solve and manage this growing health crisis. This course will provide teachers with valuable training on how to enhance their curriculum with ideas and activities that create links between health, food, activity and our environment. Schools, and more specifically teachers, need approaches that enhance what they already do, match the new core curricular standards, and provide opportunities for students to weave 21st century interdisciplinary themes of Health Literacy into core subjects. Creating a curriculum infusion where connections are made between our levels of physical activity, the food choices we make, and how we treat our environment, will have a significant impact on student views of their own health. The integration of these ideas directly links concepts across disciplines such as math, science, reading, writing and physical education. When health messaging moves beyond just the lunch room and PE classes, and into the regular classroom, the overall message to students is that school is a healthy place to be and that the choices we make can have a far reaching effect on our health, our community and our environment.

STEM in the Garden
School gardens provide the backdrop for meaningful learning for students of all ages. Gardens serve as living laboratories that provide a context for inquiry based learning that is hands-on and naturally interdisciplinary in concepts. Many of these concepts can be applied directly to the STEM framework, engaging students in learning about the natural world using science, technology, engineering and math. School Gardens are innovative solutions to dealing with many of the current issues schools are trying to tackle including childhood obesity, nature-deficit disorder, and decreasing academic motivation. Gardens offer real world learning and problem solving opportunities. In this workshop, teachers will learn how to comprehensively use a school garden to teach across curricular areas and provide a framework for STEM education.

Geology Uncovered
Through hands-on activities (appropriate for classrooms) and discussion, teachers will recreate the processes that give Iowa its unique geology. Teachers will learn strategies for teaching geology in a multi-disciplinary approach, and how to create inquiry projects with their students. A Saturday field day with Environmental Geologist, Laura Cleveland is included with this course. Laura is the Environmental Geology professor at Luther College in Decorah. Teachers will take a tour of geologic formations unique to Northeast Iowa, including nearby quarries, and caves. Teachers will hunt for fossils, and learn how to make fossil casts. In addition, teachers will spend time exploring Northeast Iowa’s waterways, learning about water quality, and waters role in Iowa’s landscape formations. Teachers will study various soil types; learn about what makes soil, and soil conservation. Taking the geologic information teachers have learned during the course, teachers will learn how to integrate geology into other core areas. We will discuss the new Iowa Core Curriculum Standards related to geology, and ways to use geology as a forum for teaching 21st century skills. We will also discuss available resources in the various districts throughout Northeast Iowa.