Programs and Events Calendar

Educator Trek: Monkey Health Explorer
2025-10-04 10:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | Downtown Raleigh, 11 West Jones Street, Raleigh, NC, 27601, United States
Join us for this new educator workshop to learn how you can connect your students to authentic monkey health research! This covers ongoing research engaging students in biology, monkeys, and data science methods such as machine learning (ML).
How can biological research help students understand data science tools and techniques? Scientists and educators from the NC Museum of Natural Sciences and the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) at UNC-Chapel Hill will captivate you with their research on rhesus macaque monkeys, while providing you content to excite your students in a participatory science project relevant to blood chemistry and the immune system. Gain new ideas for engaging your students in biology research and data science methods, and get one-on-one time with researchers. The workshop includes a behind-the-scenes tour of the Genomics & Microbiology Research Lab. Discover new ways to incorporate authentic research into your classroom!
Monkey Health Explorer is a participatory science project hosted on Zooniverse. It is geared towards students in 6th grade and beyond, including undergraduate, graduate, medical, and veterinary students. This project is ideal for people interested in pattern matching, health, and behavior. Workshop participants will gain hands-on experience collecting data on monkey health. Participants will also learn basics about how data science methods are used in the project.
The goals of the workshop are to engage teachers and students in authentic research and to provide a platform for clinically-interested students to gain valuable career experience. In addition, we will provide lesson plans and activities and will have time to develop them for different teaching styles and classrooms.

Eligibility: This workshop is designed for middle school and high school biology and earth/environmental science/math teachers, but any educators who would like to adapt content are welcome to attend.
Credit: 8 contact hours toward CEUs or Criteria II/III for North Carolina’s Environmental Education Certification Program (one credit hour will be earned at an evening virtual follow-up meeting either in December or March. Follow-up date will be set by participants during the workshop.)
Register online
The full workshop fee is due when you register and payment is via credit card. Registration for most Educator Treks is on a first-come, first-served basis. Treks fill quickly, so register early!
