DPS Secondary Science News
November 9-13, 2015
This week...
Hope you had a wonderful, if rainy, weekend. Rainy days give restorative napping legitimacy, don't they? This week brings not only Veteran's Day, but the deadline for the Biogen Ignite the Power of STEM grants and the North Carolina Science Teachers Association annual meeting in Winston-Salem. This is probably a good time to let you know how much I appreciate all those of you have invested your time and personal resources as you take on active professional roles as leaders in science education in North Carolina. Your students and your colleagues are the beneficiaries of your efforts.
Congratulations to science teacher Lori Khan, WRAL's teacher of the week last week! http://wral.com/15059236
This week: I will be visiting Riverside, Lowe's Grove, Southern, Shepard, and Githens. I am in coaching training Monday. Wednesday I will be at the DPI Science Supervisors Meeting in Winston-Salem. On Thursday afternoon, I will be supporting Science Coach Sam Fuerst as he shares our coaching project at the NCSTA conference.
Teacher PD at Biogen
Leader: Dr. Amanda Marvelle
Biology Foldable
School: Hillside High School
Word Wall 6th Grade Science
School: Lucas Middle School
Linda Tugurian
Email: linda.tugurian@dpsnc.net
Website: http://central.dpsnc.net/science-secondary
Phone: 919-560-2647
Twitter: @dps612science
Upcoming Events
- November 10, 4-5:30 Secondary Science Chairs Meeting @ Performance Learning Center
- November 11, NCSLA Meeting (Winston-Salem)
- November 12-13, NCSTA Annual PDI (Winston-Salem)
- November 18, 1:30-4 A Science Fair Primer, @ The Frontier. Register in My Learning Plan. More workshops are planned! Look for details soon!
- November 20, FMA Live! Forces in Motion performances @ Southern High School.
- December 3, 8:30-4 8th Grade Change through Time Kit Unpacking @ SDC.
- December 9, 1:30-5:30 Secondary Science Resource Fair @ Riverside High School. We will be reviewing materials for possible adoption in 2016-17.
Quick News
Test specification documents for the 2015-16 NC Final Exams of Science and Math are out and can be found at http://www.ncpublicschools.org/accountability/common-exams/specifications/.
Kenan fellowships for 2016-17 are posted and the application is live! The Kenan Fellows Program is proud to feature internship opportunities for teachers on our website. You can view these fellowship offerings and access the application from our web site, www.kenanfellows.org. We've had a number of science teachers benefit from this wonderful professional growth opportunity!
- GIZMOS! Explore Learning is offering an opportunity to our District secondary math and science teachers. Their online simulation tool, Gizmos, allows teachers to create inquiry-based lessons in the areas of mathematics, physical science, and life science that engage students in data collection and analysis. The project involves teams of between 2-4 same subject teachers at a school in 2 half-day professional development sessions and provide the Gizmos resource to participating teachers and their students during the pilot period (January, 2016-December, 2016). Please complete this Google form to indicate your team's interest in participating in this project.
- FREE classroom presentations! BioNetwork (from the NC Community Colleges) brings all supplies, equipment, and lessons to you! Did I mention free? And, they can stay all day, working with all your classes. Learn more and schedule at: http://www.ncbionetwork.org/educator-resources.
- Anybody interested in using Webassign? Cengage is offering a free preview opportunity to interested teachers that will run through second semester.
- Want to help review science resources for adoption in 2015-16? Each school needs one representative who will be serving on the Science Resource Review Committee. I've heard from: Brogden, Githens, Little River, Neal, DSA Middle, CMA, Early College, Hillside NT, Middle College, Northern, and PLC. Chairs, you can respond to me directly or in the Google Doc.
- NC Science Olympiad is holding an invitational showcase for Division B and C teams on January 9, 2016 at the Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh. Cost is $20 per team. This is a good opportunity for practice. If the fee is prohibitive, it can be waived. Register here.
- Want a specific publisher at the Secondary Science Resource Fair? The current list of invited publishers is: Wiley, Accelerate Learning,TPS Publishing, Cengage, Carolina Biological (STC), Pearson, Biological Sciences Curriculum Study, Lab-Aids, School Specialty (FOSS), Perfection Learning, McGraw Hill, Bedford, Freeman, and Worth, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, IAT, Discovery, Kendall Hunt, and Scholastic. Let me know if I should extend other invitations.
