Have you visited The Early Years Blog http://science.nsta.org/earlyyearsblog lately?
If not, check out what you’ve been missing! Your early childhood colleagues are wondering about spring science, “science on a shoestring,” and teaching age-appropriate astronomy.
We are very excited to highlight our GT teachers at the following schools for participating in a project to help our children become stewards of their environment:
Atholton Elementary School
Lisbon Elementary School
Hammond Elementary School
Clarksville Elementary School
Pointers Run Elementary School
Veterans Elementary School
Triadelphia Ridge Elementary School
Deep Run Elementary School
West Friendship Elementary School
Centennial Elementary School
Laurel Woods Elementary School
Forest Ridge Elementary School
Guilford Elementary School
Hollifield Station Elementary School
These schools are working with groups of students to make oyster reef balls that will be returned to the Bay in order to create a “home” for oysters to attach. The kids have a blast making them and the teachers have learned quite a lot in the process!
View this link to the Bay Journal online for more information about Reef Balls:
http://www.bayjournal.com/article.cfm?article=2586
If you or your school are interested in participating in a project such as this, contact the Elementary Science Office for more information.
Check out this incredible picture of a comet! Great for fifth grade to review Quarter 1 Space Science Curriculum – but would be of interest to all students!
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080120.html
http://webmail.hcpss.org/~areese/Science%20Field%20Trip%20Ideas
By ALICIA CHANG, AP
12 hours ago //
LOS ANGELES — Mars could be in for an asteroid hit. A newly discovered hunk of space rock has a 1 in 75 chance of slamming into the Red Planet on Jan. 30, scientists said Thursday.
“These odds are extremely unusual. We frequently work with really long odds when we track … threatening asteroids,” said Steve Chesley, an astronomer with the Near Earth Object Program at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The asteroid, known as 2007 WD5, was discovered in late November and is similar in size to an object that hit remote central Siberia in 1908, unleashing energy equivalent to a 15-megaton nuclear bomb and wiping out 60 million trees.
Scientists tracking the asteroid, currently halfway between Earth and Mars, initially put the odds of impact at 1 in 350 but increased the chances this week. Scientists expect the odds to diminish again early next month after getting new observations of the asteroid’s orbit, Chesley said.
“We know that it’s going to fly by Mars and most likely going to miss, but there’s a possibility of an impact,” he said.
If the asteroid does smash into Mars, it will probably hit near the equator close to where the rover Opportunity has been exploring the Martian plains since 2004. The robot is not in danger because it lies outside the impact zone. Speeding at 8 miles a second, a collision would carve a hole the size of the famed Meteor Crater in Arizona.
By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP 12 hours ago
For more information, visit: http://www6.comcast.net/news/articles/science/2007/12/17/Death.Star/?cvqh=ht_galaxy
WASHINGTON — The latest act of senseless violence caught on tape is cosmic in scope: A black hole in a “death star galaxy” blasting a neighboring galaxy with a deadly jet of radiation and energy. A fleet of space and ground telescopes have captured images of this cosmic violence, which people have never witnessed before, according to a new study released Monday by NASA.
“It’s like a bully, a black-hole bully punching the nose of a passing galaxy,” said astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York, who wasn’t involved in the research. But ultimately, this could be a deadly punch.
The telescope images show the bully galaxy shooting a stream of deadly radiation particles into the lower section of the other galaxy, which is about one-tenth its size. Both are about 8.2 billion trillion miles from here, orbiting around each other. The larger galaxy has a multi-digit name but is called the “death star galaxy” by one of the researchers who discovered the galactic bullying, Daniel Evans of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
Have you visited The Early Years Blog http://science.nsta.org/earlyyearsblog lately? If not, check out what you’ve been missing! Your early childhood colleagues are wondering about using magnifiers in the classroom, teaching physics to primary students, and stretching those science dollars. Share your ideas today!
You have probably heard the term, STEM, in the news lately. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics. The globalization of our world is directly impacting the workforce in our country – specifically in these STEM areas. As a school system, we have the task of preparing our students for the world they will face after graduation…
We know that in today’s world, the US is not producing as many scientists as we have in the past. In education, this translates to us needing to do a better job at preparing our students for their future in a STEM career. To do that, those of us in Elementary education need to instill a love and passion for science in our students. Every elementary school has a science representative (see school conference for the email with a list of these reps) whose role is to advocate science and support school efforts in the area of STEM. If you have ideas as to how your school can prepare students for a “scientific world,” go talk to your science rep, email Karen Learmouth or Amy Reese, or add a comment to this post for others to benefit from!
HCPSS is working hard with the business community to put together resources and information that will support teachers and ensure our students have opportunities to learn STEM content, how these content areas are connected, STEM careers that exist in our area, and the skills necessary for them to work in these fields.
Think about the importance of STEM in your student’s lives. What do you do in your classroom that support STEM initiatives? What could you do? Comments welcome! Please add ideas and your own questions…
For the rest of the article, visit: http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20071128/Note3.asp
Nov. 28, 2007
Comets are usually fairly predictable. But a normally small, faint comet recently did something really odd.
In less than 24 hours late last month, the ball of ice, rock, and dust, named Comet 17P/Holmes suddenly grew 400,000 times brighter than normal.
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| The image above shows what Comet 17P/Holmes looked like from the ground on Nov. 1. Below is a view of the suddenly bright comet from the Hubble Space Telescope on Nov. 4. |
| A. Dyer |
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| Weaver, et al., NASA, ESA |
Three weeks after the flare-up, people could still see the object without telescopes. (In the United States, it was directly overhead around 2 a.m. in the constellation Perseus.)
Scientists continue to puzzle over the event.
Monday, October 15, 2007
By: Tom Ackerman http://www.cbf.org/site/News2?abbr=SB_Learn_&page=NewsArticle&id=29085
No Child Left Inside (NCLI)
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| Learn more about No Child Left Inside, Visit www.cbf.org/eenclb. |
As a result of the testing mania that No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has driven across the country, fewer and fewer students are allowed to investigate the natural world as part of their formal education. Instead, they are subjected to two and three extra sessions of math and reading, and spend educational time learning how to take tests. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) is leading a national coalition to reverse this trend and give every student and teacher the opportunity to “Learn Outside!”
Over the last year CBF has built a network of over 110 partners including the Sierra Club, National Wildlife Foundation, Audubon Society, Nation Education Association, and others. Each coalition partner believes that every child needs to be educated about the environment in order to make sound personal decisions and to grow into a responsible citizen. The only way to guarantee this outcome is to amend the controversial No Child Left Behind law, which has unintentionally reduced the number of schools and students who can participate in valuable environmental education experiences like those created by CBF educators throughout the watershed.
The hard work of CBF and its NCLI coalition partners have led to level of success that some thought impossible. Two NCLI bills have been introduced in the House and Senate: HR 3036 was introduced in the House by MD representative John Sarbanes, and S 1981 was sponsored in the Senate by Jack Reed of Rhode Island. An active campaign on key Congressional committees and across the nation has resulted in bi-partisan co-sponsor ship of each bill, and environmental education was included in Chairman Miller’s draft version of NCLB – the only new program to be included.
We are winning, but the road ahead is long. We need your continued action and support as we attempt to persuade more members of Congress to co-sponsor the NCLI Acts, and as we look toward debate on the floor of the House and Senate.
If you want to learn more about our efforts or what you can do to make sure that every student learns to treasure the environment, visit www.cbf.org/eenclb.
