Encourage Thinking, Evoke Curiosity and Engage Your Students

 I thought I'd share this;

Encourage Thinking, Evoke Curiosity and Engage Your Students Science4Us wants students to have the full science experience so they can truly feel and think like scientists. Our inquiry-based K-2 curriculum is structured around the 5E instructional model.  This model is designed to evoke interest and curiosity in all learners, encourage them to build understanding from what they already know and then add to that with new ideas. This instructional process begins with the first of the 5 Es, the Engage. Every Engage session is designed to activate students’ prior knowledge. This phase is all about getting your students thinking about what they already know about the given topic and sharing information, making it a great time for whole group instruction. As a teacher, this will help you determine what your students already know and gain insight into any possible misconceptions. Once the online session is completed, students can work on a printable Prior Knowledge Activity that will help them to further engage their prior knowledge. The offline materials are all differentiated by grade level, and each has a unique objective tailored to each module. If you want to see for yourself how Science4Us can engage your students and bring science to life in your classroom,contact Science4Us Today!

Note, i think the best is this section since elementary teachers would have trouble with it but with S4U, it's really easy to teach

• Elementary science energy l;essons
• Energy Sources explained to kids
• Light Energy, lets explore it!
• Heat Energy lessons for early elementary
• Sound Energy with great online concepts and fun real world exercises
• Electrical Energy for elementary students
• Energy Transformations lessons and demos

STEM - It Means Two Different Things

I now understand that there are two common meanings of the term STEM.

1.  The collection of subjects evoked by the acronym: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. It's a way of talking about these four subjects as a group.

2. An approach to curriculum which is based on problem-solving and design challenges which emphasize group projects, an iterative approach, and an integrated project based approach to these four subjects.

Stay tuned for a full discussion of this and of STEAM.

Which of these two definitions do you feel is most commonly meant when the term STEM is used?

Should California STEM conference focus on Science4Us?

I just saw this press release about the STEM conference in CA this week. I would have liked to attend both to schmooze and get to know the foundations as well as the educators.

Science4Us aspires to be THE Solution for providing students a solid science foundation via an online solution that works in any school irrespective of the STEM sophistication of the early education teachers.  For more info on the curriculum:

• Kindergarten Science Program
• 1st Grade Science Program
• 2nd Grade Science Program

California STEM Symposium

First Annual California STEM Symposium Continues Commitment to College and Career Readiness for All

SACRAMENTO—As school districts across California implement both Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Science Standards in their classrooms, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson, the Californians Dedicated to Education Foundation , and the Commission on the Status of Women and Girls  today convened the 2013 Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Symposium at the Sacramento Convention Center.

The two-day event is attracting 2,000 California teachers, administrators, students, STEM program providers, and philanthropic and business leaders from around the state. The goal of the Symposium is to equip educators with the best practices, ideas, and strategies to bring high-quality STEM education to life in the classroom with two days of keynotes, hands-on workshops, student/teacher STEM demonstrations, and unique women in STEM programming. Most of the job growth in the coming years will be in the STEM fields.

"From the White House to local business support, there is more and more recognition of the importance of the STEM fields if we want to maintain California's—and the nation's—status as an economic powerhouse fueled by innovation," said Torlakson, who is delivering this morning's welcoming remarks before visiting student exhibits. "And if we're going to make good on our promise of career and college readiness for every student, we must improve and expand their access to STEM education."

"Science, technology, engineering, and math are where today's jobs are, and students who excel in STEM will be the superstars of the future," said Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who is serves as California's After School STEM Ambassador. "Providing first-class STEM education is the way to ‘give kids a shot that can't be blocked .'"

The Symposium features a special track on increasing and supporting the participation of women and girls—as well as other underrepresented groups—in STEM fields, as well as a "Share Fair" where students and teachers will demonstrate STEM teaching and learning innovations ranging from building LEGO® robots and extracting DNA to underwater robotics, and the health benefits of chocolate.

STEM Symposium speakers include:

• State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson;
• NBA legend and California's After-School STEM Ambassador Kareem Abdul-Jabbar;
• Academy Award-winning actor Geena Davis, founder of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media and chair of the California Commission on the Status of Women and Girls;
• Education scientist and 2013 TED Prize winner luminary Dr. Sugata Mitra;
• NASA astronaut and Reaching for the Stars! Foundation founder José Hernández; and
• 12-year-old iPhone app developer Thomas Suarez.

# # # #

Tom Torlakson — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5206, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100

Science Vocabulary from VocabularyCity

Vocabulary study is effective as a way of engaging prior knowledge. It's part of mastering a new subject area.  And of course, science vocabulary is a simple way to assess whether students have learned their new material.

