Episode 41 – Karle Delo & Erica Posthuma – Connecting the AMTA Community

02/01/2023 |

In this episode, Mark talks with Karle Delo and Erica Posthuma, both of whom work on the social media presence of AMTA. They talk about the various ways to find AMTA resources and other teachers online as well as which places are particularly geared toward sharing modeling ideas with administrators or others new to modeling instruction, and which places are most geared toward talking about putting the methodologies into practice. There are so many ways to connect online. Find AMTA where you already spend time online!

Guests

Karle Delo

Karle Delo taught middle school science for 10 years, and has been a Modeler since 2016. Currently, she is an Instructional Coach and Technology Integrationist in Mid-Michigan, and leads Middle School Modeling distance learning courses. Karle noticed the transformation in quality discussions, depth of knowledge, and student ownership of learning through the adoption of Modeling Instruction. As the new Director of Marketing for AMTA, she aims to expand AMTA’s audience, and introduce more educators to the transformative nature of Modeling.
Instagram

Erica Posthuma

Erica Posthuma has been a science educator since 2001, teaching in both public and private school settings. She attended her first modeling instruction workshop after ten years of teaching, and it completely changed her way of teaching. Erica serves on the board of AMTA and is very active on social media, supporting and sharing ideas with others from all over. Erica is also an associate editor for the Journal of Chemical Education’s ChemEdXchange.
Twitter

Highlights

[3:19] Erica: “We started this connectED conference in response to the pandemic when we were unable to meet in person for our summer conferences. And we were trying to provide the community a way to connect, even virtually… Now in the upcoming one in February, I know we have four different breakout sessions, and we were very deliberate in our choices for those so that we span all the disciplines. We have biology, we have physics, we have astronomy, we have chemistry. We have something for everybody.

[12:09] Karle: “Summary tables are a great tool for organizing information. I know that, a lot of times when we use modeling instruction, there’s no textbook. So, what do the kids go back to? A summary table is a great way to give students a concrete thing to go back to where they are recording their learning throughout the process. So George Nelson does a great job of walking you through how to use that and where to find resources (on our YouTube Channel)”