Calling all middle school, high school, and community college biology teachers and science educators!
Put on your evolution eyeglasses and your nature of science thinking cap and join the University of California Museum of Paleontology for (yet another) fun-filled five days of evolutionary explorations with biologists and educators at the University of California. The Think Evolution Summer Institute, returning for its fifth year, will combine lectures by prominent evolutionary biologists with sessions focused on hands-on activities for the middle school, high school, and community college classroom. Topics this year include genomics, phylogeography of amphibians, biogeography of moths, the evolution of gossip, and natural selection.
When: Monday through Friday, July 29–August 2, 2013; 9:00 am to 3:00 pm
Who: Middle school, high school, and community college biology teachers and science educators
Where: UC Museum of Paleontology, Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Berkeley
Cost: $75.00 for five days; includes lots of free resources distributed to participating teachers plus morning and afternoon snacks. Plus a field trip to our very own Academy for a tour of Human Odyssey.
For more information: Visit the program website
To Register: Click here soon as the course fills up quickly!
**NOTE: This is not an Academy hosted course. Please direct all questions and requests for more information to Louise S. Mead or Lisa White.**
We want to thank everyone who attended our spring Homeschool Day on Tuesday, April 23!
The Academy was hopping with Homeschoolers and their families learning in the Academy exhibits, discovering in the Naturalist Center, and observing our animals to collect data.
For those who were not at our Homeschool Day event this spring, we invited all attendees to take some time to explore some of the animals at the Academy.
Reptiles!
Younger learners collected observations on adaptations of reptiles in our Rainforest and Aquarium. Here is the activity guide they used to find their way.
Those who shared their data found reptiles in many colors of the rainbow! See a picture of the chart they made:
Did you see a reptile in the Rainforest or Aquarium? If so, tell us about what colors you saw and how those colors help it survive in its habitat? (You can use the comment option below to tell us!)
Bird Behavior
Older homeschoolers were invited to be an Academy biologist for the day and take careful observations of the behaviors of some of the live birds that we have in our Academy exhibits.
Using this worksheet, kids made tallys of penguin and macaw behaviors.
We compiled all the results into graphs that you can use to compare what you observed at Homeschool Day to what other homeschoolers observed on the same day! See the results here.
Let us know what types of behaviors you and your family saw at Homeschool Day! (Use the comments section below to share what penguin and macaw behaviors you observed.)
Tell us what you thought about your experience at Homeschool Day. Share your feedback on our survey before May 8th!
As you probably know, the earth’s natural system is changing. Many of the aspects of how, where and when is well known within the scientific community, yet the public is slow to accept the science behind these global changes.
In response to the need for a better informed and scientifically literate populace, the University of California Museum of Paleontology and the National Center for Science Education received funding from the Moore Foundation to develop a web-based resource for educators and the general public that will provide rigorously-vetted, non-partisan, scientific information on global change, specifically how the earth’s natural systems are changing.
They need your help to better understand how teachers (at all grade levels, in both formal and informal settings) view global change, the importance of teaching it, and the resources available for doing so. Don’t teach about global change issues? They want to know that too!
To participate in the survey, follow this link:
UNDERSTANDING GLOBAL CHANGE SURVEY
This anonymous survey is being conducted by the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study and should take you less than 15 minutes, but will help hundreds of thousands of educators and students for years to come! Please complete this survey by March 31st.
If you have any questions about the survey, please email ugcinfo@bscs.org.
Join us on April 23, 2013 to learn with your fellow homeschool families and to get into the Academy at a special discounted price.
Discover Academy Animals
Homeschool Day is full of drop-in programs and places where you can learn more about the habitats and organisms on display at the Academy. Go on an African Safari and explore the amazing biodiversity of the continent. Ask a biologist about our penguins as the animals are fed. Or, get your hands into a tidepool!
See our Registration Guide for more details about our exhibits and programs.
Explore, Collect, Contribute
This year, we invite all families to participate in a special group effort at the Academy. Upon arriving in the morning, pick up a worksheet to help explore the museum and collect data about some of our live animals. Then in the afternoon, contribute your discoveries to a huge collective data sheet.
Read more about this program on our Event Schedule.
Classroom and Lab Programs
Touch a coral skeleton. Use a microscope to look up close at an insect. Discover how plants and animals rely on each other in the wild. Get a taste for how to contribute to real scientific research. Our hands-on classroom and lab programs are reserved in advance and require an extra fee.
Learn more about the specific programs being offered on our Reserved Programs Guide.
Registration Information
Homeschool admission for all families outside of San Francisco is only $6.95 for all children (ages 4-17) and up to two adults. San Francisco homeschool children (ages 4-17) and up to two adults can attend for free. Reserved Programs require an additional fee.
Pre-registration is required to attend the event. Tickets will be available online on March 25th at www.calacademy.org/homeschoolday. Reservations for our lab and classroom programs will be taken over the phone (877-227-3311) starting at 8 am on March 25th.
For all the details about registration, be sure to read our Registration Guide!
Contact Us
For questions about homeschool events, email homeschool@calacademy.org.
For many of the most frequently asked questions about homeschool day registration and the event, see our Registration Guide and the Event FAQ.
Links to Important Homeschool Information
Our friends over at NatureBridge Golden Gate are offering teacher professional development programs! They can help you bring the natural world into your classroom to help teach science, math, and language arts standards.
Bring the Outside In
Saturday, February 23, 2013
9:30 am – 3:30 pm
Learn simple strategies for building community, using nature in lessons, and getting your students outdoors. Open to any educator, traditional and nontraditional.
Lessons from the Ocean
Saturday, March 23, 2013
9:30 am – 3:30 pm
Use the ocean to teach math, science, and language arts skills. Learn a marine food web activity, explore human impacts on ocean resources, and learn about cultural connections to the bay and the ocean. Content is focused on grades four to eight.
Our Changing Climate
Saturday, April 13, 2013
9:30 am – 3:30 pm
Learn to teach basic climate science and empower your students to take action. Practice teaching the carbon cycle, investigate “garbology,” and develop simple student action projects. Content is focused on grades five to eight.
Workshops will be held in San Francisco. They are FREE and include lunch and take-away teaching toolkits. Stipends are available for teacher teams from the same school who attend two or more workshops and for teachers who can evidence implementation of any climate change materials ($100 per person!).
For more information visit their website.
