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San Diego Science Alliance Celebrates Success of Third San Diego County Educational Technology Fair |
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| More than 1,500 students attended the San Diego Science Alliance’s third San Diego County Educational Technology Fair on Wednesday, February 23, 2000 at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. Students from 39 county high schools connected with high-tech and science-related exhibitors from 45 regional companies and organizations as they showcased current and future technologies through interactive displays. In addition to corporate exhibitors, students had the opportunity to meet Congressmen Brian Bilbray and Duncan Hunter, and discuss their role in the growth of San Diego as a leader in high-tech industries.
San Diego Science Alliance Board members and member companies brought the event together through close coordination by Chairperson Barbara Abelin of Cubic Corporation, who hosted all of the planning meetings at Cubic. Judi Berlin of TRW Avionics Systems Division played a critical |
role as the Exhibitor Coordinator in securing corporate involvement. Both Abelin and Berlin are in their third year of service to the event in their respective roles. Dee Thomas of SAIC coordinated the volunteers who managed student traffic flow and ensured a safe and productive environment for students, exhibitors, and guests. Nancy Taylor, San Diego County Office of Education, and Bob VanZant, San Diego City Schools, coordinated school involvement and transportation. In addition, Taylor and VanZant developed and compiled education support packets that were distributed to all participating teachers.
Other contributions also played a valuable role in ensuring a successful event. Carol Brnich, Proxima Corporation, managed exhibitor setup and logistics for the entire Educational Technology Fair. Proxima was also recognized for its significant contribution of exhibitor refreshments |
on the day of the event. Newcomer Elizabeth Rice, Barrett Resource Group and the San Diego Regional Engineering and Technology Consortium, was brought onto the committee in late January. Rice developed a public relations plan, wrote and distributed numerous press releases, generated marketing-related materials, and managed media relations for the event.
“The success of this year’s Educational Technology Fair is due to the dedication and hard work by the small, but devoted committee that Barbara Abelin chaired. The involvement by local schools and the response from business and community leaders was remarkable, as were the donations made by our sponsors,” said Pat Winter of General Atomics and SDSA Executive Director. The Committee also extends appreciation to the staff representatives from the region’s congressional offices for their support to the event. |
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| “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. . .” |
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| Dr. Suess’ book title is a lot like PISCES (Partnerships Involving the Scientific Community in Elementary Schools) Project classrooms throughout San Diego County where science learning is multiplying in many diverse patterns. The enthusiasm for science learning is catching on in elementary classrooms that might otherwise be confined to the singular Language Arts Literacy agenda. With the partnership of university undergraduate and graduate science major students (Science Corps), teachers are opening their plan books to the Science Literacy agenda. “I am learning so much from the teachers about effective teaching techniques while they are using our knowledge of science and new faces in the classroom to stimulate class involvement,” states a PISCES Science Corps member who is working in a North County classroom.
The PISCES Project experienced its formal launch at a Mini-Institute held January 21–22, 2000 at the Catamaran Hotel. Twenty elementary teachers and ten Science Corps members explored new partnerships in teaching and learning as they teamed up to plan inquiry-based science instruction in the participating schools. Using science kits from STC and FOSS, the new science partners discussed instructional strategies to maximize student learning of the California Science Standards. The results are evident at Carlton Hills, Jamacha, Casita Center, Casillas, Rolando, Ada Harris, and Mission Estancia elementary |
schools where children are asking their science partners more than ever to help them understand the world they live in.
The PISCES Project, funded by the National Science Foundation and generous grants from Hewlett Packard, the Girard Foundation, Sprint, and the Edgar Hardy Family, represents the kind of collaboration for science education the San Diego Science Alliance set out to accomplish. San Diego State University, San Diego County Office of Education, and the San Diego Science Alliance coordinate efforts to offer this program to San Diego county school districts. A Science Instructional Materials Center to provide and refurbish the kits used in classrooms is housed on the SDSU campus. Science kits and litera-ture selections aligned with the science units are delivered to participating schools to use with the assistance of a Science Corps member. Project teachers participate in professional development both in and out of the classroom as a part of the PISCES Project. “It isn’t like swimming upstream anymore to teach science; the PISCES Project is an example of the best of schooling behaviors.” Log on to the PISCES Project web site at www. sdsa.org for more information about this innovative program. |
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| SDSA 2000 Partnership Recipients Honored |
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| On March 10th, the San Diego Science Alliance announced the recipients of their Partners of the Year Awards at a breakfast held in conjunction with the San Diego Science Educators Association Annual Conference.ÊThe r ecipients (two eligible in each category of Business, Teachers, Administrators, and Volunteers) were selected from a host of deserving applicants.ÊThis year the selected teachers will r eceive a $250 cash award made possible through the gener-ous support of Bio-Rad, SAIC, SeaWorld San Diego, and Vernier Software.For the first time an Institutional Category was added. The envelope please. . . |
Volunteers of the Year — 1) Barbara Abelin, Cubic Corporation, for her inspirational leadership and stewardship of the San Diego County High Tech Fair; andÊ2) Nancy Taylor, San Diego County Office of Education, for consistent dedication in bringing the educator’s perspective to all Science Alliance pro-grams. Administrator of the Year — Rachel Flanagan, Principal, Mira Mesa High School, for extraordinary initiative in forming the Partnership Council to advance science literacy. Institutional Award — San Diego Supercomputer Center for exceptional contributions in science educa-tion, SDSC tours, job shadows, teacher support, and project needs. Congratulations to all nominees and award recipi-ents. You have established the highest standards for providing science and mathematics education to our students. |
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| SanDELI2-Staying the Course |
