Absolute excitement. That is how I would describe the atmosphere of the Smithsonian's Teachers' Night on Friday, November 15. For those who are not familiar, Teachers' Night is a special night for educators to find new resources to use in the classroom and attend demonstrations showcasing Smithsonian programs and materials.
Last week SSEC's Professional Services Division held our first Journal Club meeting. The Journal Club serves as an internal Professional Learning Community (PLC) to keep the Professional Services staff up to date with current research in the areas of professional development, educational policy, standards, and scientific literacy, just to name a few! As this was our first meeting, we decided to start at the beginning with the SSEC's seminal text Science for All Children.
A little over two years ago, more than 90 participants from the seven LASER i3 North Carolina districts gathered in Greensboro, NC for an intensive 5 1/2-day Strategic Planning Institute (SPI). During their time together, seven district leadership teams created comprehensive strategic plans aimed at transforming science education in their districts.
In recent years, Pinterest has grown to be one of the most influential social platforms on the Internet. According to Mediabistro, Pinterest hit 10 million unique visitors faster than any site in history and has grown by over 2,000% since May 2011. Pinterest boasts some pretty amazing statistics proving that it is the ultimate tool used for gathering and organizing content found on the web.
Hi. My name is Inez Leibman, and I am the New Mexico Regional Coordinator for the NSRC LASER i3 program. I was born and raised in northern New Mexico and have spent most of my adult life here. My background is in elementary education and educational leadership. I spent seventeen years teaching -- three in an urban private school setting and fourteen in a rural public school. I spent the majority of my teaching career working with Limited English Proficient and "high risk "students. I saw the challenges faced by students growing up in poverty and difficult living situations.
As states adopt the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), everyone is wondering about what the assessments will look like. This is not because everyone is suddenly fascinated with the finer points of educational measurement, but because assessment is often known as the "tail that wags the dog" of education; it has a disproportionately large impact on curriculum, instruction, and outcomes.
After News 14 Carolina did a great story on the LASER i3 Summer Professional Development, they wanted to come back for more! Linnie Supall visited Princeton Elementary School and did a great piece on how the students are now interacting with the curriculum. "I've seen a lot of little girls now say, 'I might want to be a scientist when I grow up. I might want to be a biologist and study the fish in the ocean'" Bridgers said.
Check out the rest of the story here.
Hi! I'm Kim Ottosen, the Houston Regional Coordinator for the NSRC LASER i3 program. That's a long title for what I really do -- information hub, professional badger, and barrier reducer. In a grant this size with so many complexly integrated parts, I find myself doing things I never imagined I would do and I'll bet you do too.
Instead of teaching young people about science, we want them to do science. That’s one of the central notions in teaching science as inquiry and it’s a core part of the Next Generation Science Standards. Said that way it sounds simple, but when we step back and try to articulate exactly what doing science means it becomes a bit tricky. Is it collecting data? Is it developing research questions? Is it defending and advancing arguments based on evidence? The short answer to each of these questions is “Yes, and…”.
As the temperature cools and crowds slowly begin to leave our nation's capital, one thing is certain (OK, maybe two things are certain): summer is nearly over, and the SSEC's 2013 International K-12 Science Education Institute for Leadership Development and Strategic Planning has come to a close.
"In order to understand Earth, you have to understand rocks and minerals." Dr. Michael Wise took science teachers from around the nation behind the scenes to learn about some unusual rocks and minerals. His specialty is with pegmatite a mineral found in a variety of critical electronics (such as video game consoles).
Welcome to Houston! It's the middle of July, we're in our second-to-last week of training (there are six total), and our staff and trainers are not nearly as exhausted as we thought we would be at this point in the summer.
A group of volunteers gather for quick photo.
Hi, Energy Academicians!
Welcome to our 2013 Energy SSEAT Blog. This site was created for you to network, share ideas, to keep touch after the Academy, and generally to provide a casual digital forum for us to talk energy!
Hi, Biodiversity Academicians!
Welcome to our 2013 Biodiversity SSEAT Blog. This site was created for you to network, share ideas, to keep touch after the Academy, and generally to provide a casual digital forum for us to talk biodiversity!
