We hope you had a relaxing and rejuvenating spring break! Many of you are gearing up this week for Milestones EOC and EOG tests. We recently posted several resources for you in Blackboard to help your students review. Check them out!

A team of three fifth-grade students from Pickett’s Mill ES competed last month in the Inventure Challenge at Georgia Tech and was chosen as the 1st place elementary division state level winner. The girls competed against students from 29 elementary schools from Georgia (including 15 from Cobb!). The team created Bristles 4 Brushes - a unique toothbrush to carry all of the tools helpful to people with braces. The team appeared on a live broadcast on GPB and are now qualified to compete in the National Invention Convention in Washington, D.C. Pictured below are winning students Sofia, Autumn, and Julia with their teacher Mrs. Cassie Llewallyn.

Congratulations to Cobb County students who placed and/or won awards at the prestigious Georgia State Science and Engineering Fair that took place at the University of Georgia on March 31st-April 2nd. The awards (listed below) included a 1st Honors Award for Stephen Litt (Lovinggood Middle School) for his project, The Effect of Polyphenols on Planaria Regeneration, and a special Solutions Leading to a Sustainable Environment Award for Cassie Saunders (Barber MS, pictured below) and her project titled Georgia Lakes Water Quality Assessment. We are proud of these award winners and the other 15 Cobb students who participated in this excellent event.

JUNIOR DIVISION:

Stephen Litt, Lovinggood MS, 1st Honors

Sara Racel, Barber MS, 3rd Honors

Jason Gentry, Mabry MS, 4th Honors

SENIOR DIVISION:

Fatima Elfakahany, North Cobb HS, 2nd Honors

Lindsey Deutsch, North Cobb HS, 4th Honors

Ongoing PL

Have you heard about our digital badge offerings yet? We are excited to roll-out the Life Science Critical Thinking Skills Badge on April 11th. Digital Badges are awarded to teachers after they complete an online "microcredential" course. The course builds teachers' knowledge and/or skills and is competency- and performance-based. This means that teachers determine how much time they need to practice or learn about new skills or information. Once teachers feel competent, they submit an assignment to demonstrate their mastery. If the assignment meets the evaluation criteria, an online digital badge is awarded that can be uploaded to TKES, LinkedIn, or other social media platforms to showcase the teacher's new skill.

Our Cobb Science Digital Badge offerings are housed in Blackboard in each of the elementary grade-level shells and the 6-12 Science shell. Currently we offer Understanding Digital Badges (an easy 10-minute badge to get you started), Twitter Titan, Earth Science Critical Thinking Skills, and Life Science Critical Thinking Skills. We will offer Physical Science Critical Thinking Skills by the end of the school year and will be writing more science-related badges over the summer. If you are interested in a certain topic or would like to write a badge for us over the summer (with compensation), please contact Tom Brown (thomas.brown@cobbk12.org) or Tracy Matthews (tracy.matthews@cobbk12.org).

Summer PL

Additionally, we have several summer face-to-face professional learning opportunities during June. These workshops are part of the Cobb Literacy Conference for Social Studies, Science and ELA teachers.

How it works:

Elementary School Teachers: You can participate in as many of the 3-4 days of cross-curricular workshops as you wish.* The science workshop, Increasing Scientific Literacy Using Picture Perfect Science and Formative Assessment Probes, will be held on June 29th. Read the Summer PL Catalog (pages 12-14) to understand all of your workshop choices throughout the conference. Again, you can choose to participate in as many days as you wish (*Title I teachers who wish to receive the stipend must participate in all days).

Middle School Teachers: A three-day workshop, Hands-On, High-Tech Science will be offered June 27th-29th as the main science strand of the Cobb Literacy Conference. The workshops will be led by teacher-leaders at each grade level and will emphasize exemplary, technology-rich lessons. Visit the Summer PL Catalog (page 14) to sign up.

High School Environmental Science and Biology Teachers: A three-day workshop, Hands-On, High-Tech Science will be offered June 27th-29th. The workshops will be led by teacher-leaders and will emphasize exemplary, technology-rich lessons. Visit the Summer PL Catalog (page 14) to sign up.

Celebrate Georgia STEM Day on May 6th! Georgia STEM Day is a day for schools &

companies to raise awareness and engage in activities involving science, technology, engineering and math! Last year’s event attracted over 630,000 students from 50 different school districts in the state.

Visit http://bit.ly/STEMDay2016 to register!