Real World Externships for Teachers

 

Thanks to our Inaugural Partners
Allen Health System Black Hawk County Conservation Board Clipper Windpower The Iowa Department of Natural Resources Hagie Manufacturing Company
Kemin Industries, Inc. Pella Corporation Polk County Conservation Board Struxture Architects  

 

 
Featured Extern

Ryan Lensing

 

School

Dowling High School - West Des Moines

 

Host Business

Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) - Water Quality - Des Moines

Ryan Lensing
Externship Summary

Ryan Lensing is an environmental science and anatomy and physiology teacher at West Des Moines Dowling High School. His externship is with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources in Des Moines.

Ryan is monitoring water quality and flow of streams in the area around Des Moines. That data will be entered into mapping software to build a comprehensive database of those particular watersheds.

One other project that Ryan is involved in is the study of mussel populations in rivers and streams around Des Moines. Mussels are an indicator species for stream quality so this data can provide an indication of the health of a watershed.

 

Blogs of Current Externs

 

21st century Iowa must be a place where schools, businesses, and universities work together to educate our citizenry in mathematics and science education. The Iowa Mathematics & Science Education Partnership (IMSEP) has a program for doing just that:  externships for teachers of mathematics and science.

 

 

INFORMATION FOR TEACHER EXTERNS

The benefits to teachers include the chance to modernize the curriculum and build in real-world lessons, build relationships with in-town partners, inspire students into mathematics and science fields, enjoy doing something different in the summer, and respectable pay.

 

 

INFORMATION FOR BUSINESS HOSTS

The benefits to an Iowa business or industry of hosting one teacher for one summer externship is that scores of students each year, and hundreds over the career span of the educator, get inspired about mathematics and science career options right here in their home state.

 

 

Are you a teacher with externship ideas or other questions?
Are you a business with externship ideas or other questions?
Find the answers at IMSEP.

 

 

 

Maintained by IMSEP
Last Updated: October 29, 2009