Local teachers spent Saturday learning about innovative ways to teach science to students.

On Saturday July 16, educators from across northern California spent the day at Bayer’s West Sacramento research facility to participate in the site’s Making Science Make Sense^® teacher workshop, an event designed to engage, educate and inspire science and STEM learning.

The five-hour workshop provided a diverse and high-energy experience for the 32 teachers from Kindergarten to high school who participated. Bayer employees led the group through two comprehensive science experiment demonstrations on the topics of soil and chromatography, a sensory/smell experiment as well as fun and simple activities with basic science principles, including Alka-Rockets and Balloon Skewers.

The workshop also included a tour of the Biologics laboratories and an engaging career panel. Three Bayer scientists, representing Formulation Science, Computational Life Science and Microbiology, shared their educational and career paths with the teachers, who are now equipped to share this real-world knowledge back in the classroom with their students.

“I was struck by how many women were involved in the event, and the science careers and pathways that several employees spoke about,” said Elk Grove teacher, Donna Lee. “I look forward to having the opportunity for my students to experience hands-on science at my school site.”

Through monthly school visits and community STEM engagements, West Sacramento’s Making Science Make Sense team is making a big impact on area students, reaching more than 4,200 students in the Sacramento area in 2015 alone. But Michael Thomas, an active Bayer employee and volunteer, believes that reaching teachers through events like this workshop is just as important.

“They’re on the front lines, so to speak, where they interact with the kids on a day-to-day basis,” said Thomas. “So we want to also get them involved and get them as excited about STEM and the future of science as we are.” By engaging teachers and students to make science “make sense,” both will be more open to STEM fields in their future educational and career endeavors.

Local NBC news station features Bayer’s MSMS Teacher Workshop in West Sacramento.

More than 25 local teachers of grades 3-5 joined the Bayer Making Science Make Sense^® (MSMS) team at Science City in Union Station on June 9 for an educational and entertaining workshop in Kansas City, Missouri. The MSMS workshop was free to participants and gave teachers the opportunity to participate in hands-on science experiments led by Bayer scientists and researchers. At the conclusion of the workshop, Bayer provided each teacher with the supplies needed to take what they learned back to their classrooms and complete the experiments with their students.

The goal of the workshop was to help nurture children’s interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM). High-quality STEM education is necessary to fill the more than 57,000 jobs open each year in life science industries and Bayer is dedicated to helping students develop their passion for science at an early age.

At the workshop, teachers dove into four experiments:

1. Density of Liquids presented by Nancy Minster, Manager of Quality Assurance
2. Bees’ and the Pollination Process presented by Scott Wade, Primary Plant Chemist for Crop Science
3. Strawberry DNA Extraction presented by two high school juniors who partner with Bayer through the Blue Valley Center for Advanced Professional Studies
4. Milk of Magnesia presented by Dr. Jennifer Schofield, Team Leader for Preclinical Development.

A group of Bayer employee volunteers worked behind the scenes throughout the day gathering materials and supplies in support of the workshop presenters. Teachers from six local school districts attended the workshop and filled out an anonymous survey to conclude the day. Their comments included:

• “The biggest benefit of attending the workshop was attaining the knowledge and activities to implement more hands-on science in my classroom.”
• “This was organized very well. Very impressed with it. Loved all the stories and background of the presenters that were shared. Great job! Thank you!”
• “I loved walking out with exactly what I’ll need to teach students and do experiments.”

Bayer understands that teachers are instrumental in nurturing students’ innate love and curiosity for science. This is vital in STEM education, because our students of today are the future STEM innovators of tomorrow.