Throughout the course of the school year 2012 several members and contributors to the book ¡Ciencia Boricua! ensayos y anécdotas del científico puertorro came together to offer professional workshops for teachers of grades K-12 on how to use the book as a complementary tool to contextualize and enhance the science curriculum in Puerto Rican classrooms. The company Pfizer, Puerto Rico, facilitated several of these workshops.  

The workshops consisted of the following components:

• Explaining the purpose of the book and its contents
• Discussing an exercise based on an essay in the book and explaining how this exercise could be used in a science class
• Defining the concepts covered in the essay
• Discussing ideas of how to adapt the essays to different levels or classroom topics (e.g. Spanish, Art, Science and History)
• Explanaining how to navigate the CienciaPR.org website and the resources that teachers can find on the site.
• Teachers also received a thematic guide of the book's essays.

In the final exercise, teachers met in groups to discuss the essays and share their ideas and opinions about how to use them in the classroom setting. At the end of the workshops, a survey was distributed to meassure the effectivenss and relevance of the workshops and the perception of the book as a complementary tool in the classroom.

Thus far, more than a 100 teachers from private and public schools have participated in the workshops, which have been received with enthusiasm and excitement.

Resources

If you are an educator interested in complementing their class with essays that provide examples of Puerto Rican scientists and that narrate science from a Puerto Rican perspective, we encourage you to review the following resources:

• The book ¡Ciencia Boricua! ensayos y anécdotas del científico puertorro
• Thematic guide of the essays in the book
• Instructions for the CienciaPR workshops focused on science classes
• Instructions for a workshop focused on Spanish class
• Presentation on how to use the book in the classroom
• Evaluation report on the teacher workshops (2012-2013)
• Page for the Project Ciencia Boricua, which used the book within a larger intervention to study the effect that contextualizating science can have in the interest of children in science.

If you are interested in participating in a future workshop, please contact us. We will contact you the next time we hold one.

 

We have very milited funds for these workshops, most of which consist of donated time and travel. If you are a company interested in giving back to the community by hosting one of these workshops, please contact us!