We hope you had a wonderful break and are returning to school feeling rejuvenated and excited for the next 18 weeks.

The next three months usher in all our major science events: the Cobb-Paulding Regional Science Fair (February 11th), the Title I Elementary Science Olympiad (March 4th), the State Middle School Science Olympiad (March 18th), and the Regional Elementary Science Olympiad (March 25th). For more information about these events, to register qualifying students/teams, or to sign-up to volunteer, please visit our website: www.ccsdscience.com

Even though you'll continue to teach using the Georgia Performance Standards this spring, it's never too early to start thinking about the new Cobb Teaching and Learning Standards for Science/Georgia Standards of Excellence that go into effect in August. In addition to our archived webinars and further learning opportunities in February, we've also posted a PLC- friendly introduction to the new standards in our digital badge offerings on Blackboard. Whether or not you complete this badge with a PLC, it's an easy way to become more familiar with the standards.

We've combined the elementary and secondary fairs into one spectacular K-12 science fair to be held on Saturday, February 11th. The event will take place at Kennesaw Mountain High School from 8:30 am-3:30 pm.

Elementary and middle schools are allowed to send their top six winning projects from their school fairs, while high schools can send their top ten winning projects. Projects must be registered by February 1st.

Elementary school teachers/fair directors, register your projects here:

Middle school teachers/fair directors, register your projects here:

High school winners (or fair directors), register your projects here:

Elementary school entrants do NOT need the GSEF/ISEF forms but will be held to the same display regulations as middle and high school students.

All students will be emailed their interview time the week before the fair.

Mark your calendars now-- the third webinar in our Cobb Teaching and Learning Standards for Science training series is February 15th. In this edition, we'll focus on developing literacy practices to support authentic learning, cultivating challenging science and engineering (STEM) practices, supporting science instruction through universal design principles and addressing differentiation in the science classroom. The elementary session will run from 3:00-4:00 pm and the secondary session will run from 4:30-5:30 pm. Links to the webinar are forthcoming.

We will follow up this online training with a face-to-face session on February 28th. During the face-to-face session, we'll model and practice new 3-D science lessons. Teachers can choose from two locations: Big Shanty ES or Hawthorne Learning Center.

ES Session (combined with Social Studies): 3:15-4:45 pm

MS/HS Session: 5:00-6:30 pm

Register here.