STEAM Institute offers teachers science and art skills

 Margo Klass will be one of the instructors during the STEAM Institute.

Teachers will have the opportunity to put a botanical feather in their caps this summer, thanks to a course offered by SNRAS, Boreal House, OneTree Alaska and the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District.

Dubbed the STEAM Institute: Illustrated Botanical Books, the workshop is set for July 6-13 at the UA Museum of the North, Georgeson Botanical Garden and the T-field.

This Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math Institute offers teachers the opportunity to work with professional botanists and artists in a scientific and artistic exploration of the flora of the local boreal ecosystem.

Scientific topics and activities will include using and creating taxonomic keys, documenting and pressing plant specimens, data collection and scientific journaling. Artistic topics and activities will include field and in-house sketching, botanical illustration, page layout and bookbinding. The culminating work will be a collaborative illustrated botanical book, based on historical herbals, to be printed and hand bound, with copies for all class members.

By the end of the course, participants will be able to adapt course materials to meet specific Standards for Alaska Teachers, Alaska Arts Content Standards and Alaska Science Standards.

Students will:

• Become acquainted with the flora of the local boreal ecosystem.
• Learn how to collect, press, identify and document plant specimens.
• Become familiar with using online and hard-print taxonomic keys and general information about plant species encountered during the course.
• Practice artistic observation and sketching to become comfortable with the basics of botanical illustration.
• Collaboratively study a wide variety of local plants while acquiring the skills of scientific botanical observation, notation and illustration.
• Participate in creating a collaborative illustrated botanical book.
• Produce models, materials and lesson plans for adapting botanical book workshop process to the classroom.

The schedule is July 6 from 4 to 7 p.m. and July 9-13 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The course, NRM 595P, is offered through Summer Sessions and the fee is $440. Instructors include Jan Dawe, Margo Klass, Mareca Guthrie, Chris Pastro and Karen Stomberg.

Contact Jan Dawe, adjunct forestry professor, for further information.