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Wednesday, April 7
4-6 pm
Enola Office, Meadow Room
55 Miller Street, Enola

Nurturing the child scientist in your classroom…

Please join our author and educator Belinda Basca for a hands-on, minds-on professional development workshop that will explore the philosophies and best practices of inquiry-based science learning. Bring your questions about how inquiry can make science sing!

Belinda Basca, MEd

Belinda began her career in the classroom in the Downingtown Area School District and then expanded her knowledge of science education as an educational researcher at Harvard’s Project Zero. She has worked with Science Companion as a lead author of several modules and currently manages company operations and pilot programs. She has a BS in biology and education from Penn State and a MEd in education from Harvard.

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To Register:
· Click here to register online at 48CARATS
· Or click here to email Steve Davis at sdavis@caiu.org

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**Would you like your Intermediate Unit to host a presentation like this? Just contact us at info(a)sciencecompanion.com — we’ll be happy to help you set one up!

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Here’s an easy way to check in on all of the great Virtual NSTA activities here on our site:

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• Are you ready? A pre-NSTA Virtual Field Trip

• Come by and see us…virtually! NSTA Philadelphia 2010

• Missing out on the free stuff at the conference? Enter our raffle online! (Until

• Catching up.

• With Science Present (Part 1)

• With Science Present (Part 2)

• Rare Philadelphia gecko sighting!

• What would the Liberty Bell sound like?

• Science Future – “Eyeballs in the Fridge”

• Using the web for science education.

• Goodbye from Science Companion and Spheniscus magellanicus.

Flamingos

In Mr. Darwin’s honor, we thought we’d share our Virtual Field Trip checking out some great birds at the Santa Barbara Zoo, combined with a Lesson from our Habitats module on how bird beaks have been shaped by their evolution to match their habitats.

You can download it here!

Check our some of our recommended reading on Habitats.

We have new Student Reference Books for Habitats!  For more information click here!

For tips on how to use Student Reference Books effectively in your classroom, click here.

Charles Darwin

Naturalist Charles Darwin is visiting Columbus this week! He’s come to SECO to share his thoughts about his ground-breaking book On the Origin of Species.

He writes:

“WHEN on board H.M.S. Beagle, as naturalist, I was much struck with certain facts in the distribution of the inhabitants of South America, and in the geological relations of the present to the past inhabitants of that continent. These facts seemed to me to throw some light on the origin of species — that mystery of mysteries, as it has been called by one of our greatest philosophers. On my return home, it occurred to me, in 1837, that something might perhaps be made out on this question by patiently accumulating and reflecting on all sorts of facts which could possibly have any bearing on it. After five years’ work I allowed myself to speculate on the subject, and drew up some short notes; these I enlarged in 1844 into a sketch of the conclusions, which then seemed to me probable: from that period to the present day I have steadily pursued the same object. I hope that I may be excused for entering on these personal details, as I give them to show that I have not been hasty in coming to a decision.

My work is now nearly finished; but as it will take me two or three more years to complete it, and as my health is far from strong, I have been urged to publish this Abstract.

This Abstract, which I now publish, must necessarily be imperfect. I cannot here give references and authorities for my several statements; and I must trust to the reader reposing some confidence in my accuracy. No doubt errors will have crept in, though I hope I have always been cautious in trusting to good authorities alone. I can here give only the general conclusions at which I have arrived, with a few facts in illustration, but which, I hope, in most cases will suffice. No one can feel more sensible than I do of the necessity of hereafter publishing in detail all the facts, with references, on which my conclusions have been grounded; and I hope in a future work to do this. For I am well aware that scarcely a single point is discussed in this volume on which facts cannot be adduced, often apparently leading to conclusions directly opposite to those at which I have arrived. A fair result can be obtained only by fully stating and balancing the facts and arguments on both sides of each question; and this cannot possibly be here done.”

For a look at science, religion, and family life in Victorian England, check out Deborah Heiligman’s Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith.

We’d like to welcome you to the Virtual SECO – our homage to the 2010 Science Education Council of Ohio Professional Development Conference, hosted in Columbus, Ohio, February 25-27.

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Click here for the Official SECO Conference Schedule.

Join us in Columbus, virtually!

(The best part about visiting virtually is that the weather is perfect, even in February.)

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For everyone who isn’t able to make it all the way to Columbus for the live version of SECO, we’d like to offer the Science Companion Virtual version, that you can enjoy from the comfort of your chair. Grab a cup of hot chocolate, and join us for several days of science education fun!

