DEN: Florida

Science Fair.

Mutter those words to students and they will either jump for joy or groan. Mention the words to parents and they often will groan louder. Somehow over the years science fair has gotten a bad name. Could it be that students are expected to conduct an experiment at home with little time spent in class actually working on their project? Or is it because the students wait until the last minute to tell their parents that they have a science fair project and they spend the entire night before it’s due coming up with a project idea that they can complete in less than 3 hours. Perhaps it’s neither of these, and instead it’s that both students and parents (maybe even teachers) haven’t had a user-friendly resource to help muddle through the scientific process of conducting a science fair project. I know that as a science teacher, we are expected to have our students complete science fair projects but don’t have time scheduled into the curriculum to have students actually work on science fair projects in class.
Luckily, Discovery Education has once again come to our aid. Discovery education has partnered up with Scotch® to bring us Science Fair Central.

Simply go to: http://school.discoveryeducation.com/sciencefaircentral/ for step-by-step help for students, parents and teachers. “Science Fair Central” contains more than 100 project ideas that are broken down into easy or complex investigations and there is even a section for inventions.
The website has a “getting started” section which will help students choose a project type, understand the difference between investigations and inventions and find testable questions. There is even a section where they can validate their topic – to make sure that they have enough time to complete their project, the proper materials, that they follow the appropriate safety procedures, their project is appropriate and that they follow safety if they are using animals in their experiment.
Parents can visit the site and use the “parent resources” section to help their students stay on track. This area of the site explains the parent’s role in the science fair project process, how to help their student come up with an idea and how to support their student during the investigation process and where to get supplies.
For teachers, or science fair coordinators, there is a section to help with reasons to host a science fair, types of projects available, science fair judging criteria and supplies needed to host a science fair as well as a parent letter that can be customized based on your needs.
The best part of the site, in my opinion, is the virtual labs section of the site.  This section provides students with an opportunity to practice conducting experiments in a controlled environment. There are even teacher guides and student worksheets that are available to download.
I know that if I had come across this resource when I became the science fair coordinator at my school, it would have saved me hours of time coming up with science fair project ideas and science fair project expectations. I also would have a site to share with parents to help with some of the frustrations that come with their student’s science fair project.

With all of the great resources from Discovery Education and “Science Fair Central,” what will Discovery Education think of next?

DEN pre-conference was an awesome day of learning. We held school at DEN Headquarters in Silver Spring,  MD. DEN head quarters is a beautiful place, if you are ever invited GO!!!  Even though,  we were treated as students on this day (being required to have Hall passes) we were definitely  given a fantastic day of EDUCATION. Two classes I attended and recommend:

Learning Through the Funnies with Brad Fountain

Learning Through the Funnies presentation

Top Ten FREE Web 2.0 Sites with Steve Dembo

View his presentation here

For those of you unable to attend, DEN has linked some of the presentations: Discovery School at NECC 09  Remember you can use these presentations as events with your faculty & staff .

I posted this on my personal blog and wanted to share it with all my DEN friends as well.

It never fails, after I click publish something REALLY COOL comes up. Again, thanks to Tech Crunch for showing this off. As described on their website, “ToonDoo is a wacky way to get creative with comics. You can now create your own comic strips, share them or insert them in your blogs with just a few clicks and drag-n-drops!” While still working at my old school, Kay Teehan shared with me a comic strip making software that she’s used and shared with some of the teachers as an alternative way to make a digital story. I know that students can get bored if you are doing the SAME type of project OVER and OVER. This gives the teacher a viable alternative, or giving the student/groups a choice of what they want to create!

Being the Social Studies teacher that I am…I went ahead and created one based loosely on the Three R’s (reduce, reuse and recycle). This is what I came up with: My ToonDoo. Very neat if you ask me, and it was a VERY easy interface to navigate and follow. The interface is Flash based. So enjoy!

Tom.

There is a very important team in Bethesda, MD that works with our teachers and tech coordinators to help make sure that unitedstreaming is running smoothly and to answer any questions. They have helped me in more ways than I can count and are just awesome! They are the ones who put together those GREAT "Back to School Kits" and help YOU whenever you call with an issue. Can you guess who I’m talking about?

That’s right — Implementation!

And did you know that you can read the Implementation Blog for great insight and suggestions or find them on the Discussion Boards under unitedstreaming?

Our reps include Brian Degenhart, Matt Monjan, and Christina Trajillo. You’ll meet Matt at FETC (I hope!) and Brian will be in Putnam County in November for their huge event. Hopefully Christina will get a chance to come down soon. Now, go leave a comment on their blog and learn from your wonderful Implementation Team!

As you discover new things to do with unitedstreaming with the DEN, we encourage you to go back and educate others in your school. The use of the calendar on the Discovery Educator Network website is a great way to announce any events that you have coming up.

For instance, we have a Digital Storytelling Webinar with Kay Teehan on Tuesday. The details are on the calendar. You can register for the event or at least get the details right there on the calendar. (Psst, go read South and North Carolina’s blog post by Brad Fountain.)

