Posts Tagged: Science

Promising Practices in Evaluation

National 4-H Council is publishing a series of documents on promising practices around 4-H Science. The newest one features promising practices in evaluation of 4-H science programming, by Katherine Heck and Martin Smith. The publication can be found here.

Additional promising practices resources related to curriculum, evaluation, program design and development, professional development, partnerships, resource development, and marketing can be found here.

Informal Commons

NSF is developing a new umbrella website for informal science resources, informalcommons.org . The site is intended to facilitate collaboration across the field of informal science and provide resources in a variety of areas. At the moment, the site is under development and will be expanded in the upcoming weeks. The ATIS (PEAR) website of assessment tools will be added to this site. There are also links to science and museum exhibits, informal science education sites, and other resources.

SET workshops

On February 5, SET program trainings will be held at eight locations around the state. The trainings will focus on a variety of curriculum topics, including:

* Biosecurity

* Robotics

* TechXCite

* Youth Experiences in Science

* There's no new water!

* Exploring Your Environment

To register for the trainings (by January 24), visit http://www.ca4h.org/Projects/SET/Initiative/Workshops/ .

California Science Teachers Assoc. conference

The California Science Teachers Association will hold their annual conference next October 21-23 in Pasadena. They have a call for workshops open now (deadline is March 7, 2011), and would like to receive workshop proposals on a variety of topics, including assessment, pedagogy, science literacy, technology, informal science, and others.

For more information, visit this site.

President's Report on K-12 STEM Education

The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology have issued a new report, "Prepare and Inspire: K-12 Education in Science, Engineering, Technology, and Math (STEM) for America's Future." The report calls for several steps to improve STEM education in the United States, including an increase in after-school programs that incorporate STEM projects. In particular, they hope to see more after-school programs for girls, African American, and Hispanic youth.

From an Education Week article,

The report also asserts that the federal role in such programs should be “significant.” Working together, the council states, the Department of Education and the National Science Foundation “should develop a coordinated initiative” dubbed INSPIRE, which would focus on “individualized, transforming experiences with STEM subjects.” In addition to supporting after-school and extended-day programs, INSPIRE could support boosting the number of local, state, and national STEM contests for students.

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