New Science Teacher Academy - Amgen Fellowship (2007-2008)
List of 2007 Fellows. Press release from NSTA describing Fellow program. LInk to Amgen Fellow site here.
2008 CSTA Workshop Proposals
Classroom Automation with Free Open Source: Moodle Course Management Proposal
The Dangerous Book for Teachers - "You Mean Dry Ice Bombs are Illegal in California?"
eMSS New Teacher Project - E-Mentored Labs and Reflections (2007-2008)
The eMSS New Teacher Project (Edutopia article) is an online resource providing a mentor, dedicated website and support for new teachers. The Project has also provided me with grants to attend the California science teacher conferences (CSTA) in San Francisco and Long Beach. The labs in this section are interactive professional development projects which have been reviewed by my online mentor. The Project also has a rich online community posting responses to questions in science and math. There are also Dilemmas, more structured questions intended to spark discussion of selected topics.
Separation of Solids and Liquids - an Inquiry Lab (Nov 2007)
This page includes links to my lab lesson plan and commentary from my mentor with my responses. (It is amazing what can get overlooked in lesson planning!) It also includes my reflection on the lab and the learning process.
Dilemma: Global Warming -- Difficult to Access the Science
This discussion took place in November 2007 on the internal site. I posted a little bit later with a question specific to our school. This garnered some valuable responses, attached.
Population Growth -- An Accessible Topic
As a companion piece to my global warming dilemma, I offer this. I attended a population growth session at a California Science Teacher's Convention a year ago. The presenter showed a video depicting the growth of the human population from a few thousand BC to the modern era. It was a map of the globe with spots appearing for each million people. Pretty impressive. But there was a major flaw...
Frisbee Dog Question - Pursuit Path Direction Change upon Entering Water?
According to the book The Math Instinct, dogs that chase frisbees modify their pursuit path effectively as they enter the water. Truth or rumor?
Caltech Inquiry Science Summer Institute - CAPSI Biology (August 2007)
This is a summer program at Caltech bringing University resources to secondary science educators. CAPSI offers a follow up classroom observation from program staff to cement the teacher's practice of inquiry-based instruction. My science notebook (to be posted to this site soon) has been a useful example to my students of how university lab work is chronicled. Some of its illustrations will wind up in my Artworks portfolio.
More on my CAPSI experience is here. The image below shows a gel electrophoresis image obtained from DNA-modified bacteria. This lab report shows several enhanced electrophoresis images and also demonstrates what the machine can do.
