Roughly 30 Newtown kindergarten to twelfth grade science educators participated in this year's Summer Institute from July 23 to 25, held at Reed Intermediate School, to learn from Connecticut Science Center in Hartford presenters about aspects of the state-adopted Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).More information about the Connecticut Science Center is available at ctsciencecenter.org.

The Summer Institute is offered by the school district during the summer to educators to help expand their educating knowledge. Last year's program focused on writing strategies. According to Assistant Superintendent of Schools Jean Evans Davila, the presenters from the Connecticut Science Center worked with teachers in groups to offer lessons on incorporating the state-adopted science standards into the curriculum.

According to information Ms Davila shared about the Summer Institute, which she arranged with the Connecticut Science Center, it was designed to be immersive and hands-on. Over the three days of the program, teachers learned from different professional development specialists from the center.

Through the Summer Institute, Ms Davila said she hopes teachers learned a "sense of comfort" to launch lessons, explore science practices, and understand how to help students create models and add to discussions of scientific claims.

In one classroom, sixth grade to twelfth grade educators worked with Connecticut Science Center Professional Development Specialist Dr Gail Emilsson. Dr Emilsson explained on July 25 that the teachers were "getting to know" science and engineering practices. After two days of immersive activities, Dr Emilsson said the educators were working on developing ways to use what they had learned in their own classroom lesson plans.

In another classroom, Connecticut Science Center Professional Development Specialists Rachel Shurick and Heather Lichtlin were working with kindergarten to fifth grade educators. According to Ms Shurick, the group worked on a lesson on bee decline. Catherine Violet Hubbard (CVH) Animal Sanctuary Education Director Henryk Teraszkiewicz brought in bees as part of the lesson.

"This is probably my favorite day so far," said Hawley Elementary School second grade teacher Brianne Vazzano, adding that she enjoyed the "engaging" lesson combined with the CVH Animal Sanctuary's assistance.

Ms Shurick said she hopes the educators who participated in the Summer Institute better understand NGSS.

"We hope that they have an understanding now to support their students' science understanding," said Ms Shurick.