Subject: Hands-On, Inquiry Science Resource
From: Teresa Costanzo
Date: Tue, 12 Nov 1996 11:40:40 +0200
Elementary Teachers and Elementary Teachers-in-Training!
Point your web browser to an excellent science education resource
brought to you by the University of Washington's Department of Molecular
Biotechnology, "I Don't Know - Let's Do the Experiment": Microscopes,
Cells, DNA and You--
http://chroma.mbt.washington.edu/outreach/hands_on_science.html
WITHIN THE PAGES OF THIS WEB-SITE OF AN INNOVATIVE SCIENCE COURSE, WE
HAVE POSTED THE COURSE CURRICULUM, PHILOSOPHY AND METHODOLOGY; INCLUDING
ENTIRE LESSON PLANS, MATERIALS, BOOK LISTS, AND RESOURCES.
Microscopes, Cells, DNA and You is an adult level science course taught
with same style, pedagogy and techniques recommended for science
teaching at the elementary school level. Many of the experiments we do
in the course are transferable directly to the upper-elementary
classroom--grades four and up. We believe that all adults interested in
science and science learning, will find the course content and materials
interesting, fun, and mind expanding. We also hope that the course will
serve as a good model of science teaching appropriate for use in the
elementary school classroom. Funded by the National Science
Foundation, Microscopes, Cells, DNA and You is the result of a
collaboration by Seattle teachers, the University of Washington College
of Education and molecular biotechnologists.
For more information, please contact us at:
idontknow@chroma.mbt.washington.edu
Subject: Hands-On, Inquiry Science Resource
From: Teresa Costanzo
Date: Tue, 12 Nov 1996 11:27:42 -0800
Elementary Teachers and Elementary Teachers-in-Training!
Point your web browser to an excellent science education resource brought
to you by the University of Washington's Department of Molecular
Biotechnology, "I Don't Know - Let's Do the Experiment": Microscopes,
Cells, DNA and You--
http://chroma.mbt.washington.edu/outreach/hands_on_science.html
WITHIN THE PAGES OF THIS WEB-SITE OF AN INNOVATIVE SCIENCE COURSE, WE HAVE
POSTED THE COURSE CURRICULUM, PHILOSOPHY AND METHODOLOGY; INCLUDING ENTIRE
LESSON PLANS, MATERIALS, BOOK LISTS, AND RESOURCES.
Microscopes, Cells, DNA and You is an adult level science course taught
with same style, pedagogy and techniques recommended for science teaching
at the elementary school level. Many of the experiments we do in the
course are transferable directly to the upper-elementary classroom--grades
four and up. We believe that all adults interested in science and science
learning, will find the course content and materials interesting, fun, and
mind expanding. We also hope that the course will serve as a good model of
science teaching appropriate for use in the elementary school classroom.
Funded by the National Science Foundation, Microscopes, Cells, DNA and You
is the result of a collaboration by Seattle teachers, the University of
Washington College of Education and molecular biotechnologists.
For more information, please contact us at:
idontknow@chroma.mbt.washington.edu
Subject: Re: College textbooks - follow up
From: hrubin@b.stat.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin)
Date: 12 Nov 1996 14:47:35 -0500
In article <5683fn$jt8@hpcvsnz.cv.hp.com>,
Don Pettengill wrote:
>David Rostov (drostov@inet1.inetworld.net) wrote:
>: As a college student (and future college instructor), I can say that I
>: want textbooks with more color and pictures and graphs if they really
>: help me out. For most of us students, there is nothing more
>: mind-numbing than looking at a black & white text that's throwing five
>: new concepts at us from every sentence. An interesting picture or
>: diagram can instruct much more quickly than a thousand black & white
>: words.
This may or may not be the case. But you are wrong about throwing
five new concepts from a sentence; you may be lucky to find five contents
in a chapter. What is being thrown at you is five or more details,
usually presented with no indication of the relevant concepts.
If you doubt this, imagine surfing the web without graphics,
>: pehaps on a DOS machine (no Windows or Mac). Graphics are tangible &
>: intuitive, text is not.
I would, in most cases, prefer a good black-and-white straight text
presentation without graphics. I do not consider the use of other
alphabets or special symbols graphics, and they should nto be treated
as such.
>Well, IF the color is anything more than decorative, it can be useful.
>But it is not, usually.
>As for "mind-numbing" text, well, I think that the purpose here is to
>get the left side of ones brain some exercise. Depends on the subject
>of course. Art and Physics will likely have different requirements ....
>It does seem to me that the ability to read and comprehend plain text,
>is pretty damn poor, for far too many students. That's probably the
>reason why the literature classics are out of vogue - teachers are
>waiting for the cartoon versions :-)
Too often, college students seem unable to read. This does not call
for a smiley, unfortunately.
>regards,
>donp
>--
>________________________________________________________________________
>Don Pettengill E-mail: donp@cv.hp.com
>Hewlett Packard IJBU, 3U-E4 Telephone: (541)715-5369
>1040 North Circle Boulevard Fax: (541)715-3306
>Corvallis, Oregon 97330-4200
>________________________________________________________________________
--
Herman Rubin, Dept. of Statistics, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette IN47907-1399
hrubin@stat.purdue.edu Phone: (317)494-6054 FAX: (317)494-0558
Subject: How to teach logs?
From: klier@hub.fern.com (Kay Lancaster)
Date: 13 Nov 1996 05:56:29 GMT
I'm a docent at a science museum, and old botany teacher. As I was
trying to explain earthquake damage yesterday, I realized that most of
our visitors had no real grasp of a log scale -- unless they were at least
as old as I was and had worked with slide rules. It's a useful
tool in many branches of science... pH in chemistry, richter scales
for earthquakes, decibels in physics and biology, etc.
Currently we have a set of coffee cans with 1, 10, 100, 1000 etc. units of
rice in them that the visitors can heft. I'd like to add some other
"exhibits" (preferably multisensory demonstrations) to help our visitors
grasp the meaning of a change from say, 3 to 4 on the Richter scale.
If anyone has suggestions, they'd be gratefully received. In fact, I
wouldn't mind trying to talk the museum into a multi-disciplinary
"powers of 10/logs" exhibit, but whatever we design has to be able to
withstand the torture tests that museum visitors put an exhibit through.
Kay Lancaster klier@fern.com