Able to explain a MOLE? Then you understand a bit about chemistry. Think it's a small critter, you don't.

I was just admiring VocabularySpellingCity's comprehensive grade-by-grade science vocabulary lists. They cover the key science content areas for each grade from kindergarten through high school. The lists can be used with all thrity of VocabularySpellingCity's learning activities. Here, for instance, is a second grade list of words from the scientific inquiry section: 

1.	thermometer
2.	observe
3.	phase
4.	magnify
5.	centimeter
6.	classify
7.	magnetic
8.	kilogram
9.	characteristics
10.	data

Science Vocabulary Lists
By Grade
Kindergarten Science Words
1st Grade Science Words
2nd Grade Science Words
3rd Grade Science Words
4th Grade Science Words
5th Grade Science Words
6th Grade Science Words
7th Grade Science Words
8th Grade Science Words
High School Science Words

The sentences and definitions of the words on these lists are written for use in the academic study of science.  When a term is used at several different grade levels, grade-appropriate definitions and examples are used.   Below is an example of VocabularySpellingCity's differentiated treatment of science vocabulary words for the word SUN:

SUN	definition	sentence
K - 2	the Earth's source of heat and light	The sun is bright on a cloudless day.
3 - 5	the star at the center of our planetary system	The sun is highest in the sky at noon.
6 - 8	a medium-sized, main -sequence star orbited by planets and emitting light and heat	As the basis of our solar system, the sun sustains life on Earth.
9 - 12	a gaseous body emitting heat and visible light by thermonuclear reactions and around which a planetary system revolves	Energy is produced at the sun's core via a nuclear fusion reaction called the proton-proton chain.

Simple Machines

Early elementary students are fascinated when they first learn about simple machines.  I remember myself, learning in kindergarten or first grade about the basic mechanical machines:
- level
- wheel
- pulley
- Inclined Plane  
While it's fun to to get hands on, most people teach this also in a virtual style.  The Science4Us people have a great song that teaches about the basic machines, and I quote:

Work Smarter

This three-minute animated music video illustrates how simple machines are used daily to make work easier and smarter, not harder. Following the video, students use their digital Notebooks to fill in song lyrics with the correct simple machine, then identify non-examples of the correct answer.

BTW, this Simple Machines song has been put up on Youtube and  has 22K views already.  

Texas Science Adoptions

Science4Us just participated in it's first adoption. It was the Texas State Science Adoption. They did it via a third party that put together a coalition.  This has me thinking about the adoption buying process and how Texas issues its proclamation of science K8 curriculum adoption.

The adoption process by states and school districts is a high-stakes way of buying and selling.  Many states, primarily in the SE of the US, do a periodic (every 6 years for instance) adoption of curriculum for the state.  A rotation might be:
Year 1 - Reading
Year 2 - Language Arts & Writing
Year 3 - Math
Year 4 - Science
Year 5 - Social Studies
Year 6 - Other
And repeat...

What the adoption means varies by state. Sometimes they select one curriculum and all the districts and schools must adopt it. Or they pick several and let the schools and districts decide among the short-list. Sometimes they allow the schools to buy from the adopted curriculum with state funding assistance but not if they buy outside of the adopted.

Science Education

I started this blog in February of 2009 with a colleague as a way to explore the needs and possibilities for upgrading science education for elementary school students in the US.  As it turns out, I saw a huge need for a better education for the kids in K-2nd to build science knowledge, interest, and confidence.

It seemed a national disaster that in 4th grade, most of our students were:

• Below grade level in science knowledge and skills
• Saying that they were not interested in science
• Believing that they were bad in science

To make matters were, it was the disproportionately the minorities (except the Asians) and girls who fell into the self-defeating category. Frankly, STEM careers are a growth area and we should be steering far more of our students into it.

So, I put my money were my mouth was and started development of a curriculum that I felt could address the problem. I spent a great deal of money. I just counted on my fingers and I can say that I spent "well into seven figures."  (Most specifically, the company that I own spent the money).  We funded it from cash flow.  

The product is now available and we are beginning to take it to market.  We've already been through four phases of field testing:  two were considered alpha, two beta.  During our development, the NGSS standards were released and we cover them thoroughly.  Cover means we introduce concepts, we teach them, we practice them, we reinforce them, and we assess on them. It's a full curriculum:  teacher materials and student materials. It's 100% digital. I hope you like it.  Here's some ways to get into the heart of it:

• Science in the Classroom
• Kindergarten Science Curriculum
• 1st Grade Science Curriculum
• 2nd Grade Science Curriculum
• 2nd Grade Science Curriculum Review
• Review for 3rd-5th Grade Science
• 
  

Science Needs

I've moved far along but I'm back to using this blog as a way to keep notes. I just read;


Science educators have become very good at teaching the ‘formalized knowledge structures’ (e.g, in chemistry, the organization of the periodic chart) as Clark et al state, and very good at assessing those, but what do we 1 do poorly? I want to concentrate on two areas: career interest and conceptual understanding. We interest far too few students (hence the narrowing  pipeline analogy) in scientific careers, and we produce adults with poor conceptual understanding of science (Committee on Prospering in the Global Economy of the 21st Century,
2007). As a result, we live in a society of individuals with naïve understandings of science (Pew Research Center and AAAS, 2009).


