Science in Action

Join
us next Friday, May 4th at 1 PM (EST) for a very special webinar with Allan
Butler, producer of The Science Channel’s first ever: Space Week. 

Allan is an Executive Producer at Discovery Channel and
The Science Channel in Silver Spring, Maryland.  Over the past three years, he
has overseen the production of over 150 hours of documentary films for these two
networks, including such acclaimed shows as: Tomb
Builders: Secrets of the Valley of the Kings; the weekly newsmagazine Discoveries This
Week; Blind Hope, the story of
one man’s courageous quest to regain his eyesight using an experimental brain
implant; and live coverage of the most recent Space Shuttle launch. 

Current productions include: 

• Geologic Journey, a voyage across North America to discover its major
  geologic features
• Hatshepsut, a forensic detective mystery to track down a long lost female
  Egyptian Pharaoh
• Exploring Time, an NSF-funded series that examines the varied timeframes in
  which the earth’s systems operate

Allan has also been involved in the production of dozens
of programs about space exploration, and is overseeing the Science Channel’s
special slate of space programming known as "Space Week 2007",
which takes place the week of May 6th, 2007.

Join us for a special conversation with Allan right before the launch of Space Week 2007. 
Bring your students.  Invite your colleagues.   It will be a blast (pun
intended)!

We encourage you to submit your students’ questions in advance.  Post them as
a comment to this blog or email me (lance_rougeux@discovery.com).

Click
here to register for the webinar.

In order to train, support and connect new customers of Science Connection we are hosting a special professional development institute this August in Valley Forge, PA.  The first ever Discovery Education Science Connection Summer Institute will allow participants to:

• Receive intensive professional development on Science Connection as a resource to support inquiry-based learning and differentiated instruction
• Engage in hands-on activities that model how instruction is enhanced with Science Connection content
• Learn how to integrate Science Connection content across the middle-grades curriculum
• Develop a sample project using Science Connection content

STAR Discovery Educators and new customers of Science Connection have the opportunity to attend the institute which will occur from August 13-16, 2007.  Attendees will be responsible for travel costs to and from the institute, but all other expenses (lodging, meals, etc.) will be covered by the DEN.

So, if your school has purchased, or is going to purchase DESC, join us this summer.  Space is limited so contact me as soon as possible for more details.

Here is a one-pager that highlights the primary goals of the institute:
Download DESC.FL.DEN_EMAIL.pdf

With the recent buzz surrounding Discovery Channel’s hit
series Planet
Earth, Science Channel’s Space
Week coming in May, and all STAR DEs getting access to Discovery Education Science
Connection, we are very excited to announce the Discovery Educator
Network Earth and Space Virtual Project.

Together STAR Discovery
Educators will launch into an extraordinary collaborative learning experience. 
Over the course of the next six weeks, you and your students (of all ages) will
have the opportunity to connect with classrooms from across the country and
participate in a series of challenges known as DEN Missions.

The project
is designed to be a fun, interactive and collaborative experience for you and
your students.  Visit the DEN Earth and Space
Virtual Project site today and register (click on "create a new account"). 

Once you register, you’ll be able to…

• Chat Live with other classrooms across the country
• Work with your students on DEN Missions (the first one involves Google
  Earth)
• Participate in online polls
• Attend special webinars
• Collaborate with other STARs using the Discussion Boards
• Enhance your project using resources from Discovery Education Science
  Connection

We hope you are as excited as we are about the project.  From DEN Missions,
to lively discussions, to special webinars, we are certain that this will be a
great experience for you and your students.

For classes that participate in the project, we will be awarding special
Discovery Earth and Space Class Packs.

Visit: http://discoveryeducatorabroad.com/earthandspace

For the past few nights I have been staying up late to watch Planet Earth via Discovery HD on demand and last night I watched the first episode, Pole to Pole, again for the fourth time.  There were so many connections to content in Science Connection that I had to share a favorite.

When you watch Pole to Pole, you really see how dependent other animals are on each other.  You also see how they physically change the landscape in which they live.  In Science Connection, there is a great interactive exploration called "The BIG Role of Hippopotami."  The exploration (which can be done by students individually, in groups, or as a whole class) shows how the Nile Hippopotamus is a "keystone species" with very critical links in its habitat. 

