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Why is the Black Sea black?

The sea was first named by the ancient Greeks who called it "Inhospitable Sea." The sea got this reputation because it was difficult to navigate, and hostile tribes inhabited its shores. Later, after the successful development of the coast by Greek colonists, the sea was renamed "Hospitable Sea." 

The Black Sea has a depth of over 150 meters, and its waters are filled with hydrogen sulfide for almost two kilometers. Therefore, in the deepest layers of its water there are no living things except sulfur bacteria.

At the end of January, 82 administrators, teachers, and community members, representing 21 Houston Independent School District (HISD) schools participated in a five-day Strategic Planning Institute (SPI). As part of the LASER i3 project, participating Phase 1 & Phase 2 schools and districts have the opportunity to attend SPIs that are tailored to meet the unique needs of their regions.

Renata Crawley is a LASER i3 teacher at West Marion Elementary School in North Carolina's McDowell County Schools School District. Ms. Crawley has been a teacher for 23 years! Prior to her current position as a science lab instructor, Ms.

For our most recent journal club meeting, the Professional Services team read Process-Oriented Inquiry--A Constructivist Approach to Early Science Education: Teaching Teachers to Do Science by David Jerner Martin, Raynice Jean-Sigur, and Emily Schmidt, which was published in the Journal of Elementary Science Education in Fall 2005.

Love Valentine's Day? Love science? Then we have you covered! Check out our Valentine's Day Science Pinterest board for an assortment of Valentine's Day themed science activities, experiments, jokes, cards, and more.

"The focus of our training was to make us more comfortable with our general knowledge of science. Part of this is realizing that we don't need to have all the answers. What we do need to know is where to go to find them." --2013 SSEATs attendee

Suzanne Wilson's review article "Professional Development for Science Teachers" (Science, 2013) identifies the top five characteristics of effective professional development (PD) programs as:

Dr. Robyn M. Gillies is a professor in the School of Education at The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. For over 20 years, she has researched the effects of cooperative learning on students' learning in science, mathematics, and social science content areas at the elementary and secondary levels. She has researched inquiry-based science in the classroom and has published her findings in many international journals, including the International Journal of Educational Research, Pedagogies: An International Journal, and Teaching Education. The extent of Dr.

What drives a student's interest in STEM? Some people believe that these concepts come naturally to certain individuals, thinking that the "math gene" or the "science gene" gets bestowed on the lucky ones, like the tooth fairy leaving a quarter under their pillow. While this may have been believable at one time or another, now students have access to countless channels of information, STEM subjects are becoming a higher priority in classrooms, and learning is evolving into more of a fun activity.

Dmitri Mendeleev was a Russian scientist and educator in the 19th century who is often credited as the scientist that first published the Periodic Table of Elements. However, what people do not know is that he may have been one of the first scientists to use gamification to complete an educational task.

Where does rain come from? Where do puddles go? How are plants and animals the same? How are they different? What makes objects go fast or slow? Helping young students answer these questions by encouraging their natural curiosity is a no-brainer for engaging them in science explorations. This is one of the goals of the newest set of science curriculum developed by the SSEC.

I'm sure we've all been asked, "How did you spend your summer vacation?" We usually describe the obligatory family trip, visits to the community pool with the kids or--if you're really creative and not averse to making things up--wolverine hunts in Alaska with your uncle (Napoleon Dynamite fans will understand).

Recently the Professional Services Division at the SSEC sat down for the second of our new Journal Club meetings. Building off of our last discussion of the SSEC's "LASER" (Leadership and Assistance for Science Education Reform) model, we read Christopher L.

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 September 2013, the 10th annual meeting of the Inter-American Network of Academies of Sciences (IANAS) was held in Santiago, Chile.

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.

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.

Effective science education is, in itself, an innovation engine and more urgently needed now than ever before to address such major issues as climate change, national security, conservation of resources, disease epidemics and other health threats, trade, and more.  In President Obama's words, "... we know that the nation that out-educates us today will out-compete us tomorrow. And I don't intend to have us out-educated" (Obama, 2009).

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.

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…”.

New learning standards are designed to keep up with the changing needs of new generations of schoolchildren. By that measure, New York University Professor Okhee Lee sees the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) as a success.