Rethinking science learning, a needs assessment
by Diane Jass Ketelhut of Temple University, Response Paper, Dede Conference on Games STEM Education

The White House Agrees with us!

I was just reading the Executive Summary of the  Sept 2010 Report to the President by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) called: PREPARE AND INSPIRE:
K-12 EDUCATION IN SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING, AND MATH (STEM) FOR AMERICA’S FUTURE.   Quoting a portion of Recommendation #4:

Information and computation technology can be a powerful driving force for innovation in education, by improving the quality of instructional materials available to teachers and students,
aiding in the development of high-quality assessments that capture student learning, and accelerating the collection and use of data to provide rich feedback to students, teachers, and schools. Moreover, technology has been advancing rapidly to the point that it can soon play a transformative role in education. Realizing the benefits of technology for K-12 education, however, will require active investments in research and development to create broadly useful technology platforms and well-designed and validated examples of comprehensive, integrated “deeply digital” instructional materials.

To learn more about the National Science Board  report on recommended ways to foster the development of STEM professionals, entrepreneurs, and inventors.

• Read the White House press release and blog on Change the Equation and learn more aboutChange the Equation
• Read the eight-page executive summary of the PCAST report Prepare and Inspire: K–12 Education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) for America’s Future
• Read the full report (108 pages)
• Read information on the report at the NSB website
• Members of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology talk aboutteachers who inspired them in science (video)

Random notes

John, just ran across more science materials to look at:
http://www.friendlychemistry.com/ - a couple with ten years of offering this course.
Taking Science to School from the NSF.
Pandia Press'  REAL Science plus History Odyssey.

And I was just reading a fun quaint blogsite.
http://www.freelyeducate.com/

Science Education and the Hubble Telescope

Happy birthday, Hubble!

The Hubble Space Telescope is celebrating its 20th birthday and we have some images taken by the iconic space observatory over the past two decades. Arp 148, shown here, is the staggering aftermath of an encounter between two galaxies, resulting in a ring-shaped galaxy and a long-tailed companion. This image is part of a collection of 59 images of merging galaxies taken by Hubble and released on its 18th anniversary.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36698695/ns/technology_and_science-picture_stories/?GT1=43001

My involvement in the Hubble feels very personal. My Dad was a top management guy at NASA who helped push the Hubble from a concept to a fully-funded priority.  At Dad's funeral, the head of NASA told an annecdote how Dad dealt with some proposed changes and upgrades in the Hubble telescope design after it was fully funded by Congress. Essentially, the engineering team felt that the telescope had some design weaknesses and would benefit from (a very expensive) second set of cameras. The head of NASA said that he wasn't going to go to Congress and ask for it but my Dad could if he wanted. He did, he got it, and Hubble's new cameras actually saved the day and were far more reliable and useful than the original set.  

National Level Science Standards

Science standards at the national level are urgently needed:
http://www.corestandards.org/about-the-standards
They have standards proposed for the Language arts and math area but not so much for other subjects. And their initial work was apparently off-track, way too oriented towards engineering without adequate science.

K-2nd science education looks really cool at Science4Us.com

The Science Project Begins...Again

We are off and running developing the earth-shattering new online interative science curriculum.
Our working title- Science4Us.com.

Science Curriculum Development – K-8th grade - We are starting development on an online K8 science curriculum. The goal is to build a computer-centric online progressive science curriculum informed by the latest research.  Our conceptual foundations:

1. Students can absorb significantly more complexity than is usually offered (Taking Science to School).
2. The science curriculum should be structured around the Big Ideas  (Taking Science to School andNSTA Vision of Science Anchors) with details treated as such.
3. Standards and curriculum should be organized in grade bands rather than by specific grades: K-2nd, 3rd- 5th, middle school, and high school.
4. Students should learn science and scientific method in an integrated process in which they experience the scientific process (Taking Science to School),
5. Scientific study should be inquiry based with significant room for experimentation and failure.
6. A technology-based solution will, in a significant portion of the market, yield more cost-effective results than traditional approaches (train the teachers, create an environment for experimentation.  (Science4Us.com hypothesis).
7. An online animated and video environment can provide an inquiry-based experiential environment which largely achieves the educational goals (Science4Us.com hypothesis).
8. The real need in providing online curriculum is in creating an integrated curriculum with a common user interface, teacher and parent support materials, and an effective scope and sequence, and a learning management system. Although the web is full of powerful interactive science simulations, they are too isolated to be able to weave together into a meaningful curriculum.
9. The concept of citizen-science will be a foundation of some of the hands-on suggested further activities.  Particular emphasis will be given to the fact that the frontier of scientific inquiry is within reach surprisingly often.
10. Areas that we intend to explore include how community, social media, and web-based tools can be used for scientific education and collaboration.

K-4 Science Standards

The National Science Teachers Association
 http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=4962&page=109

TABLE 6.8. CONTENT STANDARDS, GRADES K-4

UNIFYING CONCEPTS AND PROCESSES	SCIENCE AS INQUIRY	PHYSICAL SCIENCE	LIFE SCIENCE
Systems, order, and organization	Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry	Properties of objects and materials	Characteristics of organisms
Evidence, models, and explanation	Understandings about scientific inquiry	Position and motion of objects	Life cycles of organisms
Change, constancy, and measurement		Light, heat, electricity, and magnetism	Organisms and environments
Evolution and equilibrium
Form and function
EARTH AND SPACE SCIENCE	SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY	SCIENCE IN PERSONAL AND SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES	HISTORY AND NATURE OF SCIENCE
Properties of earth materials	Abilities of technological design	Personal health	Science as a human endeavor
Objects in the sky	Understandings about science and technology	Characteristics and changes in populations
Changes in earth and sky	Abilities to distinguish between natural objects and objects made by humans	Types of resources
		Changes in environments
		Science and technology in local challenges

Criteria for the Content Standards

Standards for Science - What to teach?

I'm finally starting work on the science project. First question, what standards? Answer:

Develop to the latest and greatest thinking relying on Big Ideas and Science Anchors.

Correlate to the existing standards which turn out to be the National Science Education Standards!

Which are on the National Academies Press website.

Chemistry, Elementary Education, The Periodic Table

I've mostly been thinking about physics, earth sciences, biology, and the scientific method. I've just started to think about Chemistry which is arguably, the most important and central science. Here's what I've been reading:

A Blog Post About Chemistry which covers a range of issues from the periodic table to teaching chemistry in alterative ways.

Teresa's howtoteachscience.com ....Cd, book...websites...

Federal Resoures for teaching science

Concord.org with their molecular workbench database of curriculum, models, and activities.

PreK-2nd Science Education - Big Strands

The curriculum should cover:

Earth Science

Earth’s Surface
Changes in position of objects and environments through time; - volcanoes, canyon thru erosion, mountains thru earthquakes, videos, beaches thru erosion (interesting how they are rebuilt), dust-storms thru cutting down cover
Relative movements of the Earth, Moon, Sun, and the planets - sun song,

Physical Science

Matter and Its Transformations - water cycle, burn something (smoke and ash)
Energy and Its Transformations - physics and game engine
Forces and Motion - physics game engine

Life Science
Change and Evolution - Avoid evolution but show how selection changes. Dogs are great example.
Cells and Their Functions
Organisms
Ecology

Science Curriculum Math Curriculum

[Talk about online science curriculum and online math curriculum!] Here is a list of science and math textbook publishers from Gizmos website (explorelearning .com) for future reference. http://www.explorelearning.com/index.cfm?method=cResource.dspResourceCatalog

• Carolina Biological
• CPM
• Delta Education
• Freeman
• Glencoe/McGraw-Hill
• Harcourt
• Holt
• Houghton Mifflin
• It's About Time
• Key Curriculum
• Macmillan
• McDougal Littell
• Prentice Hall
• Scott Foresman
• Wright Group

Learning SEO & Online Marketing - Intermediate: Education and Parenting Domains

Learning SEO & Online Marketing - Intermediate: Education and Parenting Domains

I'm not entirely sure how this "create a link" works. Can someone explain it to me?

thanks, john

Science simulation tools

A few big possibilities if I don't want to develop from scratch.

www.fantasticcontraption.com - a great game, reminds of the incredible machine. I think it's by Brain Fargo (who I remember from Interplay's Glory Days in the late 80s, early 90s when I was at 3DO). Can this be used as a learning tool? As in:
- no ads
- programmable with decent science
- is it physics and motion only??

www.explorelearning.com - their gizmos are cool, they're intended for education, they belong to VoyagerU that just merged with some one.
- what would their licensing model be?

Videos
- universal
- brainpop.com