Are you going to LASER? The WSTA conference?

If so, please stop by and visit with Kara Hatch, our Washington state sales rep!

She can answer any questions, walk through how our “Wonderful for Washington” state scope and sequence can meet your school’s needs, and share Science Companion goodies with you.

Can’t make it?

Check out Wonderful for Washington!

And email us at orders@ciencecompanion.com if you’ve got any questions!

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Make sure you catch Page Keeley’s keynote speech at WSTA, too! She’s a powerhouse in elementary science education and is an Academic Advisory Board member of the Elementary Science Coalition, a nonprofit elementary science advocacy organization that was created by Science Companion founders and leaders.

Check out her great books on science assessment…

Hope to see you there!

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We hope you had  a great time at Virtual SECO 2010!

Did you enter our raffle?  Make sure you do so you have a chance to win materials from our Habitats module!

Click here to find out more!

You can download one right here!

For a more detailed correlation, please click here.

First of all, it’s Ohio’s state tree, that provides a nut by the same name. Native Americans in Ohio believed it looked like the eye of a deer.

Buckeyes are also a delicious peanut butter and chocolate candy that look a lot like the nuts.
Click here for the recipe!

Buckeyes are also basketball players, swimmers, football players, tennis players, lacrosse players – student athletes at Ohio State University in Columbus, OH.

Ohio State Buckeyes

Want to know more about buckeyes (the trees)? Visit this great site.

You can win a free full Teacher Materials collection (including the Teacher Lesson Manual, Assessment Book, and Teacher Master Packet) from our Habitats module.

Jack, Mike, and Devin will be raffling one off at the booth, and we want to offer the same opportunity to all of our Virtual SECO attendees.

To enter, please email us at team@sciencecompanion.com.

Please include the following information:

Name
Positiion (If teacher, what grade; if administrator, what role)
School
School District
City, State, Zip
Email
Phone
Is your district planning to do an adoption? If yes, when?
Are you interested in a pilot? If yes, what grade(s)?
Does your school/district use Everyday Math?
An inquiry science program? If so, what do you use?

We’ll do a drawing next week and announce our winner then.

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!

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!