Science Tidbits
April 2017
Science LEAP Paper Based Test MAY 5th
NSTA Area Conference will be in New Orleans November 30-Dec. 2
Let's Talk Louisiana Student Standards for Science
OVERVIEW OF 3D LEARNING
Dimension 1: Science and Engineering Practices
The practices describe behaviors that scientists engage in as they investigate and build models and theories about the natural world and the key set of engineering practices that engineers use as they design and build models and systems.
Dimension 2: Crosscutting Concepts
Crosscutting concepts have application across all domains of science. These crosscutting concepts are the unifying ideas that appears in all of science. Some of these crosscutting concepts include cause & effect and patterns.
Dimension 3: Disciplinary Core Ideas
Disciplinary core ideas have the power to focus K–12 science curriculum, instruction and assessments on the most important aspects of science. To be considered core, the ideas should meet at least two of the following criteria and ideally all four:
- Have broad importance across multiple sciences or engineering disciplines or be a key organizing concept of a single discipline;
- Provide a key tool for understanding or investigating more complex ideas and solving problems;
- Relate to the interests and life experiences of students or be connected to societal or personal concerns that require scientific or technological knowledge;
- Be teachable and learnable over multiple grades at increasing levels of depth and sophistication.
Visit the Caddo Science Website!
What's going on at SciPort?
Teacher Appreciation Week April 30–May 6
Give Sci-Port a chance to thank you for all you do! To show our appreciation, you and your immediate* family may come to our center for free. Additionally, you will receive 10% off in the Discoveries Unlimited Gift Shop on educator items, and everyone in your group will receive discounted IMAX® admission and a 10% discount at our Galaxy Café. Plus, anytime that you visit Sci-Port during the 2016-2017 school year, your name will be added in to a drawing to win a Sci-Port Discovery Membership. The winner will be drawn on Friday, May 5 during Teacher Appreciation Week. This membership includes free admission for up to five people to Sci-Port all year long! *Immediate family includes your parents, spouse and children.
Sci-Port Part-Time Summer Employment Opportunities* Seeking experienced teachers for our Summer Camps Monday–Friday 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Must be available to attend teacher training from May 31-June 2. Please contact Christie Rodriguez at 318-424-8679 or Human Resources at 318-424-8680 for more information.
Caddo Science Symbaloo -- Featured website
Check out HHMI BioInteractive
At BioInteractive, you can find award-winning multimedia resources, including apps, animations, videos, interactives, and virtual labs, to bring the excitement of scientific discovery into your classroom. Our rich video resources range from a series of short films on evolution, hosted by an award-winning author-scientist, to lectures on the brain given by a Nobel-prize winner—all supplemented by teacher guides and classroom activities. Our team members include scientists, artists, and educational experts.
Here is a quick guide to some of our resources:
Short Films: Short (15 to 30 minutes long) broadcast-quality films designed to engage students. Each one tells a different scientific story and is supported by supplemental resources including teacher guides and activities.
Holiday Lectures: Each series contains full-length lectures on a specific topic given by top scientists working at the cutting edge of scientific research. The lectures include graphics and animations to help engage students and explain difficult scientific concepts.
Virtual Labs: Students use real scientific research techniques in a virtual lab environment and identify bacteria based on its DNA, construct a transgenic fruit fly, and measure traits in fossil fish to record evolutionary change.
Click & Learns: Interactive tutorials on particular topics that contains video clips, images, and animations to explain concepts.
Classroom Resources: A wide range of documents for use in the classroom to support our short films and Holiday Lectures. They include hands-on activities, bioinformatics exercises, classroom posters, and more.
Teacher Guides: Comprehensive guides to our resources written by a classroom teacher. Download the teacher guides and peruse through the pages to plan your lesson, download the hands-on activity instructions, and download animations or video clips to paste right into your PowerPoint presentation!
Many of our resources are targeted to a high school and undergraduate audience but can be easily adapted to different levels of instruction. They can be used in a flipped, blended, or traditional classroom.
Science Safety Tip of the Day
Dress appropriately for laboratory work by protecting your body with clothing and shoes. This means that you should use hair ties to tie back long hair and tuck into the collar. Do not wear loose or baggy clothing or dangling jewelry on laboratory days. Acrylic nails are also a safety hazard near heat sources and should not be used. Sandals or open-toed shoes are not to be worn during any lab activities.
Interested in participating in a book study?
Ordering Chemicals for High Schools
Caddo Parish Schools recently completed a monumental chemical cleanup. 100's of bottles of out-dated, corroded, and not used chemicals were removed from high schools to ensure the safety of our students and teachers.
In order to safely remove chemicals from classrooms we must work through the Department of Environmental Equality (DEQ) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to bring in qualified technicians to log chemicals, properly package chemicals, and safely dispose of chemicals stored in lab closets. This process is exceptionally expensive and time consuming. To limit the amount of unnecessary chemicals Caddo Parish has on hand, I asked your principals to include me in the ordering process for purchasing chemicals for your classroom using classroom fees. Please sent the purchase request to Lisa Nance at lmnance@caddoschools.org or fax to 318-603-6368 to request my signature for chemical purchases. I will send your school a copy of the SDS for each chemical ordered along with a signed copy of the purchase request.
Science Funnies!
#caddoscience
Caddo Science
Email: lmnance@caddoschools.org
Website: www.caddoschools.org
Location: 1961 Midway Ave, Shreveport, LA, United States
Phone: 318-603-6372
Twitter: @caddoscience