|
September 2005 -
Vol. 2, Issue 8 Previous
Issues Submit
newsletter content DLESE
home
Resources of Interest for active hurricane season
 The
2005 Atlantic
hurricane season has been the most active on record and Katrina
was among the strongest and most destructive hurricanes to ever strike the
U.S. This hurricane season continues to cause upheaval in the southeastern
Atlantic coast and Gulf Coast areas—Tropical
Storm Rita strengthened to Category 2 status as it hit the Florida Keys
and has the potential to move to Category 3 as it moves across
the Gulf of Mexico. The Tropical
Prediction Center of the National Hurricane Center offers
updated information on both developing and past storms, forecast
tracks, and information about hurricanes and hurricane preparedness. Middle school
students can learn about hurricane science and safety with the Hurricane
Strike! module, while more advanced students can utilize the multimedia technology
of the online meteorology guide Hurricanes.
One of DLESE's collections—the NASA
Scientific Visualization Studio—offers data, images and animations
from previous storms. A collection of links to visualizations
of hurricanes is available from the Teaching Geoscience with Visualizations
web site of the On the Cutting Edge Professional Development Program.
NOVA Science Now offers an informative 11-minute
video about hurricanes and New Orleans that first aired in January 2005.
Updates on Katrina recovery by the Louisiana
Universities Marine Consortium are posted
on the DLESE website, with links to several other sites that have posted bulletin
boards and recovery information.
()
Professional development opportunity: Earthworks
 Even though the 2005-2006 school year is just beginning, it's never too early
to think about professional development opportunities for next summer that
can advance your skills and add depth to your teaching. Earthworks is
a free one-week workshop for secondary science teachers from throughout the
nation. The 2006 workshop takes place from June 24 - June 30. Participants
design and conduct a field-based interdisciplinary study with the assistance
of Earth scientists. The workshop provides an introduction to Earth system
science (ESS) in a learner-centered, supported atmosphere that helps teachers
develop a fuller understanding of ESS. Conducted yearly by the Cooperative
Institute for Research in Environmental Science (CIRES), the workshop takes
place at the Cal-Wood Environmental Education Center in the Rocky Mountains
of Colorado. Application deadline is April 14, 2006. Find
out more...
Other Classroom opportunity:
The Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) is sponsoring
its 10th
annual art contest for elementary school students. Students in grades 2-4
may submit entries based on the theme Connect
4: Air, Land, Water, Life.
The top prize is a $250 savings bond, and the winning entry will be
printed, along with the artist's name, age, school name, and hometown,
as the 2005 IGES greeting card. Apply by November 9, 2005. Find
out more...
Community Review System’s new service
 The DLESE Community Review System (CRS) (crs.dlese.org) is now offering an Instructor’s
Individualized Report Service for educators based on reviews of
DLESE resources by students in that educator’s own class. Students
complete CRS reviews of DLESE resources and indicate their class affiliation
by a group identifier. The CRS aggregates the reviews from that group, and
prepares an individualized report for the instructor at the end of the unit
or semester. Two formats of the report are available:
For teachers of
Earth & environmental science, the report is
designed to reveal how well each DLESE resource is working for the students
in that class. The teacher selects DLESE resources for use by his/her students
and asks them to review the resource. The report presents a bar graph of
all students’ rankings of the resource, followed by students’ comments
about that aspect of the resource. Reports also are sent to the authors of
the resources.
For teachers of science education, the report is designed
to reveal how insightfully students can reflect on their thought processes
as learners, and how well they can evaluate a digital learning resource.
In this case, students make their own selection of resources to review.
In these reports, each student’s
name is followed by a compilation of their scores and comments on each
aspect of the learning process, for each of the resources they reviewed.
A sign-up form is available at: http://crs.dlese.org/iir.
Please direct questions about this service to Kim Kastens (kastens@ldeo.columbia.edu)
or Neil Holzman (nholzman@ldeo.columbia.edu).
