A WiSSH Lesson Simulation is a classroom-adjacent activity that illustrates some sort of tool or practice in action. It could look like a lesson as you would implement in your classroom or simply a space for folks to informally try something out. Mostly, we just want folks to have an opportunity to experience some of the neat approaches folks are using. They’ll have the chance to dig into the utility of the tools and practices they observe during the lesson simulation in the sessions and roundtables. Lesson simulations will last about an hour.

A WiSSH Community of Practice Session is a semi-structured discussion where a facilitator shares some tool or practice they use in their classroom so that folks in the community and reflect on how that approach could be productive in their environment. There are many ways to teach science and we want folks to have the opportunity to discuss with other folks how to refine their practice. Effectively, what the “session” looks like can be flexible as well – so long as folks have the opportunity to talk about teaching together 😊. We will have a couple “Session” times spread throughout the day, lasting up to 45 minutes.

Roundtable conversations will be loosely structured – mainly focused on questions and considerations that folks brought up throughout the day. For example, someone might observe a neat tool for teaching high school learners during the lesson simulation and during the session they ask, “how might I do this is my middle-school science classroom?” During the roundtables, folks could grab a table and discuss ways to align that tool with middle-school science learning goals. Roundtables will also have some more open discussions for folks who “just want to chat assessment” or “would like to use more equitable approaches”.