This workshop is suitable for both new and experienced AP teachers. The daily schedule will be a mixture of required synchronous time, independent work time, and optional office hours if you have questions. Over the course of the week, we will work to develop a pacing guide for the entire course including labs and explorations for every unit. For teachers that can take students outside we will explore strategies. For those that cannot, we will explore alternatives that are just as good.

We will also go over quite a few affordable labs that are easy to set up. In my workshops, I provide lab activities that can be affordably done in most schools. I know what it was like to teach in schools with tight budgets. I use “green chemistry” where labs focus on safer chemicals. This saves money and keeps you safer at work. It isn’t good to generate hazardous waste as we discuss the problems with hazardous waste in the course. For labs, it is my goal to find ways to make them safer, cheaper, and easier while getting better results.

We will explore how to write an audit, use AP Classroom, and reduce your workload when you return to work. You won’t need lab materials for this APSI, we will discuss the labs without you needing to be in your classroom. By the end of the week, we will work together for you to generate a detailed syllabus for next year. If you already have that done, please just bring it along.

No Items to Bring were specified.

I received a BS in Zoology and a BS in Biological Aspects of Conservation from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and an M. Ed from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Before becoming a teacher, I did field research in limnology in Wisconsin, and marine biology with Sea Education Association. I began teaching in 1999. My teaching experience includes outdoor classrooms, on the decks of tall ships in Connecticut and New York. I have experience in public schools, private schools, rural schools, urban schools, and boarding schools. Over the years I taught in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Colorado, New York, and Connecticut. With my experience I bring empathy to every teacher, from every classroom, from every perspective.

I moved to Costa Rica with my husband in 2020. Here we share our home with two rescue dogs: Linda and Spike. I continue to work in education remotely from here. In my spare time I work in the garden, study Spanish, try to learn the names of everything I can, and sometimes write a column about conservation and ecology for a local publication. My husband and I also help the Costa Rican government and environmental groups fight illegal deforestation in the country by helping document the destruction, analyze documents, and provide GIS support. My life here has made me a better consultant because now I have a better understanding of what it is like to move to a different country and learn the language.