DLESE Core Services updates
With the close of the funding year, the DLESE Core Services and DLESE
Project Office have submitted their annual reports to the National Science
Foundation. Summaries have been posted to the web to keep the community abreast
of our activities. Work plans for the final year of DLESE funding have been
posted at these same locations. The final year work statements reflect significant
changes for some groups as we implement some new efforts such as the peer review
of the library resources, continue our work in integrating data and data-rich
resources in the library, while wrapping up some other activities in evaluation
and community outreach. ()
DLESE Community Services:
K-12: http://serc.carleton.edu/dev/comm/k12/2005report.html
College:
http://serc.carleton.edu/dlesecommunity.html
DLESE Data Services: http://www.dlese.org/cms/dataservices/developments/document_view
DLESE Evaluation Services: http://www.dlese.org/educators/eval.html
DLESE Project Office: http://www.dlese-project.org/
Are you a water education expert? DWEL seeks reviewers
 The
Digital Water Education Library (DWEL) continues to seek persons with expertise
in these topical areas to help complete the collection of high quality K-12
water resources: oceans, water in the atmosphere, groundwater, surface water,
water in space, water quality, water and life, water use, water policy, or
the cryosphere. Participants will provide a preliminary review of the resources
in a particular theme in the existing DWEL collection and provide URLs and
grade level information for resources that are of high quality and warrant
inclusion in the collection. Honoraria are available for the prospective work. Find
out more. ()
DLESE at upcoming fall conferences
There are a number of opportunities for learning about DLESE
at several fall conferences:
- AASL (American Association of School Librarians Annual Conference):
October 6-8, Pittsburgh - The DLESE booth as well as an "Exploratorium"
session are scheduled: Using
DLESE to Enhance Teaching: Resources, Strategies, and Teaching Boxes for
the Classroom (Lynne Davis)
- GSA (Geological Society of America Annual Meeting): October 16-19, Salt
Lake City - The DLESE booth will be available in the Exhibit hall, and a joint
Geoscience Educators Reception will take place on Saturday evening,
October 15 from 5 PM - 7 PM at the Marriott Downtown, Salon F. A session
on DLESE
Teaching Boxes: Earth System Science Resources and Strategies for the Classroom
is planned (Judy Scotchmoor
and Shelley Olds)
- California Science Education Conference: October 27-30, Palm Springs, CA
- session: Virtual Teaching Boxes: Resources for Teaching Earth System
Science, Parts I and II (Shelley Olds and Lynne Davis)
- National Middle School Association (NMSA): November 3-5, Philadelphia.
Concurrent session: Using DLESE Online Resources and Teaching Boxes in Your
Classroom, Session 3128, Saturday, Nov. 5, 8:30 - 9:45 AM (Shelley Olds,
Lynne Davis)
- State Science Teachers meetings: Neil Holzman of DLESE Community Review
Service will have presentations at the October 5-6 New Jersey Science Convention
(Somerset); November 6-8 at Science Teachers Association of New York
State (Ellenville); and November 30 - December 2 at the Pennsylvania Science
Teachers Association (Hershey).
- Bryan Aivazian of DLESE Community Services will participate in regional
National Science Teacher Association (NSTA) meetings: Eastern regional meeting
in Hartford, CT, October 20-22; NSTA Midwestern regional meeting in Chicago,
November 10-12; and at the NSTA Southern regional meeting in Nashville, December
1-2.
- NSDL Annual Meeting (National Science Digital Library): November 15-18,
Denver - a variety of DLESE sessions including panels and crit labs will
take place
- AGU Annual Meeting (American Geophysical Union): December 5-9, San Francisco
- DLESE booth in the Exhibit hall, and session on Deciphering Data: Communicating
Research Activities and Findings to Diverse Audiences (Rusty Low and
Mark McCaffrey, CIRES)
A variety of special sessions at both GSA and AGU are of interest to DLESE
community members—check DLESE News & Opportunities/Call
for Participation for more information on available special sessions.
|