MOSAIC 2010

There are times in your professional development when you need more than a workshop or a one-day seminar to move your career to the next level. There are times when you need expert advice and leadership from people who share your goals and can help you to grow through their own unique experiences. Sometimes you simply need one-on-one time with the person who can help you become an even better teacher.

That’s the idea behind MOSAIC – amazing teachers from diverse backgrounds coming together to share best practices and to learn how to create unforgettable learning experiences. MOSAIC is a unique opportunity to spend one-on-one time with Steve Spangler in a small group-learning environment where you decide the depth and variety of science content you want to explore from Steve, while sharing your own valuable experiences with the rest of the group.

Steve Spangler and his team created the MOSAIC training model after listening to comments and reading responses from the brief survey sent out to all of the past four years of participants of Science in the Rockies. Here are the top requests…

• To meet in a smaller group setting with more hands-on learning time
• To brainstorm new activities specific to my current curriculum needs
• To explore Steve’s latest and greatest science demonstrations and activities that didn’t make it into the Science in the Rockies curriculum
• More time to interact on a one-to-one level with Steve Spangler (just why anyone would want to spend more time with Steve we’re not sure… but we’re listening to your requests )

MOSAIC 2008 Dates
The MOSAIC Group will meet June 23-25, 2010 at the Denver West Sheraton Conference Center in Lakewood, Colorado. This is the same great facility Science in the Rockies 2009 participants enjoyed last summer. We kick off everything with a special dinner on Wednesday night at 6:00 PM with late-night, flaming marshmallow blaster wars and large-scale quicksand activities to follow. Thursday is a full day of great hands-on science from 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM (and maybe something special on Thursday night). Friday is another full day of science with a wrap-up at 3:00 PM. If you can find a late flight out of Denver on Friday night, that's great... but you might want to stay through Saturday or maybe even stay for the weekend.

Who Should Attend MOSAIC?
The MOSAIC experience is by invitation only… and this is your invitation. The group is limited to 40 participants, each of whom must have attended either Science in the Rockies (2004-2009) or the National Hands-on Science Institute workshops from 2000-2003. This experience is truly designed for the teacher who is looking to take their science teaching to the next level using best practices and proven learning strategies that go well beyond the typical make-and-take workshop approach.

What Will I Learn?
The MOSAIC curriculum was developed by Steve Spangler and includes many of the hands-on activities and science demonstrations that are an extension or outgrowth of the original Science in the Rockies curriculum. It’s Steve’s goal to take you beyond doing more activities using Windbags, Baby Soda Bottles, Insta-Snow, Water Gel, Slime and other Spangler classics, and to share many of the lessons he used during his twelve years of teaching in the Cherry Creek School District and currently uses in the Littleton Public Schools.

We could wind Steve up and turn him loose to do a two-day, non-stop, side-splitting marathon of cool science demonstrations and hands-on activities… and you’d certainly have a great time. But we know that you would rather take the more academic approach and discuss the learning experiences at a much higher level. That’s why Steve will present everything using old-fashioned slides and overhead transparencies… and then he’ll break everyone up into discussion groups to write your own mission and value statements.

ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND? Can you imagine Steve being forced to use overhead transparencies? Within 30 seconds of the lights being dimmed, the entire overhead projector would burst into flames and projectiles would fly through the air! Rest assured that Steve will have a full line-up of his latest and greatest demos and activities, in addition to the following…

• Energy, Electricity and Magnetism
• More Connecting Science with Children’s Literature
• Secrets to Real Tie-Dye Without the Mess - Tips and tricks from the far out people
• Successful Science Fair Strategies - How to run your own science fair boot camp
• The Science of Toys - How to use toys to teach scientific concepts
• The Science of Leadership - Cool science demos to illustrate leadership concepts
• Force and Motion – Clever Approach to Simple Machines
• Science Lessons that Spread Like a Virus – Science & Technology

But there’s more…

Customized Curriculum
The more part comes from each participant – that’s you. One of the reasons for limiting the class size to no more than 40 people is to allow time for each participant to get feedback on a new unit or creative solutions for overcoming obstacles in the current curriculum. But maybe you have another area where you need some help or want some creative feedback. Every participant will be invited to do one or more of the following (just for starters)…

• Discuss a problem or a concern you’re having with a lesson or activity
• Revitalize a science unit with ideas for new activities
• Share a favorite science demonstration
• Punch up a presentation with a little showmanship
• Bring new life into a less than exciting science unit

Registration Information
In designing the MOSAIC experience, we also listened carefully to your feedback about hotel, food, ground transportation and all of the other little details that turn into a much bigger headache. When it comes to organizing this kind of event, no one does it better than our own Carly Reed. Carly has been working hard to put together a special, one-price package which covers...

• Two full days of training (plus Wednesday evening) with Steve Spangler
• Two nights hotel at the Sheraton Denver West in Lakewood, Colorado
  
• Ground transportation to and from the airport
• All of your meals and snacks - Wednesday dinner, Thursday breakfast, lunch and dinner and Friday breakfast and lunch
• $500 of classroom take-home materials and curriculum supplies
• Special Thursday night excursion (it's a secret)

The all-inclusive price is $1,995 per person. Your only additional expense is the cost of transportation to and from Denver – we’ll take care of everything else.

All registrations are taken on a first-come, first-serve basis. Click on REGISTER NOW to reserve your space in this unique science training experience. If you have any questions about the curriculum or the special package deal, please contact Carly Reed directly at (303) 798-2778.

As the name suggests, the MOSAIC experience is truly a unique opportunity for a small group of highly motivated teachers to share their tried and tested teaching strategies and to take home creative ideas to elevate their teaching of science to a whole new level. We hope to see you in Denver this June.