Register Online for a free live web seminar hosted by NSDL’s Middle School Portal and the National Middle School Association entitled, “A New Model of Science Curricula and Instruction” on Thursday, May 29, 2008, at 3:30 p.m. (EDT). This webinar will explore answers to the question, “Why do students still lack conceptual understanding and scientific habits of mind despite our best efforts?” A new model of science curricula and instruction will be introduced that includes 1) core concepts; 2) learning progressions; and 3) the four strands of science proficiency. Also covered will be what science topics to teach, when to teach them, and how to teach along with a discussion about the ‘why.’ Resources that support this new model will be examined.

The Middle School Portal, from the National Science Digital Library provides free access to digital resources for middle school math and science teachers offering an in-depth look at standards-based math and science concepts. The Portal features lively text and graphics along with background information for teachers, interactive online activities, data analyses, and links to related topics. Content includes Explore In Depth publications, Quick Takes, and Connecting News to the National Science Education Standards blog. Users may search either the math or science sections of the site; e-mail and print individual pages; browse resources according to subjects outlined by national science and mathematics education standards; search by keyword; and receive e-mail updates when new content is added to the site. View the Middle School Portal Web site.

The National Science Digital Library (NSDL) is one of many organizations and groups that seek to improve educational technology and access to educational opportunities nationwide. ESchool News, a monthly newspaper that provides news and information for K–20 decision-makers who use technology to help their institutions achieve educational goals, recently celebrated their tenth anniversary by publishing a top ten list of people who have “had a profound impact on educational technology in the last decade.” Linda G. Roberts, who serves on NSDL’s National Visiting Committee, and Julie Evans, who has advised NSDL on ways to improve its services and technology, were among honorees who also included Microsoft’s Bill Gates, and One Laptop per Child’s Nicholas Negroponte.

Linda Roberts, a former elementary school teacher and university professor, founded the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology during the Clinton Administration and developed the nation’s first educational technology plan. She is currently Senior Advisor to Apple Computer and several leading technology companies. Roberts is credited with spearheading the idea that educational technology implementation and use in U.S. schools should be a national priority.

Julie Evans has been finding out what teachers, students, administrators and even parents think about the use of educational technology in schools since 2003. In 2007 alone 319,223 students, 25,544 teachers, 19,726 parents, and 3,263 school leaders submitted surveys through the Speak Up annual national research study about the use of technology and science resources to prepare students for the 21st century. The Net Day Speak Up web site states, “Since inception the project has collected the viewpoints of over 850,000 K-12 students, teachers and parents from all 50 states.”

NSDL Director of Core Integration Kaye Howe says, “Both Linda Roberts and Julie Evans give advice, counsel and support to NSDL—and that has been our very good fortune. Linda has been a strong and deeply involved member of NSDL’s National Visiting Committee, and is always available to give us the benefit of both her vision, her experience and her extensive contacts. Julie’s Net Day Speak Up surveys, and her compelling presentations of the data (she is probably the best keynoter we’ve ever had at the NSDL Annual Meeting) provide invaluable and illuminating longitudinal insights into what K-12 teachers, students and parents are really thinking and doing. They have both made a critical difference in education and that will continue to do so.”

The goal of the Exploratorium Digital Library Afterschool Project is to bring more science and math enrichment into out-of-school time using resources from the Exploratorium’s Digital Library. Exploratorium Afterschool is one of the many Exploratorium collections for educators who will learn about different types of afterschool activities through digital videos, concept maps, links to other STEM resources in NSDL, science explanations, educator tips, and related activities at this web site. Portable media in the form of a DVD is also available upon request. Through a collaboration with the California School-age Consortium and their trainee network, outreach specialists are sharing NSDL materials and resources from the website with afterschool leaders and frontline staff across California. For more information, please contact Sherry Hsi, the Principal Investigator of the project.

