Science: Grades 6-12

Environmental Grant $$ Available

Funding for 3rd through 8th Grade Public School Classrooms to Execute Projects to Benefit the Environment!

1. What's available? Disney's Planet Challenge is offering a Double Your Impact match offer for hands-on environmental project(s) submitted by 3rd through 8th grade teachers requesting up to $650 in materials.      

 

2. Who qualifies? If you are a full-time 3rd through 8th grade teacher at a public school, you can qualify for this funding!     

 

3. How do I participate? There are two easy steps to qualify for this funding:

• First, log in to your teacher account on DonorsChoose.org (if you don't have one, any public school teacher can sign up atwww.donorschoose.org/teacher).
• Once you're logged in, submit one or more hands-on project requests focused on benefiting the environment including up to $650 in materials each. Projects must engage students directly in benefitting the environment through water conservation and watershed protection, recycling, composting, restoring/creating community gardens, etc.

Make sure to submit your request as soon as possible for the best chance of funding. Projects must be submitted before January 20th for consideration

   
4. Then what happens? Within a week of project approval, if your projects meets the above criteria, you will see a Disney's Planet Challenge logo on your project page. This means it has qualified for this match offer and now has a great chance of being fully funded by the other donors that visit our site.

Science & The Common Core

By now I'm sure you've heard a lot of buzz about the roll out of the new Common Core.  You know that Common Core is focused on ELA & Math.  So as a science teacher, you may be thinking that it has nothing to do with you.  Well that's not exactly the case. 

Here are links to two short videos providing an overview of the Common Core and what it means to science, social studies, and CTAE teachers. 

Middle School Video

High School Video

After watching these you should now have a better understanding of the Common Core and the Literacy Standards for Science, Social Studies, and CTAE.  This is exciting news for science teachers, as we have known for years that students need strong literacy skills to compete for STEM careers. 

You may still be wondering if Common Core is rolling out new science standards next year too.  The answer to this is no.  There is a group working on writing new national science standards, but these are still in development. The new national standards for science will be called the Next Generation Science Standards.  You can visit http://www.nextgenscience.org/ to learn more about them. 

Bottom line for teachers in Cobb & Georgia:

1. We will continue teaching the GPS as is for at least 2 more years.

2. We will be responsible for integrating the new Common Core Literacy Standards for science into our instruction, beginning in the 2012-2013 school year. 

3. You will be receiving professional development on the implementation and roll out of the new Next Generation Standards as it becomes available. 

Opportunity to Experiment on Internation Space Station

Last November, the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE, http://ncesse.org) sent you an announcement of opportunity for a STEM education program that engages typically hundreds of students (grades 5-12) across a community in real science aboard the International Space Station (ISS).  It is called the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) and it is truly changing the way students and teachers view science, science education, and the process of learning. This is an authentic, immersive experience that embraces ownership in learning for the learner, and garners very significant media attention. We have flown on the final two Space Shuttle flights and now on ISS.

 For the current opportunity – SSEP Mission 2 to ISS - each participating community is provided all launch services to fly a real microgravity research mini-laboratory on Space Station from September 28 to November 12, 2012 via

Soyuz 32, and a kit for assembly of their mini-lab. An 8-week experiment design competition, which includes your student teams writing and submitting real experiment proposals is held Spring 2012 (March-April). These teams are all designing real microgravity experiments and are vying for your community’s reserved mini-lab slot on Space Station. The process precisely mirrors how professional researchers design a research program and submit proposals to acquire the limited and necessary resources. This is student immersion IN REAL SCIENCE, with the opportunity to fly a real experiment on the INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION – AMERICA’S NEWEST NATIONAL LABORATORY - AS THE CARROT. 

 The flight opportunity I am writing you about is called Mission 2 to the International Space Station.

 Yesterday, January 5, 2012, we announced the selection of 15 flight experiments representing the 12 communities participating in Mission 1 to ISS. From across the 12 communities, 779 student team proposals were received. 

 You might want to read the Press Release: http://ssep.ncesse.org/2012/01/grade-5-14-student-researcher-microgravity-experiments-selected-to-fly-in-march-2012-to-the-international-space-station/

My Center, a 501c3 non-profit, oversees the program. The program costs very real money, which is a hurdle in today’s economic climate. We are therefore committed to assist in finding funding for interested communities, we have found

funding for 28 of the 39 communities that have participated thus far, and have established a national network of funders. But fundraising needs time, and for you to have a Mission 2 to ISS program start on March 5, 2012, we need to fundraise right now, hence this email is a final call.

 

Also, if your community does want us to fundraise, we would need to see a plan that engages at least 200 and more likely 300 students in experiment design. Funders will ask how many student experiences will my funding provide, and for us to assign our precious labor hours to fundraising, we need to have a high expectation of success.

 

URGENT! If you are interested in SSEP, then ASAP have someone with authority over a team of teachers capable of carrying out this program in your community give me a call directly on my cell phone: 301-395-0770. NOTE: SSEP IS NOT DESIGNED FOR PARTICIPATION BY A GROUP AS SMALL AS AN INDIVIDUAL CLASS OF 30 STUDENTS. 

 The SSEP program home page: http://ssep.ncesse.org

 PS: (if you've not seen it)

For the new year, as a shot in the arm for your teachers in tough times, a 3-min

Symphony of Science music video produced for teachers. It's a remix of my

National Science Teachers Association keynote address last March. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haUj3qUncOs

 Best wishes,

 Dr. Jeff Goldstein, Center Director and SSEP Program Creator

Cell: 301-395-0770

National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE)

http://ncesse.org

PO Box 3806

Capitol Heights, Maryland 20791