Teachers Learn What They Don't Know About Phosphate

They came…They saw…They learned

There were 33 this year. Teachers representing all grade levels and subject areas from Polk, DeSoto, Hardee, Hillsborough, Manatee and Pinellas counties. Soon after they settled into their groups of four on the opening morning of the June 2004 Florida Institute of Phosphate Research (FIPR) Teacher Training Workshop they were asked to take a pre-test about phosphate in Florida.

Murmurs of discomfort soon began to percolate throughout the room. Was I supposed to have read some background material before I came? I don’t know any answers. What does beneficiation mean? Am I supposed to know the answers?!

They were being confronted with words and concepts such as flotation, hydrology, invasive species, Miocene, neutralize, phosphogypsum, radiation, slurry, upwelling, and worse yet – beneficiation!

Throughout the morning participants were exposed to FIPR’s various laboratories, experts and knowledge. By lunch time the words began to make sense and by day-end participants were commenting “I actually understand.”

During the next two weeks (June 7-18) the FIPR class 2004 members’ understanding would continue to deepen as experts, hands-on activities and fields trips led them through an exploration of the many facets of phosphate in Florida, including its geologic formation.

Participants heard presentations from FIPR research directors, scientists, phosphate industry experts and guests such as Jim Stricker, Extension Director for Polk County; Gus Koerner, NASA Project Manager in the Biological Sciences Branch and Program Manager for Space Agriculture in the Classroom; Dr. Stephanie Karran, Program Coordinator of the Stavros Center for Free Enterprise and Economics Education based in the College of Education at the University of South Florida; Jon Haselwood, Director of Sales and Marketing for the CSX fertilizer group; and Tim King, reclamation biologist and mined lands specialist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Participants also:

• Tested soil.
• Discovered the role phosphate plays in life.
• Charted their workshop journey using GPS and digital cameras.
• Explored native habitats
• Balanced themselves in the cab and around the deck of a dragline as it dug the matrix from the ground.
• Braved the teeth of the dragline bucket as it rested on the ground to gather for a picture in its cavernous claw.
• Climbed up steel mesh steps and over catwalks to the top of the beneficiation plants.
• Crowded into control rooms to watch how one man and a computer system can run the plant.
• Dug for fossils on an overburden pile under a blazing afternoon summer sun
• Learned about PH and what acidity means.
• Learned about radiation in their lives and in phosphate.
• Saw a phosphogypsum stack, learned how it is constructed and about the process water ponds on top.
• Explored reclaimed and unreclaimed land
• Visited Homeland Heritage Park
• Visited a clay settling area
• Tested what they had learned with decision making exercises.
• Explored economics, ethics and government.
• Visited CSX trains and the Port of Tampa.

They left exhausted, overwhelmed and impressed with the amount they had learned. Some phosphate area natives said they found out things about their home and phosphate that they never knew.

For FIPR, the lesson plans participants are required to write to earn the full 120 in service points and stipend showed the workshop was a success.

Following are a few examples of lessons that were submitted:

• Primary: Using legos to construct a model the different elements that make up phosphate rock. (Lesson plan)
  
• Intermediate: Practicing math concepts of geometry, percentages and measurement using the diagram of a dragline. (Lesson plan)
  
• Middle: Demonstrating the difference between soluble and insoluble with the sample packets of substances hat show the stages of mining, beneficiation and processing. (Lesson plan)
  
• High: Constructing a DNA strand with candy to represents phosphate that holds together sugar and proteins. (Lesson plan)
  

Teacher workshops are the heart of FIPR’s Education program. Teachers cannot begin to envision how phosphate information can possibly relate to their lessons and the Sunshine State Standards unless they understand the subject matter. Our workshops use FIPR research and expertise to immerse them in the information. They also correlate the phosphate-related information with the Benchmarks of the Florida Sunshine State Standards for math, science, language arts and social studies.

These workshops have evolved in the education program’s first seven years. They began as a day-long program. But teachers wanted more. The workshop is now an intensive two-week summer program with days that begin at 8:30 a.m. and end at 4 P.M.

Still there is not enough time to meet the information needs of the diverse group of educators FIPR gathers. The K-12, participant mix, however, is part of FIPR’s workshop design which fosters integrated teaching and spiraling curriculum that builds from grade to grade.

Teachers who have participated in our workshops have helped mold the FIPR curriculum and are the ones who create and pilot test the lessons and units. Participants are eligible to apply for mini-grants to develop the lesson plans they create into a full teaching unit, implement it and then share it with other teachers. FIPR will eventually publish most of the units.

FIPR would like to thank the phosphate companies, CSX Railroad and Hillsborough Community College English Creek staff who once again allowed teachers to visit their facilities to make the words and concepts real. We also thank Publix, Crispers, Winn Dixie and the phosphate companies for helping provide food for the workshop.