Stay tuned over the next several days. We’ll be offering you a free lesson, introducing you to our Ohio Sales Reps and a special guest, raffling a Habitats teacher materials package, pointing out the vital differences between different kinds of buckeyes, and other important topics!

Enjoy!

We are very excited about this project, as it will help define how inquiry science works in the classroom, and should be helpful to educators cross country. Belinda, Colleen, and Diane, and Lance, our authors are on hand throughout the week, and will be talking to teachers about their experiences with Science Companion. Belinda will be leading a PD workshop at the Chester County Intermediate Unit about inquiry in the classroom.

Over this next week, we will be sharing what they’re learning about and what they’re teaching here on our website as well, so you can join us on our field trip. We’ll share PD workshops, updates, etc.

And like any good adventure, before all of the hard work starts, our travelers needed to have great dinner. They met Carolyn, our miracle-worker graphic designer at a PA restaurant. (We do most of our work with Carolyn via email or phone, so actually meeting in person is a real treat!)

Belinda, Colleen, Carolyn, and Diane at dinner:

Thinking of proposing a workshop at WSTA?

2010 WSTA Conference
Call for Presentations
Evolving:  Science Education in a Changing World
Washington State Science Teachers Association 2010 Conference on Science Education
Henry M. Jackson High School, Mill Creek, WA
Friday, Saturday & Sunday, March 13 – 15, 2010
Priority will be given to proposals received by Friday, July 31st, 2009

And let us know if you’d like to use Science Companion materials in your workshop — we’ll be happy to get you everything you need.

Just email us at info@sciencecompanion.com  or call us at (888) 352-0660. We’re here to help!

Conference Strands 

• Strand 1:  Evolving Student:  Implications for Instruction and Assessment.

• Strand 2:  Evolving Teacher: Collaborators, Innovators and Life Long Learners.

• Strand 3:  Planning for the Evolving World:  Science, Technology, Policy and the Environment.

• Click here for the call for presentations.

• Click here for general information about the conference.

Welcome to New Orleans, virtually…

We hope you had a good trip here. Can you see us waving?

We’d like to begin the morning with a trip to Cafe du Monde — the venerable institution at the heart of the French Quarter — for a little coffee, New Orleans style, and of course some beignets…

Ahhhhhhh….beignets…what donuts want to be when they grow up…

Click here for some the whole story on beignets and a recipe if you are dying to actually taste some…

And here is a great Power Point Presentation from Ohio State University with everything you’ve ever wanted to know about the chemistry of fried foods…

We spent a little time looking for information on the physics of fried foods, but found such titles as “Structure Oil-Absorption Relationships During Deep-Fat Frying” and ”Effective water diffusivity in deep-fat fried restructured potato product” and “Heat transfer coefficients during deep-fat frying of a Tofu disc” and we chickened out and decided that we’d rather eat beignets than understand how they cook.

What’s on the agenda today?

HOT OFF THE PRESSES! A Virtual Workshop on Energy Transfers…Just click here!

Second, have you entered our raffle for your very own Science Skill Builders module? It’s for levels 1-6 and can be used both in a Science Companion classroom, and a classroom that’s approaching science in a different way. Sign up! It’s free! All the cool kids are doing it!

Stay tuned over the next few days because we’ll be updating regularly and bringing you some great science teaching resources along with some New Orleans inspired silliness, and maybe a surprise or two along the way!

Laissez les bon temps roulez…we’re rolling now!

Win a copy of our new Science Skill Builders!

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Enter our virtual raffle for your very own copy of a Science Skill Builders module.

• 21 lessons spanning the breadth and depth of science skills
• Suitable for Levels 1 – 6
• Stands alone — a great addition to any science curriculum
• Click here for an overview of the module.

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We have winners! Check here…

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Thinking of Proposing a Workshop for NSTA next year?

We want to support you!

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Contact us if you’d like to use Science Companion materials in your workshop — we’ll be happy to get you everything you need. Email us at info@sciencecompanion.com or call us at (888) 352-0660.

And in the meantime, here are some hints and tips:

• Proposals are due April 15. (More fun than taxes!)

• Content strands include:

  • Meeting the Unique Needs of Urban and Rural Science Learners

  • Connecting Content: Between, Within, and Among Subjects

  • Closing the Digital Generation Gap Between Teachers and Students

  • Rekindling the Fires of Science Teaching and Learning

• Click here for a great article on writing a winning proposal

• Click here for submission instructions from NSTA

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Anything we can do to help you prepare for a workshop at NSTA, just let us know!