How Old Is Your Universe? is a hands-on workshop consisting of four full days, divided into two parts. The first two days focuses on how we know the age of the cosmos, the second two days on how we know the age of the Earth.

HTML version of preliminary schedule for the 2008 workshop. Click Here

Background knowledge in the earth and space sciences will be provided, as well as specific content related to the workshop topics. Inquiry-based activities and field trips will be the focus of the workshop.

Involving students in the process of discovery

The workshops will present curriculum supplements and provide ready-to-implement, student-centered investigations that encourage students to take responsibility for their own learning and to formulate and ask their own questions. Students develop problem solving techniques and critical thinking skills as they complete activities designed to help them master the material. As students work through the exercises they discover the need for mathematics, various ways of representing data, and physical principles such as force and motion, energy transformations, and the properties of light.

Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate

Scientists study the natural world through inquiry - observation, experimentation, and modeling.  The workshop material will be presented in the same manner that we wish for our students to learn science. Students will be making observations, posing questions, examining sources of information, using tools to gather, analyze, and interpret data, making predictions, proposing explanations, and communicating results.

Help your students improve their science/math test scores

All workshop material is aligned with the National Science Education Standards and the Kentucky Core Content for Assessment. We have explicitly addressed each of the Academic Expectations {Scientific Ways of Thinking, Patterns of Change, Systems, Scale and Models, Constancy, and Change Over Time} as well as all of the core content items from Earth and Space Science and many others from Physical Science and Mathematics.

Grade 7 Assessment:
SC.M.2: Structure of the Earth System, Earth's History, Earth in the Solar System

Grade 11 Assessment:
SC-H-1.2: Structure of Atoms;
SC-H-1.5: Conservation of Energy and Increase in Disorder;
SC-H-2: Energy in the Earth System, Geochemical Cycles, Formation and Ongoing Changes of the Earth System, and the Universe;

Registration Requirements

Register early. Acceptance is first come-first served, with a limit of 20 participants.
Must be currently teaching grades 5-8 science or math.
No pre-requisite knowledge is required or assumed.

Support for participants

1. Professional development experience providing practice with student-centered, inquiry-based science learning classroom activities.
2. Overview of earth/space science content and specifically addressing how we know the ages of Earth and the cosmos.
3. Unique interactive environment, fostering collaborations between pre-service, in-service, and university science teachers.
4. Intimate learning opportunity, with attendance limited to 24 total participants, 12 in-service and 12 pre-service teachers;
5. Complete curriculum materials and Teacher Guide, printed and CD-ROM, to support the workshop training and readily enable implementation in your classroom.
6. Stipend provided, $200 paid upon acceptance of plan for implementing workshop material in classroom
7. Reimbursement for travel expenses - a hotel room will be provided for the two Friday nights for all particpants who live 45 miles or further from Bowling Green.
8. Continuing support from WKU astronomy and geology faculty, providing: answers to questions, assistance with field trips, and classroom visits that reinforce your curriculum.