So, here’s a challenge for you and your students…
Log in to DESC (click here if you need a passcode) and try out the exploration (The BIG Role of Hippopotami).  When you successfully complete the exploration, you will be posed with a question. 

Post a comment to this blog entry that answers that question.  I will send the DVD of Pole to Pole to the first three DEs who post a really good comment.  "Really good" will be determined using my internal rubric :) 

Due to a temporary technology meltdown, the DESC webinar with
Product Director, Bob Onsi is being re-scheduled.  Bob shuffled his
calendar around and will offer this special tour of Science Connection
twice in the next two weeks. 

Join us this Thursday, March 22 at 5 PM (EST) or on Tuesday, March 27 at 5 PM (EST)

For either of these webinars, you do not need to register. 

Just go to: https://discoveryed.webex.com/discoveryed

Click on DESC with Bob Onsi

Enter the password: science1

Then click Join Now

Get the grand tour of
Science Connection and see how you can use it in your instruction.  All
Discovery Educators have free
access to DESC through the end of this school year.  Feel free to invite
your colleagues to join us as well.

Contact me with any questions.

Are you going to be in St. Louis for the NSTA National Conference (March 29 - April 1)?  If so, let us know.  We’d love to get together with a group of Discovery Educators.  Just post a comment here or send me an email (lance_rougeux@discovery.com). 

Do MP3 players with close-fitting earphones play music so loudly that they can permanently damage hearing?

That is the question posed in a really cool virtual lab in DESC.  Students are challenged to find a way for people to play their music safely.  They can test different equipment (e.g., lawnmowers, dishwashers, motorcycles) and then design and conduct their experiment using three different "virtual" MP3 players. 

Take a look at the Teacher’s Guide and then log in to DESC to explore the virtual lab for yourself.  Just look through the virtual labs or type "MP3" in the search box. 

Download teachersGuidePDF.pdf

Regardless if you teach science, this is a great activity to work through with your students.  Let us know what you discover.

I read a great article today by Karen Irving in the March 2007 edition of NSTA Reports about the importance of formative assessment in the teaching of science (aptly titled, Formative Assessment Improves Student Learning).  The article is part seven in a series inspired by the book Teaching Science in the 21st Century.  My stumbling across the article was pretty timely since, in the very short time our DESC in Action blog has been up and running, I wanted to share my absolute, favorite part of Science Connection. 

The breadth, depth and variety of content is impressive, but the real power of Science Connection lies in the formative assessment tools built into the product.  You can go into the Assessment Manager and design a custom assessment, an assessment using your state’s standards or you can use one of the pre-made assessments across a wide range of concepts.  The you can assign the assessment to an individual, a class, multiple classes, you name it.

Here comes the really cool part.  Your students log in to Science Connection (yes, ALL students have their own accounts) and take the assessment.  They can see how well they did and so can you (by student, by class, by assessment, etc.).  And then, drum roll please…

Beside each question, there is a link that says "view recommendations."  For each question you are provided with a series of resources in DESC that will help the student master the concept.  So, for instance, you check boxes next to a video, a reading passage and an exploration and assign those resources to your student. Now, when the student logs in again those resources will be there.  Students can access the content in class, at the library or from home.

If you haven’t checked out that part of DESC, just login and go to the Teacher Center.  If you use the STAR DE passcode (1E7C-2CAB) or any of the trial accounts, you’ll see sample data in there already.

Coming from a middle school classroom background, I really like the different ways content is presented in Science Connection.  No matter what type of learners you have in your class, the resources are presented in a variety of ways to allow students to Interact, Watch, and Read.

Interact

Interactive Videos (or clickable videos) allow students to click on hotspots to pause the video and bring up additional information.

Science Simulations give students the chance to explore real-world situations.

Explorations let students manipulate models and see what inputs cause different outcomes.

Virtual Labs allow students to investigate a problem, pose a question, design an experiment and then conduct the experiment.

Science Sleuths turn students into detectives as they are challenged to solve real-world scientific problems.

Watch

Videos and video segments (the vast majority of which are exclusive to Science Connection) have benefits for many different students who might be visual and auditory learners (or both).  And, the Mythbusters videos are definitely an added bonus!

Read

Articles and Reading Passages are solid resources for making literacy connections as well as providing students with another means of getting the content.  I love the fact that the reading passages are written at different levels (above-level, on-level, and below-level).  No matter what concept you are teaching, you’ll find readings that are appropriate for the many different readers in your class.