Teachers’ Lounge

Are you a homeschool parent or coordinator? Here is some of the information you might need to bring your students to the Academy

Save the date for our Fall and Spring Homeschool Days!

Monday, December 9, 2013

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Homeschool Days are the perfect opportunity for home schooling families to visit the Academy at discounted prices.

For these special events, we schedule an impressive amount of daily programming from opening to close: presentations, demonstrations, tours, shows, and hands-on classes. Read this post from last year’s Homeschool Day to get a sense for what we offer at these events.


We will post more information on this website about 2 months prior to each event.

If you wish to receive registration information directly to your email, you can sign up for our homeschool email list by sending us a note at homeschool@calacademy.org.

 
Can’t make it to our homeschool events?
Organize a group to visit the museum at any time of year! Homeschoolers qualify for our CA Youth Group discount program when you bring 10 or more homeschool students and their parents. For more information and to submit an application, visit our youth group website.

Or come to one of our quarterly free days on September 29, 2013 and December 8, 2013 (the day before our first Homeschool Day!)

Juncos are among the most common and most abundant “backyard birds” found across North America, and they are easily observable by millions of people daily. Did you know that they also tell an exciting evolutionary story?

The Ordinary Extraordinary Junco is a documentary film project designed to engage, entertain, and inspire student and adult audiences of all backgrounds. The feature-length film (88 min.) is comprised of eight shorter video modules (3 to 20 min.), or “chapters,” that highlight past and present biological research on one of the most common and abundant –yet amazing and diverse – groups of songbirds in North America, the Juncos.

Each video chapter explores key themes in animal behavior, ecology, or evolution, and conveys the process of scientific research with high school and college science standards in mind. Related educational resources are available to facilitate classroom or self-directed (e.g., homework) use.

There is also a teacher guide!

Ordinary Extraordinary Junco

What: A film highlighting research on a common yet amazing group of backyard birds, the Juncos

Run Time: 88 minutes total, but comprised of eight shorter video chapters (3 to 20 min. each)

Created for public and student audiences of all backgrounds and ages

Key themes: evolution, animal behavior, ecology, and the research process

Designed with science and biology education standards in mind (high school and college)

Produced by biologists and filmmakers from Indiana University

Funded by the National Science Foundation and Indiana University

And it’s all available for free!

Read more here

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. Read more about the activities available at this event HERE.

Save the Date!

Our next Homeschool Day events will take place on Monday, December 9, 2013 and Tuesday, April 8, 2014.

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. Read on to see some of the great work that they did.

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.)

For questions about homeschool events, email homeschool@calacademy.org.
If you wish to receive homeschool event updates directly to your email, you can sign up for our homeschool email list by sending us a note at homeschool@calacademy.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

• Registration Guide
• Reserved Programs Guide
• Event Schedule
• Event FAQ
• Or download all the event details and registration information in one file

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.