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• Private Residence

NOTE:  Please enter the building on the south side. Look for a sign indicating that the HUB is meeting here. Travel up the stairs, take a left and follow the hall to the end. We will meet in Room 206 (Laura Koselak’s room).

We will provide bus transportation to and from Cheyenne Mountain Junior High School to the private home and to Cave of the Winds. However, if unforeseen circumstances occur with the scheduled bus, teachers may need to drive to these location themselves or carpool with each other.

Tracy Jackson is a bright and enthusiastic scientist and science teacher.  She has been the Education Director at Catamount Institute since 2008, a local non-profit with a mission to "inspire ecological stewardship."  Catamount meets it's mission through outdoor and environmental education programs for youth and adults, including field trips, after school clubs and camps.  Tracy has always had a deep love for environmental science and has been exploring cave ecosystems since she was twelve years old.  She pursued her love of the underground and environmental science, earning her undergraduate degree in geology from the University of Georgia. After putting her geology degree to work teaching in the field at education centers like Nature's Classroom, the Audubon Center of the North woods, and the Boy Scouts' of America's Philmont Scout Ranch, Tracy earned her M.A.T. at Colorado College in Colorado Springs. 

Dave Jackson is a skilled caver and electrical engineer.  He is a life member of the National Speleological Society and has been digging holes and wiring projects since his childhood in New York state.  He has Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  Dave uses his engineering talents both for CaveSim and for Agilent Technologies (where he designs chips for scientific instruments).  CaveSim was invented and created by Dave in 2008 after he experienced a cave rescue training in which a real cave was damaged.  Since then, over 2000 people have learned about cave conservation by crawling through CaveSim at events as far away as West Virginia.  Dave has a passion for both engineering and cave conservation, and he believes strongly in passing his enthusiasm on to young people.  In addition to working a full-time engineering job, Dave gives generously of his time to facilitate K-12 CaveSim programs.  Dave hopes to have the opportunity to share CaveSim and the message of cave conservation with schools all over Colorado, increasing student interest in caving and engineering careers. 

Lynne Williams is a biology teacher in District 11 at Coronado High School and instructor at Pikes Peak Community College

Bring your own sack lunch. We will be eating at the Cave of the Winds. We will provide water and soft drinks, as well as afternoon snacks.

Two rotating groups: (1 hour each)

Group 2: Easy Cave Education Activities for Secondary Classrooms (Tracy Jackson)

Cave of The Winds Special Teacher-Tour by Tracy and Dave Jackson.

Lunch at Cave of the Winds

CaveSim: Bringing a Cave to your School  (Dave Jackson)

HUB participants have the opportunity to don helmets and other real caving gear to crawl through CaveSim's artificial cave.  All participants will learn about cave conservation, cave formation, bats, and underground ecosystems.  Our cave includes flowing water, artificial cave formations, fake bats, cave paintings and more!  These features in CaveSim are outfitted with electronic sensors connected to a central computer to show participants how carefully they cave.  Students love the computer-game-like electronics paired with the mystery and intrigue of navigating dark cave passage by lamp light.  HUB participants will learn about the K-12 programs that CaveSim offers, and about how they can have CaveSim visit their schools.  This cost-effective, convenient alternative to visiting a real cave brings a wealth of cave resources right to your school. (We also do events at our site for an even lower cost.)  We tailor our K-12 programs to fit teachers' classroom curriculum.  Our most popular topics include:

Easy Cave Education Activities for Secondary Classrooms (Tracy Jackson)
Find out how easy it can be to teach about caves in your classroom.  Spend an hour learning hands-on cave lessons with certified Project Underground Trainer Tracy Jackson.  She'll also share activities from Catamount Institute's Underground Ecosystems lesson collection.  You are guaranteed to learn something new to take back to your classroom.  Lessons include: 

Cave of The Winds Special Teacher Tour with Tracy & Dave Jackson

Join local cavers from the Southern Colorado Mountain Grotto for a teacher's tour of Cave of the Winds. Get a in-depth introduction to caving and the cave trip programs Cave of the Winds offers to school groups.  Tour the cave's winding walking passages learning about the biological influences, from human to the microbiotic, that make Cave of the Winds what it is today.  Learn from the experts, hearing caver's perspectives on White Nose Syndrome, a mysterious fungus killing North American Bats, the role bacteria play in cave formation, and the impact humans have on caves and underground resources over time.  Whether this is your first trip into a cave or a hobby you enjoy regularly you are sure to learn something new on this trip to share with your students.

Synthetic Biology:  Integrating Engineering Principles into the Biology Classroom

Synthetic Biology is part Science, part Engineering, part Imagination and Design.  By combining engineering with molecular biology and microbiology, teachers and students are exposed to principles that not only help them in the designing and testing of these biological systems but a context in which to learn these concepts.  Examples of synthetic systems include bacteria that smell like bananas as illustrated in the above diagram, as well as, light-sensitive bacteria that can serve as pixels in a photograph.  This approach gives teachers a way to explore some of the standards that are harder to address in a typical biology classroom.  This workshop will provide an overview of synthetic biology with the opportunity to experience a lab and classroom activities from the online BioBuilder website, www.BioBuilder.org. 

Cave Presentations

Cave Activities

Synthetic Biology

Labs

Lab 3

BioBuilding: Synthetic Biology for Teachers: Lab 3. (2012, January 18). OpenWetWare, . Retrieved 21:32, April 3, 2013 from http://openwetware.org/index.php?title=BioBuilding:_Synthetic_Biology_for_Teachers:_Lab_3&oldid=576627

Lab 4

BioBuilding: Synthetic Biology for Teachers: Lab 4. (2012, January 24). OpenWetWare, . Retrieved 21:30, April 3, 2013 from http://openwetware.org/index.php?title=BioBuilding:_Synthetic_Biology_for_Teachers:_Lab_4&oldid=577862

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