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| What does it take to continue progress? A strategic course, with periodic reminders and course corrections. The San Diego Elementary Science Leadership Institute (SanDELI) was recently convened again by the American Physical Society (APS) to support the strategic plans for science programs developed by several San Diego County school districts. SanDELI2 infused science leadership teams from Vista, Encinitas, Cardiff, Cajon Valley, Chula Vista, Santee, and Escondido with ideas and thoughtful discourse as they revisited and retooled the five year strategic plans they developed almost two years ago. The two-day meeting, held at the Marina Village Conference Center on January 28–29, 2000, provided a |
venue for district leadership teams, along with their science partners, to learn from each other and develop plans to “stay the course.” Scientists from the Birch Aquarium, UCSD, General Atomics, San Diego State University, BF Goodrich, and the American Physical Society collaborated with the district teams. The program featured sessions on Instructional Materials Adoption, Materials Management, Professional Development, Middle School Science, Assessment, Building Partnerships, Cognitive Development, and Evidence of Success in Schools (data on successful inquiry-based science programs). SanDELI is fortunate to have ongoing support from the American Physical |
Society under the direction of Dr. Ted Shultz, Senior Program Administrator; Dr. Fred Stein, Director, Education Outreach; and Dr. Ramon Lopez, Astrophysicist, University of Texas, El Paso. The national profile in the scientific community and the educational leadership of the APS is an essential component of the SanDELI teams course for successful science programs. Their work with local leaders in science education proved to offer a worthwhile and timely institute. Several presentations featured local and regional science education leaders: Kim Bess, Vista Unified School District; Dinah Brown and Pat Kurtz, Oceanside Unified School District; Larry Woolf, General Atomics; Nancy Taylor, San Diego County Office of Education; and Susan Sprague, Mesa, Arizona. |
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| Lead Scientist/Teacher Alliance Workshop 2000 by Rick Moyer, Fusion Energy Research Program, UCSD |
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| About eight months ago I mentioned to a group of science educators, science advocates, and scientists that I was interested in bringing teachers and their students into a research lab to assist in real experiments as a way to enhance the science learning experience for students and teachers. Pat Winter was in the audience, and as you probably know, one makes such remarks in Pat’s presence at one’s own peril! So early in January, I found myself in Washington D.C. to take part in the Lead Scientist/Teacher Alliance 2000 workshop of the American Physical Society (APS) as a nominee of the San Diego Science Alliance. The Lead Scientist/Teacher Alliance gave me a unique, one-stop introduction to the challenges of achieving systemic reform in science education at the local level. This is achieved in a compressed, 5-day format involving teachers, education administrators, and scientists in “hands-on” activities on how to achieve science reform at the K–8 level. Participation by equal numbers of people from each group is central to the APS model: everyone has a role to play in effecting and maintaining longterm change. The Lead Scientist/Teacher Alliance “catalyzes” systemic change in science education by nurturing teams of teachers, administrators, and scientists who work locally for reform. This nurturing involves team building through pairing in regional teams, networking, providing resource materials, introducing hands-on kit-based science instruction, and familiarizing participants with the challenges inherent in achieving science education reform. The workshop concludes with the regional teams developing plans for action upon their return home. While the resource materials and presentations at the workshop were excellent, the opportunity to interact with educators as professionals and peers made the workshop work for me as a scientist. Too often the rhetoric surrounding any initiative to reform public education carries with it the implication that today’s teachers just don’t cut it. This view misrepresents a profession that is committed to providing quality instruction despite an educational system that is underfunded and often made to serve political agendas |
that only indirectly relate to effective education. Consider also the innate tendency of many physicists to think that because they can do physics they can do anything as well as the professionals. Together, these preconceptions can render well-meaning scientists confrontational and ineffective in helping to achieve science education reform. Social activists have demonstrated for years that cutting through such misconceptions requires meaningful dialogue that bridges the cultural divides. The success of the Lead Scientist/Teacher Alliance Workshop is due in no small measure to its success in opening such dialogs between scientists and educators. With my academic physicist arrogance in check , I had an opportunity to broaden my perspective from a focus on “poor teaching” to issues of lack of support: lack of good pre- and in-service preparation in content and in the use of kit-based materials, lack of access to good materials and the ability to replenish them, and lack of district and community support for the importance of effective science teaching in the midst of a host of other priorities (class size reduction, literacy, English immersion versus bilingual instruction, nutrition, social promotion, etc.). With the problem framed in terms of lack of resources, the possible roles for scientists come into sharper focus. Scientists have a critical role to play in building community and district support for the importance of effective science instruction, in assisting teachers in mastering the science content, and in modeling how scientists think and work for the teachers and students. To my fellow scientists, I stress that your time and talents are needed! Get involved by talking to science teachers, listening to their needs, and offering your time and support. Attend an Alliance workshop. Your efforts will be rewarded by the enthusiasm for science that you’ll see in children’s faces! Editor’s Note: Others sent by SDSA to attend the workshop in Washington, D.C. were Dr. Cheryl Mason, SDSU School of Education; Dr. Barbara Ransom, UCSD; and Arlene de Strulle, Director of Education, Birch Aquarium, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD. |
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| Final Answer: Ask A Scientist |
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| With the escalating uses and demand for technology, educators have many questions and little time to research answers. The Ask A Scientist Program, developed by the San Diego Science Alliance and sponsored by QUALCOMM, is the best answer. This program allows teachers to ask a question online, have it routed to an appropriate expert, and receive a response as quickly as possible. The interest has been increasing and exciting for | all parties. Scientists are thrilled to keep abreast of what is taught in our schools, and teachers are getting answers from a practical perspective. The exchange is meaningful and assists in bridging the communication between corporations, institutions, and the educational communities. For additional information go to the SDSA web site www.sdsa.org. |
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