Around the Bend

Sunday I drove up and over the mountains for three hours to arrive in Bend, Oregon, for a science teaching workshop. I'm part of a grant project to help Bend elementary teachers learn more about sciences and improve their techniques for teaching science. This is the second year of the two-year program, so teachers are returning for their second summer workshop. Besides face-to-face monthly meetings, they're also getting online instruction in science using really cool SciPacks from the NSTA (National Science Teachers Association) Science Store. As the PI (principal investigator) and university liaison on the grant, I don't have a lot of instruction to do. The teacher mentors and our project director are doing most of the work. A little under-desk knitting is already going on (hee!), as well as evening knitting curled up with my laptop tuned into streamed movies from Netflix.

My photo library is on a separate hard drive that I left at home (as it has my backed up files on it), so if I can open another library on this drive, I'll get some pictures up of some of the gorgeous sights. For now, check out some pictures of Drake Park where I've been taking my morning and evening walks, here, here, and here.

Even though the MapQuest map bore no resemblance to reality, I found my way to Gossamer Knitting last night. I wanted some Addi Turbo needles, and before trying to buy them off of the web, knowing that I was coming to Bend, checked out whether any of the stores carried Addis. It's a good thing I've been there before, or I'd never have found it using MapQuest.