Our Friday lunch speaker will be
                                                 P. John Whitsett, NSTA President 2007-2008.

John Whitsett, Coordinator of Curriculum & Instruction for the Fond du Lac School District and Past President of the National Science Teachers Association, had been actively involved in science education for more than 30 years.  He began his career in 1970 at La Crosse Central High School, where he taught chemistry for 23 years.  Whitsett has been an active member in the science education community for many years teaching several graduate courses at the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse campus in laboratory methods, lab safety, and curriculum design. He has also served as a laboratory safety consultant for many school districts and has presented lab safety training sessions for the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. Throughout his career, Whitsett has been honored for his contributions to science education most recently receiving the Ron Gibbs Award for Lifetime Achievement in Science Education (2000). He is a long-time member of WSST and served as its president in 1991, chaired the 1988 WSST convention, co-chaired the 2000 convention and also served for six years as president of the WSST Foundation.

Synopsis of Presentation: Preparing the 21^st Century Student:  World Class Science 

The students graduating from our high schools today face an entirely different world than we did a few short years ago.  The transition to a global economy means our students are now competing for jobs with their counterparts around the world instead of down the street.  Technology has become an integral part of the lives of our students.  The internet has provided us with instant communication and access to incredible amounts of information. 

All of this raises a number of questions for those of us in education.  How important is memorizing factual information when a student can obtain answers on their personal digital device in a matter of seconds?  Can we expect students to remember all the information that is available to them when the amount of information is doubling every couple of years?  What is more important, remembering facts or knowing which facts are important and how to use them once you have them?

We often hear about 21^st century skills, but exactly what are 21^st century skills?  And how do we teach them?  How do we know the students have learned them, and more importantly, how do we know they can use the information?

Those of us in education often teach they way we learned when we were in school, but the world has changed.  Jobs that were once part of our culture are now being done in other countries.  Technology has produced a situation in which many of the jobs of today did not exist a matter of a few years ago, which causes us to ask what we should be teaching our students when we don’t even know what the jobs of the future will be. 

Unfortunately, many of our schools of today do a very good job of providing an industrial age education for student who will compete for jobs in the information age. This presentation will explore the state of education as we enter the 21^st century and look at some of the changes that need to happen.

    Our Friday banquet speaker will be
                                              Dr. Aaron Monte, Professor & Chair, UWL Chemistry Department. monte.aaro@uwlax.edu

Dr. Monte has been teaching and conducting research at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse since 1995, and he has served as chemistry department chair since 2004.  He earned his B.S. in Chemistry and Biochemistry from the University of West Florida and his Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology from Purdue University.  Aaron’s teaching and scholarly interests lie in the general areas of synthetic organic and medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, and drug design and discovery.  Since his earliest days in college, he desired to be an effective teacher and mentor of young scientists.  In his spare time, he enjoys music and music recording and is the singer/songwriter/guitarist for the independent garage rock band known as Shot to Hell.  He also enjoys the beautiful Wisconsin outdoors with his family, especially trout fishing in the regional coulees, and camping and boating around the state.

Synopsis of Presentation: Science Student Education and Involvement in Pharmaceutical Research

Or, “How Teaching Chemistry Accidentally Led to the Discovery of a Potentially Life Saving Medicine, Unexpected Patents, and the Founding of the First Drug Discovery Company in La Crosse, WI.”

One of the most reliable and time-honored sources of drug molecules is the natural world around us.  For millennia, the indigenous peoples of the world (including Wisconsin) have used the plants and fungi growing in their area to effectively treat a variety of diseases and ailments.  Indeed, the majority of medicines on our pharmacy shelves today are natural products or are close relatives of these molecules that are produced readily by Mother Nature.  She is truly a great chemist.

In this presentation, Dr. Monte will discuss his efforts that were once aimed at helping to educate Wisconsin Native American students in chemistry, and which have led to an ambitious, modern drug discovery and development research program.  How drugs are discovered from nature, and then developed through clinical trials, and finally taken into the hospital or pharmacy will be reviewed.  Also to be covered is the importance of serendipity in scientific research and how not knowing what one is doing, making embarrassing mistakes, and experiencing multiple failures are not necessarily terrible things.  These topics will be considered in light of educating and preparing our students for success in practicing science in the twenty-first century; and they will be highlighted using specific examples of foolishness and luck from the Monte drug discovery laboratories at UW-La Crosse.  The audience should be left with a good sense of the many reasons why there is a critical worldwide need for new anti-infective drugs, what types of science are involved in the drug discovery and development process, and how their very own science students might be interested in contributing to the noble and very necessary efforts aimed at searching for and creating new medicines that can save lives.

   Our Saturday breakfast speaker will be
                                                                                   Kurt Welke from the Dane County DNR

Kurt is proudly a Wisconsin native, born in Madison and now residing there after 12 years spent in Prairie du Chien on the Mississippi. His professional interest has gravitated toward flowing water systems and attention to the lesser fauna. He describes himself as a non-traditional fisheries manager, with focus on form and function of systems - keeping all the parts of habitat working with fish being a pleasant reward.  Kurt has responsibility for both the Madison lakes and over 20 high quality trout streams. Come listen as Kurt tells you about a small but wonderful piece of Wisconsin's natural heritage, freshwater mussels, and how a seemingly obscure piece of science can be just the tip of much larger and grand icebergs.

Videos from the presentation (click below).

http://unionid.missouristate.edu/video/default15.htm

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