The Teachers Institute for Tulsa is thrilled to announce the lineup of seminars for the 2024-25 academic year. While covering each core academic subject, our seminars range in topics from the science of energy to the biological anthropology, monsters in American history to the craft and impact of poetry. Our aim is to give participating teachers the opportunity to learn content knowledge in a new field that can apply to a variety of grade levels and state academic standards.
For the STEM seminars we’re thrilled to offer “The Energy Landscape: From Fossil Fuels to Solar Rays” led by TU chemistry professor Gabriel LeBlanc1 and “An Introduction to Biology Anthropology” led by TU professor of anthropology Miriam Belmaker2. One of our goals for this year’s STEM seminars was to offer lab-based, interactive seminars that covered two core fields in science: chemistry and biology. These subjects are covered consistently in K-8 and are given dedicated classes in 9-12. Both seminars can be used by teaching looking to refine their preexisting knowledge of these STEM fields and/or strengthen their expertise in areas that could use improvement.
Both seminars are interdisciplinary, as well. The energy seminar can be used by math teachers trying to bring in real-world contexts as they teach mathematical concepts. And it includes overlap with fields such as engineering and technology, covering such topics as turbines, solar energy, and energy storage. The biological anthropology seminar emphasizes the role of critical thinking and problem solving inherent to STEM disciplines, and the development of scientific arguments and reasoning. Both seminars are dedicated to providing teachers with the tools they need to teach effectively and approach their subjects in new and interesting ways.
Our humanities seminars likewise offer interdisciplinary experiences as they emphasize the relationship between history and culture. “Monsters in America,” led by TU professor of history Jan Wilson3, explores 20th and 21st century American history through the ever-evolving figures of monstrosity. Wilson aims to include both historical context and readings that contextualize monsters that fill our cultural imagination: “from King Kong in early American cinema to the mutants of 1950s science fiction to the Mind Flayer of Stranger Things.” By studying monstrosity as a political, social, and cultural phenomenon, this seminar will ask fellows to consider what Wilson refers to as “collective social anxieties” that surround such topics as “religion, science, race, gender, and sexuality during the time periods in which they emerge.”
Our other humanities-focused seminar is led by Quraysh Ali Lansana4, a TU professor and poet, and titled “Rooted Words: Poetry and Culture.” Lansana’s approach understands poetry as both a deeply personal genre but also one that speaks to other experiences and lives; what Lansana refers to as “windows into worlds and cultures other than one’s own.” Lansana wants fellows in his seminar to understand this dual nature inherent to poetry by exploring both the questions of craft poets face when writing and questions of impact in the larger world. The seminar will be especially attuned to the needs of all K-12 educators by studying various works that speak to different ages, backgrounds, and ethnicities.
Click here to find seminar descriptions.