First off please introduce yourselves:
We just finished our first week of LASER i3 Professional Development (PD) in Santa Fe, New Mexico! 86 science teachers, representing 17 schools and 12 districts joined us June 3-7 at Gonzales Community School for five intense days of PD.
Teachers spent the first half of the week diving deep into science content as adult learners. From first grade teachers exploring biological systems to sixth grade teachers revisiting physics formulas, participants were challenged as they became the student in inquiry-based discussions and activities.
As many of you are done or winding down with the school year, we wanted to ask...how was it? We think ours was pretty good based on some of the feedback we got from students:QUOTE-I-learned-so-much-about
Happy summer, everyone! This is our favorite time of year because we get to meet and work with so many teachers!
Our LASER i3 grant looks at the impact of the LASER program on the STEM learning of over 75,000 students in North Carolina, New Mexico, and Houston. How do you evaluate the impact of something so enormous? What evidence for success are we seeing so far? Check out the video recorded and edited by our own Program Assistant, Dana Bulba
This summer we will be conducting three professional development workshops together known as the Smithsonian Science Education Academies for Teachers. These professional development opportunities are special for a lot of reasons, one of which is the opportunity to work with passionate scientists, researchers, and curators. These men and women are not only subject specialists, they are enthusiastic communicators and love to connect with kindred science spirits!
Here are some of the folks that will be working with us:
There have been a lot of changes around here, starting with our name! In order to better reflect our history and mission, we are now the Smithsonian Science Education Center (formerly National Science Resources Center). Our name has changed but our commitment hasn't: we are dedicated to a research-based approach to transforming science education and we continue to produce high-quality, inquiry-based curriculum.
Imagine this... it is early morning, and teachers, curriculum coaches, district staff, trainers, and facilitators from all over the country are gathered in a single room. During the weeks of February 25th and March 4th, 53 regional representatives from New Mexico, North Carolina, and Houston, TX, joined by Smithsonian Science Education Center (SSEC) staff and contracted trainers, gathered in Oakland, California for an intense four-day, 30 hour training hosted by WestEd and the SSEC: the 2013 LASER i3 WestEd Facilitation Academies.
Our publisher Carolina Biological has this wonderful video we would like to share of a teacher working on science with her 1st grade students. Notice the emphasis on student questions in this video...as the teacher says, the students are well on their way to being great scientist.
In addition to science, the students get a chance to use math and math vocabulary while perusing their own questions. Who wouldn't want to be a student in this wonderful classroom?
The NSRC's Investing in Innovation (i3) initiative supports and promotes high quality, inquiry-based science education programs and helps establish infrastructures to sustain those programs for decades to come. This initiative studies the effects of the NSRC's LASER Model in grades 1-8 in three regions: North Carolina, Northern New Mexico, and Houston Independent School District.
Washington, DC-based interns will be based at NSRC's DC offices and may be asked to travel to one or more regional sites to assist with summer workshops.
We're excited to announce that together with other museums and units of the Smithsonian, we will once again be offering the Smithsonian Science Education Academies for Teachers (SSEATS). SSEATS were started in 2005 to bridge the gap between formal and informal science education by combining training in science content and pedagogy with behind the scenes experiences at a wide variety of Smithsonian units, Smithsonian Affiliate partners, inquiry-based STC/ STCMS curriculum and world-class science research facilities throughout the Washington DC area.
Are you interested in science? Are you good at things? Do you like to work with nice, smart people? Is money useful for you in your pursuit of goods and services? Yes? Oh good, we're looking for you!
From the mountains to the sea, North Carolina boasts of rich cultures, varying businesses and industries, and diverse geographies. More than 50 years ago, North Carolina began a transition from a manufacturing and agriculture-centered economy to a global economy driven by science and technology. At the center of this movement is the Research Triangle Park (RTP), one of the most beneficial public private partnerships in our history: a model for research, innovation, and economic development that utilizes key stakeholders across the state.
Hello, my name is Katie Gainsback and I am the coordinator for NSRC's Building Awareness in Science Education initiative. I just got back from my first trip to Texas and first time working with Houston ISD. It was an overwhelmingly positive experience. I was inspired by educators, administrators, and community members who took time out of their hectic schedules to work toward improving science education for all students.
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