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Rita Ferrandino Attends White House Community Briefing on Education Issues

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WASHINGTON, DC – July 19, 2011 – Sarasota resident Rita Ferrandino joined roughly 150 Floridians at the White House on Friday, July 15th, as part of the Office of Public Engagement’s Community Leaders Briefing Series. Ferrandino, CEO of Science Companion’s publisher, Chicago Educational Publishing Company, LLC, is involved in a number of education and STEM Education advocacy organizations.

The Briefing Series is a unique opportunity for grassroots leaders to come to Washington to hear directly from White House officials on the issues that are affecting communities and to learn more about the President’s priorities and initiatives from the people that work on them every day. In return, the White House gets to hear directly what is going on in our communities. The goal of the program is to strengthen the dialogue between community activists and their government.

During the briefings, Ferrandino heard from a number of top administration officials, including Deputy Commerce Secretary and Tampa resident Francisco Sanchez and Deputy NASA Administrator Lori Garver. The session included an hour-long Q&A with top White House officials, during which Ferrandino stressed the need for investment in STEM education. Ferrandino also participated in a roundtable discussion with officials from the U.S. Department of Education. President Obama made a unscheduled stop after his press conference on the debt ceiling to address the community leaders.

“Each year, we lose more ground in our global competitiveness because we lag behind in STEM education,” said Ferrandino. “It is vitally important that we support our educators in providing the best STEM education possible, challenging them to help our children build their curiosity and comprehension.”

Rita with DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Shultz

“Most children only get about two hours of science a week in elementary school, despite studies showing that science learning must start early – both because it’s cumulative learning and kids fall behind quickly, and because by middle school, kids have already defined their interests,” continued Ferrandino. “If they don’t get any real exposure to science before that, they rarely find it engaging.”

While in DC, Ferrandino also attended a meeting held by Senator Bill Nelson and Representatives Ted Deutch and Frederica Wilson and Democratic National Committee Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz,. The meeting focused on key education issues, as well as including a discussion about the on-going debt negotiations. If you are interested in engaging and monitoring in activities at the White House, go to www.whitehouse.gov/engage where you can sign up receive e-mails directly.

Our CEO, Rita Ferrandino, along with our Midwest Sales Manager, Tom Pence, and our colleague and Indiana Trainer, Kate Ingemunsun caught up for some seriously good food at an Italian restaurant after a Board of Directors Meeting. The rest of us are jealous! Kate is off to do a training for I-STEM in Earth’s Changing Surface for us tomorrow. Thanks, Kate!

Join our marketing director Leigh (and a host of other critters) as they explore the Catskill Mountains around her farm — and what happens when it rains and rains and rains, with a lesson from our new Soils module!

Click here to download our Mud in the Mountains! Virtual Field Trip…

Want to be a Science Companion Virtual Field Trip Guide?

We’re having so much fun with these that we’d like to share!

Send us pictures from your vacation this summer to enter our Intrepid Virtual Field Trip Guide contest. If we choose your photos to fit with a lesson from one of our modules (you’re welcome to make suggestions or leave it to us), we’ll feature you as our guide and send you a free Science Skill Builders module, which is a great tool for any elementary classroom!

Send your photos and/or any questions to leigh(a)sciencecompanion.com!

Join us for a celebration of speed and motion at the Indianapolis 500, combined with a lesson from our Motion module.

Click here to download the Indy 500 Motion Virtual Field Trip…

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Want to be a Science Companion Virtual Field Trip Guide?

We’re having so much fun with these that we’d like to share!

Send us pictures from your vacation this summer to enter our Intrepid Virtual Field Trip Guide contest. If we choose your photos to fit with a lesson from one of our modules (you’re welcome to make suggestions or leave it to us), we’ll feature you as our guide and send you a free Science Skill Builders module, which is a great tool for any elementary classroom!

Send your photos and/or any questions to leigh(a)sciencecompanion.com!

Erin gets to hold a corn snake, pets a barn owl, and hugs a monitor lizard! We’re envious…

Sam and Molly travel to Nepal!

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Our sales reps for PA & NJ – the adventurous Sam Felicia and Molly Russell – are in Nepal for the Near East South Asia Council of Overseas Schools (NESA) 2010 Fall Leadership Conference.

Sam writes “Got up at 5 AM.  Left the hotel at 6.  Flew to Mt. Everest and was back at my table working by 8:20 AM.  Nice way to start the day.”

Here are photos they took of the Himalayas and Mount Everest during their morning flight:

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. . . and of Katmandu

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Sam writes “we took a ride to the Bagmati River, site of the Pashupatinath Temple.  They do a lot of Hindu and Buddhist cremations here because the Bagmati is sacred and flows to the Ganges.”

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Science Companion team and Kate from the Museum of Science (Boston) visit Independence Hall.

Independence Hall

Liberty Bell

The Liberty Bell is now located a few steps away from it’s original home as part of Independence National Historic Park.  You can read about stress tests done on the bell when it was moved in 2003 – click here.  Although we can no longer ring the Liberty Bell, scientists have tried to replicate it’s sound.  Click here to listen.

Sales rep Molly Russell and CEO Rita Ferrandino talk science.

Sales Manager Tom Pence and Rita celebrate Saint Patrick's Day.

Tomorrow we’ll explore the science of cheez whiz and get out and about in Philadelphia.

We’d like to introduce you to our great team of sales reps in Ohio. Together they’ve been bringing curriculum to pre-K through 12 educators for many years. If you’re at SECO live, please stop by and say hello!

Jack Heim jack@ohedresources.com

Mike Hughes mikeh@ohedresources.com

Devin Thomas devin@ohedresources.com

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Feel free to contact them if you have any questions – they’ll be happy to hear from you!

Yesterday, our Author and Director of Operations Belinda Basca visited the Chester County Intermediate Unit 24 and presented a workshop on inquiry science to elementary teachers there.

We wanted to share a bit from that workshop with you — please click the link below to download Belinda’s PowerPoint presentation.

What is Inquiry? PPT Workshop

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