Don’t forget to vote for your favorite ugly bug, from the folks at Ask-a-Biologist. Right now, the Snakefly has a resounding lead. Will it last? Vote and see!

Watch the video to learn more….

Join us for this free, online web seminar from the NSDL/NSTA Web Seminar Series for the 2009-2010 school year!

Title: Knowing Nano: New Video, Web, and Print
Date: Nov 11, 2009
Time: 6:30p.m.-8:00p.m. Eastern Time
Presenter: Lisa Regalla, DragonflyTV
Registration is free!

Spark your students’ curiosity and hone their inquiry skills with free DragonflyTV Nano educational resources. Six half-hour episodes dedicated entirely to nanoscale science and technology feature captivating scientist profiles, nanoscale zooms into common objects, and real kids doing inquiry-based investigations at science centers and universities nationwide. A companion Educator’s Guide outlines standards-based, hands-on activities that build on the concepts in the video. Extend lessons with the exciting NanoBlast boardgame, challenging players’ “nano expertise” and inviting critical thinking about ethical issues in nanoscience and technology. Register today!

Join Dr. Lisa Regalla, Science Editor for DragonflyTV, as she highlights ways you can incorporate nanoscale science and technology into your biology, chemistry, mathematics and technology classes. No prior knowledge of “nano” required! DragonflyTV’s classroom-ready, interactive materials can be used by any educator to introduce students to the fascinating world of nanoscale science and technology. This presentation is geared for middle school science teachers but is applicable to the high school level as well.

The Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance is looking for 25-30 teachers and teacher educators (pre-service faculty, curriculum developers, professional development consultants, science specialists, etc.) to complete an evaluation questionnaire for feedback on the NSF-funded PRISMS web site at: http://prisms.mmsa.org/ . PRISMS stands for Phenomena and Representations for the Instruction of Science in Middle School and is part of the National Science Digital Library. In return for your feedback, the MMSA will provide a stipend and nifty PRISMS lanyard with a built in flash drive.

Group A - Grades classroom 6-8 teachers who have never used the PRISMS web site who will spend some time examining the site and complete a questionnaire that takes approximately 1 hour to complete. Stipend- $200 for full completion of the questionnaire. In addition, 3-4 teachers may be selected for a follow up phone interview at their convenience which will take approximately 45 minutes for an additional $100.

Group B - Grades 6-8 classroom teachers who have not used the PRISMS web site before who will spend some time examining the site and commit to using at least 2 or three of the resources on the web site this fall. Teachers will complete the same questionnaire as Group A and in addition, will describe how they incorporated a PRISMS resource into their instruction or instructional planning. Stipend- $300 plus an additional $100 for an optional 45 minute follow up phone interview.

Group C - Grades 6-8 classroom teachers who have used the PRISMS web site and will provide feedback on a written questionnaire (about 1.5 hours) and share at least one example of how they used a PRISMS resource in their instruction. Stipend- $300. In addition, some participants will be asked to participate in an optional 45 minute phone interview (Additional $100).

Group D- Non-classroom teachers who work with middle school teachers in preservice education, designing curriculum materials, professional development, etc. We are looking for science educators willing to provide feedback on PRISMS that will help us understand how others use PRISMS to support science teachers or the development of curriculum materials. We will ask you to complete a 1 hour questionnaire - stipend $200, plus an optional 45 minute phone interview for selected participants (additional $100 stipend).

If you are available, willing and interested in giving a couple hours of your valuable time to this evaluation, please contact Laurie Mitchell at lmitchell@mmsa.org and let her know what group you would like to be in. If you know of any middle school teachers or educators who work with middle school teachers who might like to participate, please pass this information on to them. There are limited slots in each group so please contact Laurie soon if you decide you would like to participate. Once we have filled each of the groups, Laurie will contact you with further information and directions for completing the evaluation.

The evaluation will take place between October 15th and November 28th. Thanks for your help! I’m sure you will find the PRISMS web site to be very helpful in selecting web-based resources. Conversely, you will be helping MMSA collect valuable data on how this instructional resource is used by educators which will inform future NSDL projects.

Learn strategies on how to use interactive whiteboards in the classroom from Todd Williamson in this archived webinar from the NSDL Middle School Social Network

Here’s a short list of activities you can do to celebrate National Earth Science Week (Oct 11-17) with your students:

http://www.earthsciweek.org/forteachers/classroomactivities.html

Activities are listed by grade level and content standards. This list is provided by the American Geological Institute, AGI.

Want more? Try the NSDL Science Literacy Maps to find NSDL resources using science benchmarks around earth science ideas at different grade levels.