- Looking for current science news articles your students can read? Check out: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1RtCxUaEYbHZiMmLof8NDlx54QHdC1tInQgjOLbp_CBA
- Making purchases? Check out the discounts: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzMODhERQCTzX3pPTzZQTFNma3c
DPS Science Teachers Share
James Johnson at Brogden has a contact at NASA who is local and willing to come in to talk with students. He is a NASA Ambassador and his name is Marc Fusco. Contact him at Stentor@mindspring.com.
Saturday, November 21: Making Design Work in the Classroom teacher workshop again at the Design Lab, on the campus of NC State's College of Design.
This workshop is for K-12 teachers of any subject area who want to incorporate design-based strategies and activities in their classrooms. The hands-on, three-hour session will address how design activities can contribute to the student achievement of local and nations standards and assessment in a variety of disciplines.
The workshop will include discussion of:
• 21st century critical and creative thinking skills
• Characteristics of design problems
• Design-based teaching and learning strategies: Mapping, Modeling, Diagramming, Scenarios, Simulations and prototypes, Analogies
• Making design work in the classroom
• Meeting the requirements of content standards
• Hands-on activities
• Assessment in a counting and measuring culture
For more information and to register, please visit our teacher professional development page: design.ncsu.edu/designlab/teacherpd.
Corey Mayle at Brodgen found a genetic simulation that may be useful, especially for 7th grade science. You can use the practice fruit fly populations or create populations of their own to create Punnett squares. http://cgslab.com/
Science in the Community
Would you like for your students to be able to image something at the nanoscale? The Research Triangle Nanotechnology Network (RTNN) is here to help!
The RTNN is an NSF-funded collaboration between NCSU, Duke, and UNC. A major focus of the RTNN is to bring nanotechnology awareness and experiences into middle schools and high schools. Through the RTNN, we will be able to offer you FREE access to equipment such as scanning electron microscopes (SEMs) that can image objects at the nanoscale.
There are numerous ways to interact with us for FREE:
- Monster Under the Bed: Send a sample to us (e.g. dust from under your bed – there will be mite monsters), and we will image the sample in the SEM in a real time Skype link with your class.
- Seat Belts Everyone! Field Trip: Visit our RTNN labs and observe our equipment in action. Maybe your class collects a few bugs, rocks, or plants they are interested in looking at.
- School Days: Use scotch tape to collect samples from around your school by sticking it to surfaces and seeing what it collects.
Send your samples to us in advance. On the day of your virtual skype or in-person visit, a student Staff member at one of our universities will connect with your class via Skype or in person. They will talk with your class about the equipment being used, what it’s typically used for, and then will image the sample(s) that your class sent to us. Your students will see the equipment, how the imaging SEM system works, get to see their samples up close, and start making discoveries of their own.
If you’re interested in bringing this technology into your classroom, contact us at rtnanonetwork@ncsu.edu.
Free Kits for Teachers: BirdSleuth K-12 (Cornell Lab of Ornithology) will be giving Habitat Connections curriculum kits with a bird feeder and birdseed to 3rd–8th grade teachers, thanks to sponsor Perky-Pet. Apply by Friday, November 13, 2015. Learn more.
Science in Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Below are all and winter educator workshops in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. All day-long workshops are free; multiple day workshops with lodging are at a greatly reduced rate through generous grant donations received by Friends of the Smokies. All workshops are eligible for CEU and EEC Criteria II and III credits.
Wild About Elk
November 21, 2015 at Oconaluftee Visitor Center, Cherokee, NC
Participants will learn about the life history and management of elk, as well as how to incorporate activities about elk into the NC Curriculum. This workshop will take place at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park from 9:30am - 3pm. To register email tanya.poole@ncwildlife.org
Citizen Science for the Classroom
December 4-6, 2015 at Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont
Citizen Science is perfect way to bring the scientific method into the classroom. Participate in several projects, some national and some more regionally specific developed to monitor resources in Great Smoky Mountains NP. Learn how you can use these projects to teach students how to ask good scientific questions, analyze datasets and communicate their findings. Meals and lodging included. Register through Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont atwww.gsmit.org. The workshop is offered at the reduced educator rate of $50.