Kathleen McCarron and I zinged emails about events last night. She wants to make use of the calendar by having her teachers register for events. I really like this feature. But here are some tips you need to follow for registering an event on the calendar.

• You need to put a description. I suggested to Kathleen that she put Leon County: unitedstreaming training so that way Leon shows up on the calendar and her teachers know which one is the right event.
• You use to be able to skip the address. Not anymore! Please at least put the city and Florida for the state. The calendar will show you all the events when you are logged in for your state. If you don’t have a state, it won’t show up on the calendar.
• If you don’t want people registering for the event online then you need to set registration to zero. No waiting list either? Set that to zero.
• If you need a training kit, check the box but make sure you have the address on the calendar.
• At the bottom there’s a place that asks you for audience description. This is where you can say it’s for Team Marlins or 3rd grade or the entire county.
• Make sure you list your event as public - especially if you want me to see it!

Now if you want your teachers to register using the DEN Calendar, you need to hold an event where you have them register for the website. They can then make use of the discussion boards and start to grow even more!

Keep an eye on the calendar for some fun events coming up soon, including Amusing Times with DEN and Atlas Dinner events.

Also, thank you Flagler, Putnam and Pasco County for inviting me over this week. I enjoyed getting to know Flagler better, seeing Putnam again (always a pleasure) and meeting media specialists and tech specialists from Pasco.

I recently did a post about Constitution Day coming up and did a call for resources. Well, in the blog comments recently there was a question if anyone had any great resources for Consitution Day. So I went back to see if anyone posted anything. There are quite a few resources on the DEN site, but I haven’t had a chance to dissect them into who uploaded what.

I also promised to find a prize for those who upload Constitution Day Resources.

So if you have uploaded a Constitution Day Resource to the DEN website, please tell us what the link is or what the document’s name is in the comments below.

Each week Discovery Educators are asked to report any events. These events are then added to my spreadsheet and sent to my boss. Your events show that your an active member of DEN. I also believe that if you’re an active member holding these "events" then you are sharing and making use of what you’ve learned in DEN sessions or from the blogs. Sharing is what great teaching is all about!

But what exactly is an event? Most people think that an event is a formal training where you teach faculty members how to use unitedstreaming. Some of you are not your school/district’s trainer and so you think that means you have no events. Think about it though? How much more do YOU learn in informal sessions? Probably a lot more than you realize.

Discovery Educator Network’s definition of an event is any time you share the power of unitedstreaming (or Discovery Health or Cosmeo) with 3 or more teachers. A class lesson where you use unitedstreaming with students does not count - unless you have 3 other teachers in there and you are modeling how you use unitedstreaming.

Acceptable events include:

• Lunch talks where you share with 3 or more educators ways that you use unitedstreaming or Discovery Products (Cosmeo/Discovery Health)
• Tip of the Day Sharing before school in the hallway
• Facilitate trainings, workshops or presentations that incorporate Discovery Education products such as unitedstreaming, Discovery Education Health Connection, Cosmeo, and Learning Adds Up.
• Share an integration idea over lunch with a group of educators.
• Demonstrate a skill involving unitedstreaming to co-workers before, during, or after school.
• Present unitedstreaming integration ideas during local, regional, state, or national conference sessions.
• Parent Night featuring Cosmeo (because after all, 3 or more teachers are hopefully there!)
• Discovery Science Night
• Impromptu session with 3 or more teachers on how to create a Writing Prompt and share it with the entire school.
• Planning session where you integrate unitedstreaming. (3 or more teachers)
• Team Meetings where you share information from a lesson or an idea to integrate unitedstreaming.

I’m guessing you have a great idea by now. Three or more people and sharing of unitedstreaming/Discovery Health/Cosmeo/Learning Adds UP and soon Discovery Science Education.

What does not constitute as an event is a email or an announcement over the intercom where no interaction can possibly take place.  Now if you do create a newsletter, blog post, or disseminate information about Discovery Education in other forms - send me a copy. You get points in the "other activity" column.

And if you take pictures at your events (or any of events I host) please share. We’ll use those to create a North Florida Online Memory Book.

I’m attaching the spreadsheet for reporting events. The state should always be FL and the request should always be LOCAL. Other than that, fill it in. I edited a form to give you a few examples to follow in case you need a visual.

Hope this helps! You can report any events that you did and forgot to report. If you’ve been a member since July, you can go back to January 1. Otherwise, start with when you joined as a member.

How many of you have held some great events lately? Tell us what you did that made them so great.

Download events_NFL.xls

Things that happen everyday have a factor in your peace of mind. External influences contribute to our thoughts and actions, how we behave, what we feel. In the past few weeks we have dealt with the anniversary of Katrina, the death of Steve Irwin, and then today is the five year anniversary of 9/11.

