The mission of New Jersey Science Teachers Association is to promote excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all.
Are you ready for the Great American Eclipse of 2017?
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(A total solar eclipse on Monday, August 21 will be visible in 14 states. A partial eclipse will be visible in all of North America, parts of South America, western Europe and Africa. This will be the first eclipse visible from all 48 contiguous United States since June 8, 1918. In New Jersey, you will see a partial eclipse.
Protect your Eyes! If you are able to travel to somewhere in the path of totality, remember that the only time it is safe to look at the sun is during totality. It is not safe before or after totality. It is not safe if you are viewing a partial eclipse. It is never safe to look directly at the sun. You must wear special glasses. Eclipse glasses are not the same a fun glasses, even though they look the same. Learn more about how to safely view the eclipse without causing permanent damage to your eyes on this page from NASA: https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/safety |
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How to safely view the Sun with young children: https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/Science%20%26%20Children%20-%20Mar2017%20-%20%20Preparing%20for%20the%20Eclipse.pdf
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Learn more about the eclipse at: https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/
What will the eclipse be like where you are on August 21? Visit this interactive map: http://www.eclipse2017.org/xavier_redirect.htm The NJDOE has posted a list of resources at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aOnd_Z6347qhA3iZZzrHxnnOzcIE11Lvkcb3clCScjo/edit. More activities and lesson plans will be posted soon. |
NSTA Solar Eclipse of 2017 Collection: A collection of resources about the Total Solar Eclipse of 2017 and solar eclipses in general. Resources include NSTA Journal articles with lessons/activities, NSTA Press books, an e-chapter, a science object, virtual conference archives, and the NASA Eclipse website. A must read is the "Observer's Guide to Viewing the 2017 Total Solar Eclipse" PDF to learn about the event and how to experience it safely!
http://learningcenter.nsta.org/mylibrary/collection.aspx?id=UHgJRhs/h9o_E
http://learningcenter.nsta.org/mylibrary/collection.aspx?id=UHgJRhs/h9o_E
Professional Development Opportunities
Teacher Feature
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Kristin Hunter-Thomson, MSc/MAT in Rutger’s Human Ecology program, decided to lobby the Rutgers Cooperative Extension to start a program focused on Data and Science Literacy for the community. They agreed with her, and Dataspire was born. Now, as its Director, she is collaborating with many teacher colleagues throughout the country to build this important line of programming and curriculum.
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This summer, workshops were offered to science, technology and social studies teachers from grades 5-12 to pilot this new Data Literacy Series. As a professional development program, it focuses on (1) the essential aspects of data literacy and (2) what trips up our students when they look at data. The first segment entailed exploring the different kinds of data, where to find data, and data visualizations. The second segment dove further into data variability. In communicating science, it is necessary for students to know the language of data variation, how to find patterns and how to speak to the confidence shown in these patterns. The third segment was spent exploring how to help students understand what they can and cannot say from data, and how best to accurately communicate results this way.
Using hands-on activities, interactive presentations and small group discussions, each of the key parts of data literacy was experienced by the teacher “students” so they could learn tips and tricks for helping their own students gain these skills. Each workshop reviewed multiple strategies for bringing data skills into the classroom, and culminated in a dedicated time to think about how to apply something from their current teaching into the data topics.
Using hands-on activities, interactive presentations and small group discussions, each of the key parts of data literacy was experienced by the teacher “students” so they could learn tips and tricks for helping their own students gain these skills. Each workshop reviewed multiple strategies for bringing data skills into the classroom, and culminated in a dedicated time to think about how to apply something from their current teaching into the data topics.
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Teaching effectively with data in our current educational system is imperative for two reasons. First, we are surrounded by an ever-growing amount of data in our society being used to support ideas as well as build knowledge. In order to prepare our students for a wider range of career paths, they need a strong foundation in Data literacy in addition to Numeracy and traditional literacy. Secondly, working with Data as Evidence is a foundational component of 21st century science. Thus, if we are going to truly integrate science practices into our NGSS instruction, students and teachers both need the best possible sense and understanding of what makes data viable.
To learn more about the series, and see some of the materials, check out: https://tinyurl.com/dataliteracyseries. The next round of Data Literacy Series will be held on Wednesday evenings (5:30-8:30pm) at the Rutgers University, NJ from October 2017-January 2018. |
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Access the Dataspire blog to find more resources for integrating data into your teaching:
http://datascienceliteracy.rutgers.edu/resources/dataspire-posts/.
Four Dataspire workshops will be offered at the upcoming New Jersey Science Convention so that more teachers can dive into the power of understanding data. She hopes to see you there!
By Linda Burroughs
Vice President / Central Region NJSTA
Science Education Specialist
8/14/2017
http://datascienceliteracy.rutgers.edu/resources/dataspire-posts/.
Four Dataspire workshops will be offered at the upcoming New Jersey Science Convention so that more teachers can dive into the power of understanding data. She hopes to see you there!
By Linda Burroughs
Vice President / Central Region NJSTA
Science Education Specialist
8/14/2017
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To submit an article or news for the NJSTA Newsletter, contact our Editor, Linda Smith. Not a member yet but thinking about it? Sign up to receive our emails. Sign into your already existing account and set NJSTA as your charitable organization. It's that simple for you to make a big difference - at no cost to you. |
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Free PDF. Download by chapter or the entire book.
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New Jersey Student Learning Standards - Science
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