Planning a Workshops

Earth and Space Science News

Planning a Workshop

This page was developed as part of the NASA-funded Sustainable Trainer Engagement Program by LPI
Return to Earth & Space Science Classroom Activities and Resources

Initiate your planning:
- Start with “What is a picture of success?”
- Then what are your goals & objectives
- What are your resources — do you have the people and equipment you need to make this happen?
What types of activities to include?
- Begin then with your engagement activity (although you may change this as you work through it)
- Include a variety of activities (visual, kinesthetic, etc)
- Plan to include practical activities (such as make & take) that they can use immediately
Fill in other features
- What types of background information can you include?
- Should you include content on misconceptions?
- Prepare for extra questioning
- Do you have access to all of the materials
- Share how it works in the classroom
Finalizing details
- Plan it to the minute, but prepare to be flexible and change some things
- Decide on handouts (electronic and/or paper copies)
- Participant feedback

Partners can strengthen the workshop planning through brainstorming
Partnerships can improve the overall plan
Multiple sources of knowledge:
- Content
- Knowledge about the participants
- Technology
- Knowledge about the location
- Facilitation abilities
Different styles of presenting will make a better workshop
Different angles (learning methods, perspectives) can make a better workshop
Changing presenters can keep participants’ attention (every 20 minutes, participants need a new perspective)
Having partners can provide the presenters with breaks as they hand off tasks
Partners can help remind each other of things they’d planned & discussed
Partners can provide confidence to make the task easier and less daunting (although some partners can actually be intimidating)
A partner can bring you back when you or the group gets off-topic
Partnering with someone can help develop their skills
Partnering can make a colleague feel valued—you are acknowledging their expertise

Focus on readiness standards or tested TEKS
- May want to include grade alignment
Teachers attending must be able to use activities/content immediately
Content should be student-focused
Needs to be fast-paced
Should be very well-structured
May not want to make large numbers of copies of all activities for this; put materials online for easier access
Difficult to include and address teacher misconceptions; prominent and important student misconceptions can be mentioned but there may not be time to dedicate to this
Can include:
- Breakdown of TEKS
  - Including wording, testing, expectations re: Bloom’s taxonomy
  - Only 2–5 minutes on this
- Vocabulary (from the topic and from the standard)
  - Possibly including tricks/ mnemonics
  - Only 1-2 minutes to cover these
- Probe or think-pair-share at the beginning
- List of materials
- Further resources/ websites
- Sign-in to get their email
  - You can send them more documents later
  - They can enter their email on your laptop
- Vocabulary, resources, activities can all be gathered into a single 1-page handout
- Some type of evaluation or feedback from participants