The 2008 NSDL Annual Meeting will be held from September 30 to October 2, 2008 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC. The theme for this year’s meeting is “STEM Research and Education in Action.” Details, including the call for proposals, deadlines, meeting registration and travel support information, are available on the annual meeting website. The meeting is designed to provide a forum for sharing STEM research and education experiences, successes, and issues of interest across the entire NSDL network that includes the NSDL community as well as individuals and groups not directly affiliated with NSDL-funded projects. The success of NSDL’s annual event depends on community participation and the quality and relevancy of the sessions.

If you’ve seen the current NSF solicitation for the NSDL program, you will know that this is a transitional year for several groups including some Pathways and the Core Integration team. The current institutions that comprise the Core Integration team (Columbia, Cornell, and UCAR) do plan to respond to the solicitation. The meeting will be structured to provide plenty of time and space to discuss plans for the future, and to celebrate and share the interesting work that continues within and beyond the NSDL program.

NSDL: STEM Research and Education in Action

In 2007, the NSDL Annual Meeting highlighted a network of projects and people that had collectively reached a milestone. Presenters did not say, “When it’s built, we can….” Instead, attendees said, “What we learned was…,” and, “What we’re doing is….” Building on that ethos, the Planning Committee encourages proposals to the 2008 NSDL Annual Meeting that demonstrate how the vision of a National Science Digital Library continues to be fulfilled within, and how it contributes to, the evolving national STEM research and education infrastructure. Proposals should explore issues and report on activities that:

• Reflect cumulative experiences and provide compelling narratives about ongoing, or concluded, research (e.g., technology, education, policy) within the context of the NSDL program;
• Highlight inter-disciplinary work undertaken by NSDL projects that encompass continuums, for example, between technology developers and users, across STEM disciplines, and between public and private organizations;
• Are directly applicable to the STEM teacher and learner audiences of NSDL projects;
• Describe a vision for the role of NSDL within the evolving national STEM research and education infrastructure;
• Demonstrate the complementary contributions between STEM research and STEM education.

Please visit the NSDL Annual Meeting web site for complete information: http://annualmeeting.nsdl.org/.

NSDL Education and Outreach Specialist Robert Payo recently attended the Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) Annual Conference in New Orleans and blogged about it in NSDL Road Reports where NSDL colleagues often share their experiences and impressions of various scientific and education events, meetings and conferences. Payo specifically highlighted a talk given by Dr. Judy Willis that explained how teachers can benefit from greater awareness of neuroscience and apply strategies that are (as she puts it) “neuro-logical.” Thus began a very interesting correspondence among members of the education and neurological communities that can be viewed here (scroll down to comments at the end of the blog post).

Payo wrote, “Given that the brain has versatile neuroplasticity, developing student strategies to strengthen their abilities to create new pathways, connecting new knowledge to previously learned concepts and patterns, teaching students to look at problems from multiple perspectives or providing periodical shifts in attention when teaching through the use of word puzzles or discrepant events—what Willis calls “syn-naps”—can aid student understanding and capitalize on the innate processes of each individual. Such strategies are the hallmark of good teaching, but having a better understanding and intentional focus on brain-based strategies is a useful tool for any teacher.”

Comments range from agreement with Willis’s ideas about brain-based teaching strategies, to questioning the validity of her conclusions, to observations that neurological views of teaching practices are just another way to look at time-honored techniques that work.

Read more about Willis’s “Brain Glitch” theory:

http://ascd.typepad.com/blog/2007/02/debating_the_br.html
http://techpsych.blogspot.com/2007/06/neuroscience-of-joyful-education-ascd.html

Content Clips is a free, interactive web environment that features compelling online resources for K-12 teachers, including images, sounds, and video clips to help build student understanding of science concepts and the natural world. It offers easy-to-use tools (no programming required), a growing multimedia collection, an “add-your-own-clip” feature, and a simple way to combine and arrange online content from multiple sources into customized presentations or learning activities. The interactive fossil sort, used as part of an assessment probe activity and the electronic storybooks in the most recent issue of the Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears magazine, illustrate how teachers can use Content Clips to create their own classroom interactives. Note that Content Clips requires Adobe Flash.