Education is a key part of FIPR's mission. Legislators intended the Institute to be a place people could turn to for information on phosphate issues. From the beginning, FIPR has had a library, which has become the most comprehensive collection of information on phosphate in the country and likely the world.

Traditionally, the Institute has focused its education efforts on technical workshops and conferences-local, regional and international. In 1997 the FIPR Board decided to expand FIPR's educational efforts to include teachers in grades K-12. An advisory committee was formed and an education coordinator was employed.

FIPR's varied research reflects the many aspects of science and social studies that naturally illustrate benchmarks children must master according to the Florida Sunshine State Standards. A dragline for example illustrates concepts of force and motion, while listening and speaking skills can be polished in a debate about future land uses for permitting and mining. Even in the earliest grades, concepts such as plants' and animals' need for food and certain habitat characteristics to thrive can provide an opportunity to tie the classroom to the local topic of phosphate.

FIPR's education program uses the Institute's scientific expertise research and phosphate information to reinforce Florida's K-12 Sunshine State Standards in Math, Science, Language Arts and Social Studies.

A two-week, intensive summer workshop for teachers is the centerpiece of FIPR's training efforts. Participants include teachers from kindergarten through high school, who attend in teams of four, representing all subject areas. Technical and scientific experts teach workshop participants about phosphate from its geologic origin and history in Florida to the way it is mined, processed and how the mined land is reclaimed. Field trips and hands-on activities then allow teachers to experience firsthand what they learn in the classroom. Education experts from FIPR and area schools then show the participants how the information correlates to the Sunshine State Standards they teach, ranging from expository writing, research and graphing to physics, chemistry, biology, history and economics.

Workshop participants receive stipends, up to 120 in-service points and the opportunity to apply for a mini-grant of up to $1500 to develop a phosphate teaching unit.

In addition to the Summer Session workshops, FIPR also offers other programs such as in-school workshops designed to meet the needs of an individual school, activities and traveling libraries, as well as published teaching units that were created with mini-grants and have been successfully pilot tested.

FIPR's phosphate curriculum was developed with the help of Polk County school administrators and teachers who worked with FIPR to learn about the phosphate industry and the local environment. These educators drew upon what they learned to develop lesson plans and activities that utilize phosphate information. Teachers in other counties are now expanding on what started in Polk. In this way, FIPR partners with Florida educators to help students develop skills identified in the Sunshine State Standards.

FIPR's education staff members have been exposed to many great ideas through interactions with various educational organizations and have worked with technical experts and teachers to adapt some of the ideas to fit more closely in the context of Florida's environment and phosphate industry.

Activities:

Some examples of activities developed for and by teachers include:

Peanut Mining - A classroom activity that lets students practice map-making skills as they learn about how to locate, mine and process deposits of phosphate into a useable product. Equal numbers of shelled peanuts are painted 5 different colors and then hidden around the room. Students are given a map of the classroom and in small groups, are assigned a color of peanut to look for in the room. They place a mark on the map in the appropriate location to indicate where the peanut is. The peanuts are collected, shelled and crushed in a blender. These activities represent mining and beneficiation. Next, other ingredients are added to the crushed peanuts to make peanut butter for economic consumption. This activity is applicable to grades K-6.

Cookie Mining - A classroom activity adapted to let participants experience the steps involved in mining phosphate and reclaiming the land after it is mined. Players make decisions about how and where to mine their land and experience the economic impact of their decisions. Mining decisions must adhere to environmental, health and safety regulations or players suffer consequences, which also usually have a cost. This activity reinforces math, social studies and science concepts. It is applicable to grades 4-12.

Florida's Ancient Oceans - An activity that gives teachers a chance to "push back the desks" and have students step back in time to recreate the formation of Florida. The outline of Florida's shape during different time periods is drawn on a canvas using different colored lines. As a narrative is read aloud, students use blue cloth to represent the ocean. The cloth is moved to each colored line as climate and sea levels change to reveal more or less land. When land is exposed, other students wear signs to represent animals and pantomime interactions within the habitat. This activity is appropriate for grades 4-12. It can be used in conjunction with "Kids Dig It," an interactive exploration of Florida's geologic fossil record that has been adapted to show how phosphate formed as Florida formed.

Midas Miner - An activity that teaches the effects of phosphate mining and reclamation on the environment while educating students about native and non-native plant species. Students wear signs with pictures of native plants on one side and nonnative plants on the other. One student acts out the motions of mining and replanting with a shovel. This activity is appropriate for primary grades K-3.

Lisa Jap-Tjong has been FIPR's Education Coordinator since 1997.