Salamanders and Storms: Climate Change in the Smokies
February 19-21, 2016 at Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont
Every year we learn more about how climate change is impacting the Smokies and the Southern Appalachian Mountains. We bring in area experts to discuss this complex issue and will showcase several hands-on activities you can use in the classroom. Meals and lodging included. Register through Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont at http://www.gsmit.org/climatechange.html. Ten spaces are available at a reduced educator
rate of $50.
Spring in the Smoky Mountains
April 29 -May 1, 2016 at the Appalachian Highlands Science Learning Center
Great Smoky Mountains National Park is world-renowned for its diversity of wildflowers and salamanders. Explore cove forests and stream-side habitats for salamanders as well as the blooms of spring. To register, visithttp://www.naturalsciences.org/education/for-educators/educator-workshops/spring-treks. Cost: $75* (includes lodging at Lake Junaluska, some meals and transportation from Raleigh).
Susan Sachs
Education Coordinator, Appalachian Highlands Science Learning Center
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
PO Box 357
Lake Junaluska, NC 28745
(828) 926-6251
OPPORTUNITIES for EDUCATORS
Renew your passion for teaching while gaining information, ideas, and insights to take back to your classroom by joining the Museum for an educator workshop!
Educator Treks...
These professional development workshops provide opportunities for educators to increase their content knowledge, gain ideas to use in the classroom, and network with other educators. Participants receive a certificate for CEUs and credit for North Carolina's Environmental Education Certification Program.
To register for Educator Treks, please fill out and mail a registration form and deposit. The registration form can be found on this website!
WHERE SWANS FLY AND BEARS WALK
Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, Plymouth, NC
Friday, January 8 (depart Raleigh at 3:45 p.m.) - Saturday, January 9, 2016
Fee: $90 (includes transportation, lodging, breakfast and lunch)
CEUs: 12 contact hours
Experience one of the greatest wildlife spectacles in North Carolina - thousands of tundra swans, snow geese, and other waterfowl over-wintering in an area rich in wildlife such as black bears, bobcats, and red wolves. Learn winter bird identification, tips on preserving tracks and signs, and ideas for incorporating wild creatures into your teaching.
GRADING WITHOUT GRADES: FUN ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES
NC Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh, NC
Thursday, January 28, 2016
6 - 8 pm
Fee: $10
CEUs: 2 contact hours
You need to know what your students are understanding and retaining, but grading daily homework is a chore and you feel exhausted thinking about yet another poster project or in-class presentation. What to do? Join us to discover tons of fun strategies for assessing learning, swap ideas for what works, and test out a few activities. From 1-minute check-ins to semester-long group projects, we have ideas for blending assessment with team-building, self-reflection, and group learning.
PELAGIC BIRDING
Offered as an outing for educators and the general public
Off the coast of Hatteras, NC
Friday, February 5 (depart Raleigh at 3:30 p.m.) - Saturday, February 6, 2016
Fee: $280 (includes transportation, lodging, and all day boat charter)
North Carolina has a huge variety of birds that visit the waters off our coast. Join Museum educators and ornithologists as we travel offshore toward the Gulf Stream and we learn about and observe some of our amazing pelagic birds. Winter is also a great time to spot migrating marine mammals, and we hope to encounter these as well!
Due to the unpredictability of winter weather and seas, please reserve Sunday, February 7 on your calendar as well! If the weather looks bad, we may hold the trip Saturday to Sunday (instead of Friday to Saturday). We will let you know as soon as possible if we need to shift the trip.
Science Grants
Apply now for an Ignite the Power of STEM grant from the Biogen Foundation.
In commemoration of the Bridging the Gap STEM Education Conference, the Biogen Foundation will award $125,000 in grants to support science education programs and projects in North Carolina public and charter elementary, middle and high schools.
· Teachers may apply for up to $2,000.
· Schools and non-profits may apply for up to $5,000.
For application and guidelines, visit: www.biogen.com/igniteNC. The deadline to apply is Nov. 10, 2015.
Science in the News
The deadliest Ebola epidemic in history has come down to a handful of cases in a cluster of villages, but efforts to end the outbreak have been uneven at best.
The interplay of different kinds of warming, including El Niño and another zone of warm water called “the Blob,” has made the world’s largest ocean a troublesome place.
Contemplating mortality during a fungus-hunting expedition in a forest moving toward winter.
The case is significant because it indicates that cell therapies might not have to be customized for each patient.