Teacher Education Classes Summer 2025

Instructor: Sherry Niesar
Date: June 10-11
1 Credit, $50.00 Professional Graduate Credit Fee
Location: UTTC, Bismarck

Come and learn about pollinators. Where they live, what they are, how you can attract them, and their importance to our survival. This workshop is standards based, teaching across the curriculum with hands on activities to engage all learning styles. Topics and activities and suitable for all grade levels. All materials are included.

Instructor: Retha Mathern
Date: June 16-19
2 Credits, $100.00 Professional Graduate Credit Fee (paid for by the Lignite Energy Council)
Location: Bismarck, ND, BSC

Pre-registration is required: To register to attend this event, please fill out the application form at https://lignite.com/events/teachers-seminar/ A $60 deposit is required to hold your place is the seminar. The deposit can be paid online at the time of application or a check can be mailed in. All deposits will be refunded upon check-in at the seminar. However, should you cancel after May 1 or no not show up for the seminar, your deposit will be forfeited. For more information on this event, please contact Retha Mathern, 701-355-2192, or rethamathern@lignite.com.

This seminar will provide the participants with a broader understanding of the lignite coal industry and the important role it plays in providing electricity to customers, farmers and businesses in North Dakota, Minnesota, South Dakota and Montana. Discussions on how lignite coal is mined and converted into energy, and the economic impact of industry on the region including a tour of a lignite mine, a lignite-based power plant and the Great Plains Synfuels Plant are featured. Classroom activates are provided to participating teachers which they can take back to their classrooms to teach their students about the coal industry and the importance of it. Information is also provided to help their students look at careers in the coal industry which provide high paying jobs with excellent benefits.

Instructor: Ron Ness
Date: June 16-19
Time: Day 1: 8:00 a.m.- 8:30 a.m - 5:30 p.m., Day 2: 7:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m., Day 3: 6:30 a.m. - 6:15 p.m., Day 4: 8:15 a.m. - 12:30 p.m
2 Credits, $100.00 Professional Graduate Credit Fee
Location: Bismarck, BSC

Pre-registration required at http://www.ndpetroleumfoundation.org/TES.  Enrollment is limited to 50 primary & secondary educators on a first-come, first served basis.

This seminar includes an overview of North Dakota's oil gas industry. Participants will receive a great deal of hands on experience, with an emphasis on technology, as well as several learning activities to develop lesson plans and use in the classroom. The seminar covers various aspects of the industry including history, geology, physics, engineering, production issues, refining and marketing, employment needs, and the impact of oil tax on state tax revenues, policy decisions and the state's budget surplus.

Instructor: Angela Bartholmay
Date: June 17-20 (pre-workshop June 1-16)
3 credits, $150 Professional Graduate Credit Fee
Location: Valley City

WILD about Land, Water, People will provide the hands-on training sessions In Valley City. Participants will gain in-depth training in Project Learning Tree, its resources, Project WET and its resources and Aquatic WILD and its resources. This training session is perfect for PreK-12 teachers, university professors, information educators, natural resource professionals and leaders who work with kids.

Instructor: Jeff Beck
Date: June 18-19
1 credit, $50 Professional Graduate Credit Fee
Location: Western ND, starting in Minot

Pre-registration is required: To register contact Jeff Beck 701-240-9231 or email jeff.beck@minot.k12.nd.us
The class is limited to 20 participants.

The NDGA Ag in the Classroom Farm tour class will combine authentic activities and field presentation with visits to central North Dakota agriculture and ag business sites.  Participants will tour production and distribution facilities. The participants will transfer these exercises to practical classroom applications.

Instructor: Jeff Beck
Date: June 23-35
2 credits, $100 Professional Graduate Credit Fee
Location: Cross Ranch State Park

Pre-registration is required: To register contact Jeff Beck 701-240-9231 or email jeff.beck@minot.k12.nd.us
The class is limited to 16 participants.

The NDGA Explorer class will combine authentic activities and field presentation with experiences in classroom lectures, individual and group activities, computer-based exercises, and outdoor experiences. Participants will be expected to hike, bike and kayak to successfully participate in this class. The participants will transfer these exercises to practical classroom applications.

Instructor: Tina Harding
Date: July 7-26
4 credits, $200 Professional Graduate Credit Fee
Location: Devils Lake

Pre-Registration Required: https://www.dwr.nd.gov/adminlink/4dcgi/wet/WET-3

Join us in Devils Lake for an opportunity to experience current watershed management and water resource issues along the Devils Lake. While exploring the issues and identifying solutions, participants will receive real world, user friendly and classroom ready instruction from specially trained Project WET facilitators, resource professionals, and scientists. Participants transfer the institute’s field studies to practical classroom applications. Participants will experience hands-on, minds-on learning through a balance of presentations, discussion, activities, fields tours and environmental investigations.

Instructor: Jeff Beck
Date: July 10 – 11
1 credit, $50 Professional Graduate Credit Fee
Location: Western ND

Pre-registration is required: To register contact Jeff Beck 701-240-9231 or email jeff.beck@minot.k12.nd.us
The class is limited to 20 participants.

The NDGA Energy class will combine authentic activities and field presentation with visits to western North Dakota energy sites. Participants will tour production and distribution facilities. The participants will transfer these exercise to practical classroom applications.

Instructor: Tina Harding
Date: July 10, 17-21
4 credits, $200 Professional Graduate Credit Fee
Location: Valley City State University

This event requires pre-registration: https://www.dwr.nd.gov/adminlink/4dcgi/wet/WET-3.

Join us in Valley City for an opportunity to experience current watershed management and water resource issues along the James and Sheyenne River Watershed. While exploring the issues and identifying solutions, participants will receive real world, user friendly and classroom ready instruction from specially trained Project WET facilitators, resource professionals, and scientists. Participants transfer the institute's field studies to practical classroom applications. Participants will experience hands-on, minds-on learning through a balance of presentations, discussions, activities, field tours, and environmental investigations.

Instructor: Michael Netzloff
Date: August 4-6
1 Credit, $50.00 Professional Graduate Credit
Location: Bismarck, ND-Event Center

This event requires pre-registration, to register please go to https://www.cte.nd.gov/pdc
Event Registration Fees (Payable to ND CTE):
$75 fee if postmarked by July 15
$100 fee if postmarked by July 30
$25 fee if postmarked by August 10 or onsite registration

The purpose of this professional development conference is to provide career and technical education teachers and administrators with information, resources, and instructional tools to be more effective educators. Attendees will gain skills in designing, implementing, and evaluating instructional programs for career and technical education students and assessing the level of learning achieved by those students.