Teacher Professional Development

The David J. Sencer CDC Museum offers professional development teacher workshops designed to support science education and the incorporation of public health concepts into existing classroom curriculum. These workshops are a result of our partnerships with external educational organizations, and divisions and offices within CDC.

All workshops require an application. Please note that teachers who fail to attend a workshop after accepting a slot forfeit their rights to attend future workshops. Each workshop is described below.

Teach Epidemiology

Audience: High-school science, health, math, and social studies teachers

Topic: Epidemiology, the study of health and disease in populations

Description: Teach Epidemiology is a five-day workshop on teaching epidemiology in the high-school classroom. The workshop has two components. The first is a condensed graduate-school level epidemiology course to give teachers background knowledge, and the second component focuses on ways teachers can integrate epidemiology cases studies into existing curriculum.

Teacher Commitment: Participants are expected to arrive on time each day, actively participate, complete workshop assignments, and remain in the classroom for the duration of the workshop.

Website: To learn more about workshop content, please visit www.teachepidemiology.org.

For questions regarding the application or workshop logistics, contact Lynda Flage at lkf4@cdc.gov.

Med Myst: Teaching About the World of Pathogens Through Web Adventures

Audience: 6-8 grade science teachers

Topic: Infectious Diseases, pathogens, critical thinking methods

Description: This workshop is for middle school science teachers who are looking for ways to teach the topics of infectious diseases, pathogens, and the scientific method in an exciting and relevant context. The workshop will focus on the use of the interactive MedMyst materials developed at Rice University. MedMyst, short for Medical Mysteries, teaches middle school kids about infective diseases and the human body response system and is a free site that integrates technology, microbiology, health practices and critical thinking skills for middle school students. The site features several missions, each with its own content and standards.

During this two-day workshop teachers will have the opportunity to play the missions and also learn other hands-on activities to use in the classroom. During the second day of the workshop teachers will also be given a tour of CDC’s museum, and will learn from CDC professionals about CDC’s work in controlling and preventing infectious diseases.

Teacher Commitment: Participants are expected to arrive on time each day, actively participate, complete workshop assignments and remain in the classroom for the duration of the workshop.

Website: To learn more about workshop content, please visit http://medmyst.rice.edu. 

For questions regarding the application or workshop logistics, contact Lynda Flage at lkf4@cdc.gov.