Stephanie Blum from St. George’s School of Montreal attended the Schwartz Family International Leading Science Teacher Seminar this past summer and these are her comments:
This summer I had the incredible privilege of attending a 10 day seminar at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. Thanks to Mr. Scott Armstrong who brought this opportunity to my attention and encouraged me to go, I found myself boarding a plane for what I expected to be an exciting educational experience.
Upon arriving at the Weizmann Institute and meeting Zahava Scherz, the extraordinarily dedicated and insightful seminar chair, I knew immediately whatever expectations I had were going to be greatly surpassed. Twenty-seven educators from around the globe (Canada, USA, Israel, Britain, Singapore, and Germany) participated in the Schwartz Family International Leading Science Teacher Seminar, sharing ideas about how to stimulate student interest and excitement in science by teaching in a relevant and contextualized manner. We took part in workshops such as “the chemistry of wine” and “the physics of music” and explored the research laboratories of Weizmann scientists involved in groundbreaking discoveries. We also toured the solar tower where research is being conducted on how best to harness the energy from the sun. On a field trip to the sand dunes, we observed animals and their habitat and, when the sun set, peered through telescopes to observe Jupiter and the stars above.
With the goal of collaboration driving the seminar, we developed international projects meant to continue and involve our students throughout the upcoming year. As an added bonus, the personal chemistry between all of the participants led us to bond throughout the seminar and the efforts of the wonderful coordinators at the Weizmann Institute ensured that we would continue to communicate and collaborate upon returning to our respective countries.
This seminar was not merely an educational professional experience, it was amazingly enriching and inspiring and I consider myself extremely privileged to have been given the opportunity to learn from and take part in such a wonderful collaboration of science teachers.
--Stephanie Blum