Teachers’ Lounge

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.

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.

Students in grades 7 through 12 from any of ten Bay Area counties can sign up in teams of 2 to 4 to develop innovative solutions using clean energy technology.

In this second annual Applied Materials’ Clean Tech Competition students will tackle how to provide clean water for all, compete for prizes and scholarships up to $5,000, and possibly change the world.

Teams will need to:

• Identify a water access problem in your community or in a specific location of your choice in the world.
• Describe the cause and scope of this issue.
• Explain the specific impacts on health, economic, or environmental conditions of the community.
• Design a solution that uses clean energy technology to address your identified water access problem, and explain how it would help meet human needs and improve lives.

Submissions are due at the end of February, 2013.

To learn more and to register visit their website, call 1-855-CTC-2103, or e-mail cleantech@cstl.org.

**NOTE: This is not an Academy sponsored competition. Please direct all questions and requests for more information directly to cleantech@cstl.org.**

Do you have a student who is enthusiastic about science and the environment?

The Academy is now accepting applications for PART 2 of our Problems with Plastics program!

In this after-school program, high schoolers will work with our Digital Learning team, Academy experts, and local businesses to understand the role plastics play in our communities here in San Francisco. Youth will conduct research and make data driven decisions on how they can make a difference on the ecological landscape of San Francisco.

The experience will culminate on Earth Day weekend when the youth will unveil their plan for impact to all who attend the Academy’s Earth Day celebration!

The program will run from January 7, 2013 through April 20, 2013, twice a week on Mondays and Wednesdays from 4:00 – 6:00 pm, and on the 4th Saturday of every month (10:00 am – 4:00 pm).

We are accepting ONLY 6 high school students from any school in the Bay Area. Participants will be chosen on a rolling basis so youth need to apply quickly by clicking here!

Students worldwide have an opportunity to name an asteroid from which an upcoming NASA mission will return the first samples to Earth.

Scheduled to launch in 2016, the mission is called the Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx).

Right now, the asteroid’s name is 1999 RQ36, but The Planetary Society, MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory, and the University of Arizona are asking students around the world to suggest better names for the asteroid.

Enter by December 2, 2012, to have a chance to name a piece of the solar system!

The contest is open to kids under the age of 18. To enter, parents or teachers must fill out an online entry form with the proposed name and a short explanation of why that name is a good choice.

Asteroids can’t be named just anything, of course. The International Astronomical Union governs the naming of big and small objects in the solar system, and they have guidelines on how to name near-Earth objects like 1999 RQ36.

For more information about the NASA mission, visit the OSIRIS-REx website or for specifics on the contest, click here.

**NOTE: This is not an Academy sponsored activity. Please direct all questions and requests for more information directly to The Planetary Society.**