The Education Discovery Forum offers a dynamic professional development experience for 6th - 12th grade teachers interested in implementing innovative curricula across multiple disciplines. Through this professional development experience, participating teachers will gain hands-on experience in the most recent integrated curricula developed through the National Integrated Cyber Education Research Center (NICERC). Cyber Science and Physics are two such curricula that will be showcased this year at the forum.

The 2013 Forum is all about connections. Cyber Science and Physics are two hands-on, project-driven curricula that integrate STEM fundamentals and liberal arts. Through hands-on projects, teachers see new and innovative ways that their students can be engaged. The Education Discovery Forum creates a collaborative environment to foster relationships between K-12 teachers and university faculty.

For the Education Discovery Forum, NICERC encourages schools to send two teachers per course to ensure a built-in support mechanism. For the Cyber Science thread, NICERC encourages schools to send one natural science (math, chemistry, physics...) teacher and one liberal arts (English, history, social studies...) teacher. For the Physics thread, NICERC recommends one math and one science teacher.

Daily Activities

Group Sessions: These sessions will provide an opportunity for teachers to experience hands-on projects and understand connection points and common elements that are embedded within both the Physics and Cyber Science curricula.

Breakout Sessions: The breakout sessions will allow teachers to explore the curricular content further using projects that are designed to engage students and drive to the fundamentals of the courses.

Evening Sessions: The EDF offers multiple learning opportunities for teachers to choose from in the evening.

Help desk - These sessions are open to all teachers for assistance with Boe-Bot programming and additional help on the day's lessons.

Sensors - These sessions allow teachers, who are experienced with the Boe-Bot, an opportunity to learn about a variety of sensors and how they can best be utilized within course lessons.

Physics Update - These sessions provide an update on the physics lessons done throughout the day's breakout sessions. The target audience is teachers who attended the Cyber Science breakout sessions and who are either interested in learning about the Physics curriculum or will be teaching both Cyber Science and Physics at their high school.

Advanced Math - These sessions target advanced math teachers and provide information about the latest NICERC curriculum being developed and how the projects will be incorporated into the classroom.

Informal Challenges - These sessions are offered to all teachers and provide hands-on challenges and information about informal learning opportunities offered through NICERC. 

Final Event - This session provides an interactive and exciting environment for all teachers to apply their content knowledge in a team-oriented STEM challenge.

Friday Activities
(Separate registration needed)

Habitudes: Famous author Dr. Tim Elmore, who has written Habitudes and Generation iY , will lead the Habitudes sessions. Dr. Elmore will examine various images and experiences that form people's leadership habits and attitudes. Habitudes teach timeless character and leadership principles. These sessions are available upon registration and open to counselors, administrators, and teachers.