ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions. ***************************************************************************** Although the LHC and quantum physics are not directly accessible to elementary school students, there are any number of embedded or underlying concepts that are amenable to inquiry, from the behavior of magnets to basics of motion, to the behavior of matter. This would be true for almost any science news topic. A great resource for finding these underpinnings and for identifying inquiries that will support higher level understandings later is the Atlas of Science Literacy from AAAS Project 2061. The Atlas takes the Project 2061 Benchmarks and arranges them in developmental progressions. A number of these maps are available in interactive form at the National Science Digital Library http://strandmaps.nsdl.org/ and the paper Atlas can be ordered from AAAS. Also, a lot of energy continues to be expended on developing inquiry activities. Unfortuantely, isolated teacher-developed activities are generally not as effective as the already-existing research-based inquiry science curriculums (Science and Technology for Children, Full-Option Science System, and Insights are three comprehensive curricula that are research-based). The power of these curricula comes not so much from individual activities as from the sequencing of activities. The sequence is carefully designed to elicit and develop reasoning about deep concepts and science process. Perhaps your project could familiarize teachers with some of these existing exemplary materials and show how the fundamental science in these materials is connected to current events. Dave Smith On Wed, Oct 1, 2008 at 4:03 PM, Susan Timberlake <[log in to unmask]>wrote: > ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers > Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related > institutions. > > ***************************************************************************** > > Hello, > > I'm working on series of science enrichment publications for > elementary school teachers on the theme "Headline Science: > Science, Math, and Literacy Behind the Headlines." > > My first task is to come up with a theme for each issue that is both > conducive to developing inquiry-based activities and connected to > science that kids are likely to see in the news in the coming year. > So, for example, while the Large Hadron Collider might well be in the > news this coming year, I think I'd be hard-pressed to come up with > related inquiry-based activities for elementary school students; thus, > quantum physics is probably not an appropriate theme for the year. > > I'd love input from the many creative and well-informed people on this > list about what news-related science topics could connect to a wealth > of inquiry-based activities. (Note that energy and climate change are > probably the theme for future issues, so they're not on the menu for > this year.) If you have a favorite activity to recommend, I'd love to > hear about that too. > > Thanks, > Susan > _____________________________ > Susan Timberlake > Writer, editor, and content developer > www.susantimberlake.com > > *********************************************************************** > For information about the Association of Science-Technology Centers and the > Informal Science Education Network please visit www.astc.org. > > Check out the latest case studies and reviews on ExhibitFiles at > www.exhibitfiles.org. > > The ISEN-ASTC-L email list is powered by LISTSERVR software from L-Soft. To > learn more, visit > http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html. > > To remove your e-mail address from the ISEN-ASTC-L list, send the > message SIGNOFF ISEN-ASTC-L in the BODY of a message to > [log in to unmask] > -- David L. Smith Da Vinci Science Center Allentown, PA http://www.davinci-center.org Please consider the environment before printing this email. Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But since no one was listening, everything must be said again. -- Andre Gide *********************************************************************** For information about the Association of Science-Technology Centers and the Informal Science Education Network please visit www.astc.org. Check out the latest case studies and reviews on ExhibitFiles at www.exhibitfiles.org. The ISEN-ASTC-L email list is powered by LISTSERVR software from L-Soft. To learn more, visit http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html. To remove your e-mail address from the ISEN-ASTC-L list, send the message SIGNOFF ISEN-ASTC-L in the BODY of a message to [log in to unmask]