Students, teachers, all walks of life are encouraged to contribute to the National Gallery of Writing to celebrate the National Day on Writing, October 20, 2009. Need some help in getting ideas? How about some suggested topics and activities from the Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears Cyberzine on ways to integrate science and literacy into your teaching.

As many teachers have experienced, deciding to use more technology-related tools and materials in your teaching can be overwhelming. Where do I start? How can I find a way to use technology that is more rooted in what I’m trying to accomplish with my students? How do I let go of the reins and introduce technology in a way that I can moderate my students’ progress?

In the journal article, Instructional Planning Activity Types as Vehicles for Curriculum-Based TPACK Development , Judi Harris & Mark Hofer, professors in the School of Education at William and Mary in Virginia, state that a teacher’s ability to integrate educational technology is greatly influenced by three factors: teacher content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and technological knowledge. If you imagine a Vinn diagram where each of these factors overlap with one another, this area of expertise can be referred to as TPACK.

While each of these factors independently can be areas for professional development, the confluence of all three of these areas results in a special type of training and skill base that greatly plays into how a teacher goes about deciding how to use technology in their teaching.

So great, now that you’ve got your TPACK hat on, what next? Thankfully, Harris and Hofer have provided some guidelines to help out. They suggest that the best way to go about integrating technology is not to start with the technology first, but last after learning goals and teaching approaches have been defined. They offer a step-by-step process that gives teachers a context to determine when to use something like a blog, a wiki, a podcast or other means of technology in a meaningful and purposeful way:

1. Making practical pedagogical decisions about the nature of the learning experience
2. Selecting and sequencing appropriate activity types to combine to form the learning experience
3. Selecting formative and summative assessment strategies that will reveal what and how well students are learning
4. Selecting tools and resources that will best help students to benefit from the learning experience being planned

To help in this selection process, Harris and Hofer have defined different activity types that help categorize what type of learning and learning approaches are to be accomplished for a given topic. This helps to break down the process and give teachers a systemized way at looking at aspects of content, teaching approaches, and the use of technology in a more coherent manner. What’s even more interesting is how you can move students from gathering information to higher order activities of synthesis and interpretation by combining a series of these activity types and how technology can create the means of getting to these higher order processes in the form of an iMovie, or a podcast, recorded interview or other forms of content created and reviewed by students.

You can read the full article, including a list of activity types and suggested teaching and technology approaches on a wiki the authors have created. There are also activity types specific to science , math, K-6 literacy, and other subject areas.

If you’re working on the daunting task of revising your curriculum to better meet standards or have a need to hone in on selecting teaching materials that better align to learning goals, you might want to attend a workshop on the AAAS Project 2061 Atlas of Science Literacy. These maps show science concepts in a progression of learning from early childhood to secondary education. They provide a valuable tool in your toolbox when it comes to integrating teaching materials, learning goals, learning theory, benchmarks, and standards into a more cohesive practice. Click here for more information.

Roll your sleeves up and attend one of these sessions:

* Durham, NC: September 14-16, 2009
* Washington, DC: October 19-21, 2009
* Cambridge, MA: January 25-27, 2010
* Denver, CO: February 3-5, 2010
* Columbia, MO: October 6-8, 2010

Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears is an online professional development magazine–or rather cyberzine–that serves as a great resource with lots of ideas for teaching. You can find tips on teaching a unit on fossils (a student favorite). In the Science and Literacy Department of the April 2008 issue, author Jessica Fries-Gaither provides tips on teaching fossils with the help of online teaching materials:

“An effective unit on fossils involves developing concepts in a logical and sequential manner. Students should first understand what a fossil is, the differences between fossils and other natural objects, and that not all plants and animals become fossilized. Next, students learn about the various types of fossils and model the process of fossilization. Finally, students can model the excavation process and use fossils to make inferences about past environments.”

Go directly to this article to find out more.

Join us for this free, online web seminar from the NSDL/NSTA Web Seminar Series for the 2009-2010 school year!

Title: Chemistry Comes Alive IV: Oxidation/ Reduction
Date: Oct 15, 2009
Time: 6:30p.m.-8:00p.m. Eastern Time
Presenters: John Moore, Lynn Diener, Shannon Stahl
Registration is free!

Oxidation/reduction is one of the most difficult concepts taught in an introductory chemistry classroom. Students often struggle with the fact that oxidation must be accompanied by reduction, what is oxidized, and which is the oxidizing agent. Often they must see the material several times before it “clicks”. This seminar will expose participants to online resources to help you teach students these and other challenging aspects of oxidation/reduction. The seminar will explore videos, netorials, the Periodic Table Live! and an online textbook to help you teach these concepts. We will also focus on current research in the field of oxidation and reduction and how you could bring this research into your classroom. To learn more, go to the NSTA Learning Center to find out about our NSDL series of seminars. Register today!