If you are looking for ways to help your students find a peace of mind, Discovery Health offers a whole unit on this topic. With literacy strategies, complete lesson plans, and videos - Discovery Health Education Connection is a complete resource for teaching health. As teachers we often have to deal with aspects of health education, such as how to cope with these external influences.

In unitedstreaming you will find a few videos dealing with how to cope with stress. I’m sure if you look you’ll find other resources relating to a peaceful mind.

On a sidebar, if you are looking for ways to help teach about the significance of this day  in history, check out unitedstreaming. In unitedstreaming, I did a Boolean Advanced Search for "9/11 -math" and found 7 videos and 45 video segments. You can also use the calendar feature to find the videos and video segments.

Hope you have a peaceful mind type of day.

I mentioned a few "blabbers" ago that Pasco County was joining us with unitedstreaming. Courtenay OConnell is so ready to start and can’t wait to join DEN! She’s been emailing me and asking all sorts of great questions. I love her passion!

One of the questions that she recently asked was "I’ve been looking at unitedstreaming, and want to teach the social studies teachers how to use it for Constitution Day (celebrated September 18th since the 17th is a Sunday). I found some good things on it. Any "den" ideas??? All schools in Florida MUST do something with the Preamble."

Well are there any "den" ideas? We’ll get back to that in a minute. Instead, let’s look at what’s in unitedstreaming already. First, check out the calendar. Make sure you go to the right day. We’re not really celebrating "Constitution Day" we’re celebrating "Citizenship Day". A great blurb on what it’s about and videos on citizenship. Next, check out the Thematic Focus. Make sure you go to the archives. Under Social Studies you will find a gem about Early American History, which is all about the Constitution.

Back to resources that are "DEN" designed. I have a challenge for a DEN prize. I bet there are many of you sitting on Constitution resources (and many others) that need to be uploaded into the resource library. Mel Gilbert from Ocoee has recently shared five wonderful resources, and so have many others. It’s just a matter of getting it done. So here’s an incentive. Upload the resources for the Constitution Day - before September 18th. Send me an email of the title of the resource and where I should find it once it’s approved. I’ll give you a point. Those that do will win kudos from me.

Yeah right, like some of you prize grabbers (Tom) would work for kudos. Okay. I’ll find a prize in the prize closet to give away. So you’ll win a DEN prize. A shirt to be stylish, a bag, or something from the Discovery Store-  the best place to shop outside of a bookstore.

Start sharing your resources!

Google Earth and Atlas

I am geographically challenged. Jannita in California can account for this. The poor DEN members that had to ride in the car with me in Atlanta know this. I rely heavily on my Garmin. It’s the best technology gadget I think I’ve ever bought. My poor ipod has sat uncharged since I finished watching all of my Monk videos. My Garmin? Doesn’t go a day without being turned on. Must remained charged or I might end up in shark land.

So being geographically challenged, it’s odd that I like to play around on Google Earth. Play is all I do. I haven’t mastered it yet. Maybe it’s because of my disability. Who knows? Tom Turner of Polk has become a master of it and he has a tip to share with you! Instead of copying and pasting it from Word (and having to do a whole bunch of html editing) I’m giving you his document to download. I also suggest you check out the resources on the DEN site. Some great ones there! Just make sure you read the system requirements and their usage agreement before getting too busy at school. Download google_earth_tip.doc 

To help me come over my global geography challenged mindset, I plan to watch Atlas. What is Atlas? I’m sure that Tom and Darlene would love to tell you, but instead we want you to find out for yourself. We also want you to get involved. Here’s the information:

On October 1, Discovery Channel will present the first installment of DISCOVERY ATLAS, a four part series during the month of October that will profile the rich cultures, social diversities and natural phenomena of China, Italy, Australia and Brazil. The journey begins Sunday, Oct. 1, 2006, at 9 p.m. ET/PT, with the world premiere on Discovery Channel and Discovery HD Theater of DISCOVERY ATLAS: CHINA REVEALED. For more information about this series, visit http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/atlas/atlas.html.

The ATLAS series, including videos, images, bonus educational vignettes and teacher resources, will be available on unitedstreaming and Cosmeo.  Additionally, the Discovery Educator Network will provide interested teachers with the opportunity to participate in DEN: Atlas in the classroom program, which will include

• Materials for hosting Atlas: China Revealed Premiere Parties in your local community
• Invitations to exclusive Atlas webinar series/discussion group
• Invitations to discuss and collaborate with educators around the county via webinars, wikis, and discussion boards
• Access to educational resource kits to support "Discovery Atlas" classroom activities

If you are interested in exploring ATLAS with the DEN, please send an email to debbie_baillie@discovery.com  by Friday, September 1 with the subject line "Discovery Atlas"  to register for this program

We’re planning some fun activities to go along with this all across the state. Darlene in Orange County is helping to plan a dinner there. Michele in Calhoun County is helping to plan a dinner in Leon County. I’m hoping to get something else planned in a few other counties as well. Keep your eye on the blog and the DEN calendar!