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Innovative Minds Conference

June 10-12, 2024

Welcome to the Innovative Minds Conference! Join us for professional development workshops, tours, and venue visits geared towards enhancing student learning and inventive mindsets. In our workshops, discover new tips, tricks, and techniques aimed at fostering student creativity, originality, collaborative mindsets, communication abilities, and problem-solving skills. Together we can build the “innovative minds” of tomorrow.

Please register for each day and/or tour you will attend. Add all your chosen items to your Cart and then complete check-out. 

MONDAY REGISTRATION

TUESDAY REGISTRATION

WEDNESDAY REGISTRATION

June 10-14, 2024

Amber Room
2nd Floor Mountain America Museum of Ancient Life
2929 N Thanksgiving Way
Lehi, UT 84043

Rose Room
Velvet Room
2nd Floor Tower Deli Building
3003 N Thanksgiving Way
Lehi, UT 84043

Join us for this free conference provided by Thanksgiving Point and iSEE partners. This conference is in-person and online, and all online workshops will be broadcasted through Zoom. Attendees to the Innovative Minds Conference will have the opportunity to receive relicensure points.

 

Schedule

8:30 – 9 am

Amber Room: Check-In and Gathering

9 – 10:15 am

Keynote
Amber Room
Presenter: Margaux Judkins, Thanksgiving Point
Explore the advantages of inquiry-based learning for student engagement and development. Through the lens of Thanksgiving Point’s own Inquiry Learning Framework, dive into the essentials of inquiry with hands-on practice and discover low-pressure methods you can use to start implementing a culture of Inquiry into your own classrooms.

10:30 – 11:45 am

Museum Collections Care
Rose Room
Presenter: Kylin Cummings, Thanksgiving Point
Learn about Thanksgiving Point Institute’s museum collection and how it helps us achieve our mission of bringing the joy of learning and wonders of the natural world in our guests. We collect scientific specimens, casts, recreations, and ephemera associated with scientific research. We don’t just have dinosaurs! Learn how we properly care for our collection and ensure their preservation for generations to come.

How To Get the Most out of Your Field Trip
Velvet Room and Virtual Session
Presenter: Leslie McBride, Thanksgiving Point
Embark on an educational adventure with these tips to maximize your field trip experience! From researching the destination to engaging with experts, discover how to make the most of every moment. Explore, learn, and create lasting memories on your next field trip!

12 – 1 pm

Amber Room: Lunch

1:15 – 2:30 pm

Kinesthetic Learning in the Classroom
Velvet Room and Virtual Session
Presenter: Jason Trump, Clark Planetarium
From Moon phases to motions of the Earth to gravity and inertia, Clark Planetarium has developed and tested multiple modalities for teaching the Utah SEEd standards kinesthetically. Kinesthetic learning, or learning through movement of the body, has received support as an effective way to engage students and to help them to process new or difficult information. In our hands-on session, we will lead you through a series of activities that demonstrate kinesthetic learning. Then we will discuss ways to incorporate similar activities in your own classroom. All levels of physical ability are welcome.

A Scientific Attitude Will Innovate Your Thinking
Rose Room
Presenter: Dr. Heath Ogden, Utah Valley University
Learn how a good scientific attitude (critical thinking) can lead someone down a path to reanalyze why the think or accept certain things to be “true”. I will use evolution as an example of this process.

2:45 – 4 pm

Wetlands in the Classroom
Rose Room
Presenter: Taylor Dewey, Thanksgiving Point
How can you teach about wetlands with limited resources? This workshop will give you ideas both for field trips or in classroom activities.

Real World Engineering Design
Velvet Room and Virtual Session
Presenter: Olivia Weinheimer, Thanksgiving Point
Learn how to teach students the engineering design process while solving real world engineering problems.

4:15 – 5 pm

Mountain America Museum of Ancient LifeTour: Paleontology
Learn about the ancient world and Thanksgiving Point’s paleontology team while exploring the recently renovated Mountain America Museum of Ancient Life.