Date: Fri, 2 May 1997 09:26:59 -0700 (PDT)
From: Deborah Hunt <dhunt@exploratorium.edu>
To: IFI listservs <advanced1@exploratorium.edu>, intro1@exploratorium.edu,
Subject: Visualizing Growth (fwd)
See Peter Dow's message below.
Deb
---------------------------------------------------
Deborah Hunt
Internet Resource Specialist
Exploratorium
3601 Lyon Street
San Francisco, CA 94123
Voice: 415-353-0485
Fax: 415-561-0307
email: dhunt@exploratorium.edu
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 30 Apr 1997 23:00:44 -0400
From: Peter Dow <PDow27@AOL.COM>
Reply-To: "ISEN- Assoc. of Science-Technology Centers"
<ISEN-ASTC-L@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM>
To: ISEN-ASTC-L@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM
Subject: Visualizing Growth
Attention Museum-School Fans. Sally Middlebrooks suggested that I might want
to comment on Karen Leichtweis's announcement of the upcoming broadcast
distribution of our Annenberg/CPB funded series called "Visualizing Growth:
Changing the Way We Teach Science" - a nine part video series that documents
museum curators and teachers working together to improve the quality of
elementary science teaching in the Buffalo Public Schools. We did the series
with Channel 17 here in an effort to capture what happens when elementary
teachers spend time in the field and in the laboratory with working
scientists. The experience was part of our NSF-funded "teacher enhancement"
effort called Project TEAM - Teacher Education at the Museum. The work with
curators was a smash hit with teachers, and the videos try to convey the
quality of that experience and the impact it had on their teaching and their
feelings about science. The last show, called "Building a Better Learning
Community," covers many of dimensions of "systemic reform" and would be a
good introduction for school people considering a collaboration with their
local museum, nature center, zoo, etc. As for the other shows, they each
focus on one area of the museum's expertise: botany, invertebrates,
ornithology, rocks and fossils, archaeology, astronomy, and even some
physical science -- i.e. simple machines. There is also a show about a
school that developed a science garden with the help of the Museum. I
especially like the botany video -- Planting the Seeds for Teacher Growth --
as it focuses on teacher mentoring. The insect show is especially good on
the role of the curator, featuring entomologist Wayne Gall leading a night
insect collecting expedition. The videos to not pretend to be models of
exemplary practice, but they convey a nice feeling for a group of teachers
working together to improve their science teaching using the resources of a
local natural history museum. We also put together a "facillitators guide"
that includes discussions questions and explanatory background material. I
would love to here some frank reactions from others about the value of this
series. Peter Dow (PDow27.aol.com).