May 11, 2016
Enterprise In Space (EIS), an international program of the National Space Society (NSS), is excited to announce the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Smithsonian Science Education Center (SSEC), the only unit at the Smithsonian Institution that is solely dedicated to formal K-12 science education reform.
On Monday, May 16, 2016 the Smithsonian Institution and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem formally signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to collaborate on the celebration of the 100th anniversary of Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. The Smithsonian and Hebrew University will leverage this significant Einstein anniversary to collaborate on projects, produced by the Smithsonian Science Education Center, that employ the resources of the Smithsonian Institution and the Albert Einstein Archives to make science, technology, engineering and mathematic
May 18, 2016
The Smithsonian Science Education Center is teaming up with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where the physicist's archives are kept, to promote the study of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (collectively known as "STEM").
Read more at http://www.fromthegrapevine.com/innovation/smithsonian-hebre...
May 27, 2016
Times Square in New York City
Learn more about the collaboration between the Smithsonian Science Education Center and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem to support the Albert Einstein Foundation here
We are pleased that the Maryland State Department of Education, in partnership with Teach to Lead will host its first Teacher Leadership Summit in Annapolis on July 19-20, 2016.
In Annapolis, educators from across the state will work to collaborate, problem solve, and develop action plans to put their own expertise into action. Our hope is to attract exceptional educators across the state to use teacher leadership as a vehicle to change the face of education.
Sarah Wells is a rising senior at Clark University and hails from Montpelier, Vermont. She is majoring in English with a double minor in physics and computer science.
It’s an indisputable fact that as a society, we have fallen head-over-heels for pandas. Whether it be at the National Zoo in Washington, DC, or the Wolong National Nature Reserve in China, these furry giants steal hearts wherever they go, except maybe in their own backyards. Giant pandas are an endangered species, with only 1,600 living in their natural habitats in China’s mountain ranges and 300 in captivity around the world.
June 10, 2016
Invited to be among the many firsts of historical space achievements celebrated at Space Day, the Enterprises in Space team (EIS) was thrilled to participate in collaboration with the Smithsonian Science Education Center (SSEC) at this year's Space Day, held June 14, 2016 at the National Air and Space Museum to promote their focus on the importance of integrating science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEAM). This year’s event drew some 30,000 visitors from around the world and included a presentation by astronaut Terry Virts.
June 15, 2016
It's a pervasive idea: different students' brains are better suited to different styles of learning. So while one student might best comprehend a subject by hearing a lesson, another would get the most benefit from reading it on paper, and another still would learn it better by performing a task.This is a simple theory that should be easy to prove with a scientific study, but most research has shown that it's just not true.
Director Matthew Brown’s newest film, The Man Who Knew Infinity, opened in April to positive reviews from critics and shed light on the life of a little known mathematician: Srinivasa Ramanujan. Born in Erode, India, in 1887, Ramanujan had a veracious love and instinctual understanding of mathematics. Living poor in South India with no college degree, Ramanujan was able to gain recognition for his inventive theorems and began a correspondence with a Fellow, G.H. Hardy, at Trinity College of the University of Cambridge.
June 17, 2016
Dr. Carol O'Donnell, Director of the Smithsonian Science Education Center discusses the latest national trends in STEM Education with Washington State educators in a series of three-hour workshops hosted throughout Washington State. Topics included the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS); moving ahead with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA); the latest research on the efficacy of the Leadership and Assistance for Science Education Reform (LASER); and, the expansion of the Smithsonian’s Science and Technology Concepts (STC) K-8 materials.
June 20, 2016
Dr Carol O'Donnell, Director of the Smithsonian Science Education Center, and Dr. Amy D'Amico, Division Director of Professional Services, were hosts on the 100Kin10 Spotlight Series webinar sharing the reults of the i3 Leadership and Assistance for Science Education Reform (LASER) study in your work. Click here to access the deck from the webinar as well as a recording.
Happy Pollinator Week! We can all appreciate the beauty of blooming flowers and budding trees, but we don’t always take a minute to be thankful for their silent helpers. Nine years ago the U.S. senate declared a week each June to be National Pollinator Week. This weeklong event is not only to celebrate the pollinators who make summer beautiful but to raise awareness. Populations of pollinators are in decline, and without these pollinators the fragile ecosystems they live in will fall into disarray.
June 22, 2016
Teachers from five states will travel to Washington, D.C. to begin a year-long professional development opportunity
Read more at http://www.dow.com/news/press-releases/dow%20ch2m%20and%20sm...
June 23, 2016
The Dow-CH2M Smithsonian Teacher Scholar Program, designed to help teachers develop skills in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education, will bring 34 teachers from five states to Washington, D.C., this summer to participate in professional development academies at the Smithsonian.
Jessie Martin is a rising junior at Gettysburg College from Rockville, MD. She is majoring in chemistry and pursuing secondary education certification, with plans to become a high school chemistry teacher.
Earlier this summer, 19 teachers from across the country gathered in Washington, DC, to learn about biodiversity at this year’s Biodiversity Smithsonian Science Education Academy for Teachers, or SSEAT. The participants received the opportunity to go behind the scenes at the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), spend time in the Q?rius lab space there, and travel up to Edgewater, MD, to visit the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC).
July 7, 2016
Read more at http://www.plu.edu/marcom/news/2016/07/07/interim-dean-educa...
July 16, 2016
The Onondaga-Cortland-Madison (OCM) BOCES Center for Innovative Science Education will host a conference this November 2016 to help launch the regional implementation of the New York State Science Learning Standards (NYSSLS), which were put before the New York State Board of Regents in mid-June.
Editor’s Note: The following is a transcript of an interview conducted with Kim Van Eaton. Some answers have been lightly edited for clarity.
Here at the Smithsonian Science Education Center, we’re passionate about science communication and creating an infectious love of science. As part of this mission, our director, Dr. Carol O’Donnell, met with science teachers in Washington State this June to talk about the importance of science education. While there she meet 6th grade teacher Kim Van Eaton from Marie Curie STEM Elementary School. Kim had nothing but kind words to say about STCTM and how the kit had changed her teaching of science! It’s always heartwarming to hear that your work has impacted someone’s life in a positive way. We wanted to know a little more about how Kim has been affected by STC and SSEC, so we got in touch to hear more of her thoughts.
We’re sure that you’ve played (and can’t stop playing) our physical science game BumperDucks. In case you haven’t, here’s the gist: in BumperDucks your job is to help a wayward band of ducks reach their final destinations – tasty treats! With the help of collisions and rebounding you can slingshot these ducks to victory. BumperDucks is all about the laws of motion and how we can utilize their effects once we figure out how they work!
It’s been just over 110 years since Einstein published his groundbreaking papers in 1905 that revolutionized physics as we know it and ushered in the quantum age. Among these papers were his theories on special relativity (not to be confused with general relativity, which he published 10 years later in 1915). His theories on special relativity discussed such strange things as length contraction and time dilation when an observer moved at speeds approaching the speed of light (3 x 108 meters per second, or c).
If you live in a rural area, or near a park, you’ve probably observed this unique squirrel behavior. When the weather catches a chill, these bushy-tailed creatures begin what looks like preparation for a wide-scale scavenger hunt. In great numbers, these squirrels begin to bury nuts! Squirrels hide nuts this way as preparation for cold weather when otherwise food will be scarce. This kind of proactive stashing raises a lot of questions for squirrel enthusiasts—the most pressing being how do the squirrels find their nuts again?
Image: Juliet Adams/Smithsonian Science Education Center
Dr. Carol O’Donnell welcoming NC educators to the Smithsonian Image: Sarah Wells/Smithsonian Science Education Center
