Cyberchase at the NY Hall

If you live in New York and have kids, you may want to take them to the NY Hall of Science in Queens this weekend. The stars of the WNET-produced PBS animated series Cyberchase will be there.

If you aren't going to the event, you may still be interested. It is an example of good collaboration between museum and media to engage and educate young people in science and math.

Mind-expansion on the Playground

Check out the new playground that has been proposed for lower Manhattan. It is designed to be interactive and spur imagination.

When I taught 5th grade, my students once helped build a playground at a local science museum. Google helped me find the designer of that project, Tom Rockwell, and several others projects that his team has done. Cool stuff!

I also had a recent conversation with the Trust for Public Land about their efforts to preserve and create green spaces, including parks near public schools. Nature makes its own playground!

Movie Science Resources

Here is an interesting site connecting movies, reading, and science. It provides activities and facts connected to Charlotte's Web. There is a new film version of the movie coming out this week. The main site, awesomestories.com, offers educational resources connected to films, major events, etc. I can't vouch for it directly, but it seems like a good idea. (Thanks to Carole Bos, who posted this on the ITEA Innovation Station listserve!)

Mythbusters and Curiosity

The NY Times ran an article about Mythbusters yesterday. I like the quote from an MIT professor who has appeared on the show: “I don’t think the ruling on a given myth is all that important,” Dr. Wallace said. “It is more about being curious and trying to figure things out.”

NAEP Science - Some Brief Attention

Urban student performance on the NAEP science assessment made national headlines yesterday. The obvious response is to call for more attention to how schools are teaching science. How will such calls fare when the next math or reading assessment is released, with similarly disappointing scores for our nation's most underserved students?

We absolutely should improve science teaching in the classroom, and the folks at NSTA, AAAS, and many other places are trying to do that. To truly transform achievement, though, will take a larger effort. It starts with accepting the scientific process as something that children can understand and use. The next step is to give them time to use it - in after-school programs, museums, parks, etc. Finally, these opportunities must be extended to those students who may not get such experiences from home.

I recommend two things: 1) Don't let these headlines be a flash in the pan. 2) Don't place all the burden for a solution on our teachers and schools. The whole community can be part of scientific learning.