Teachers’ Lounge

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.

Teach students about the environment using the Education and the Environment Initiative (EEI) curriculum

Come to the Academy to join CalRecycle educators in a dynamic professional development training session using the groundbreaking EEI Curriculum. Engage in interactive lessons from two EEI Curriculum units: one History/Social Science and one Science.

All attending teachers will receive complimentary materials and components for one EEI Curriculum unit of their choice from a pre-selected list.

Date & Time: Thursday, February 28, 2013, 4-6 PM

Place: California Academy of Sciences

Who: Teachers grades K-8, High School teachers welcome.

Attendance is limited; please register by February 22, 2013.

And … stay a little later because you’re invited to join us after the session with complimentary admission to NightLife!

To register or if you have questions:
Please email Lucy Christensen or call (916) 323-5551.

EEI Trainings at the Academy are made possible by the generous support of Friends of Environmental Education.

Strategic Energy Innovations (SEI) and Skyline College will be hosting a Curriculum Workshop on their new Sustainability Certificate in Green Transportation. This interactive and informative workshop will be hosted at Skyline College for high school educators.

WHEN: Thursday, February 28, 2013, at 4-8pm
WHERE: Skyline College’s Student/Community Center in Building 6, Room 202 (second floor)
COST: Free – including the curriculum, a teacher toolkit and a light dinner

High school faculty attending will receive the training, lesson plans and teacher toolkit to easily teach this interesting and exciting subject matter right away. The teacher toolkit includes 6 solar car kits and all specialized materials for hands-on activities and experiments. Participating teachers can earn 1 CEU.

Hands-on exercises include:

• Envisioning a sustainable future
• Learning to make biodiesel
• Constructing a solar car
• Developing a school green transportation policy and campaign
• Learning about careers in green transportation through informational interviews, job shadowing and internships

Please RSVP to Rita Gulli by email or phone 650.738.4491. The first 20 teachers will receive the curriculum toolkit.

**NOTE: This is not an Academy sponsored event. Please direct all questions and requests for more information directly to Rita Gulli.**

Connecting Galileo, NASA and the Next Generation Science Standards
A Hands-on Workshop on Astronomy for Teachers in Grades 3 – 12

NASA Galileo Educator Network Teacher Workshop
Saturday, March 2 &
Saturday, March 23, 2013
9:00am – 4:30pm
*Attendance on both days is required
Astronomical Society of the Pacific
390 Ashton Ave, San Francisco

Become a Galileo Educator through this 15-hour professional development opportunity for teachers. This professional development emphasizes inquiry-based strategies and the nature and practice of science. Taking place over two sessions, this professional development expands learning through active participation and networking with other educators.

Workshop participants will explore:
* Classroom tested, standards-based, hands-on astronomy investigations on such topics as the solar system, planetary exploration, the search for extrasolar planets and life beyond Earth, and the Earth-Moon system
* Galileo-themed science inquiry and space science content with NASA resources
* The development of student reasoning and how to help students think like scientists
* Astronomy teaching resources, including The Universe at Your Fingertips 2.0, a collection of 133 complete activities on DVD-ROM
* NASA-developed and NASA-supported resources and science content
* Adapting resources and activities to include more reflection on the nature and practice of science

Target Audience: Teachers in grades 3 – 9
Cost: FREE!
For more information and to register, go to: http://astrosociety.org/education/k12-educators/bay-area-project-astro-workshops/