LAUSD PreK-12 Science Blog

SALARY POINT OPPORTUNITIES–ACT QUICKLY!!!  Saturday, January 23, 2010, K-5 FOSS salary point courses begin and our first totally online salary point course on differentiation begins on January 28, 2010.  Then, on February 20, we start our JASON Project courses–Monster Storms and Infinite Potential.  ACT QUICKLY!!!  Courses are in high demand and you don’t want to miss out on the great learning and chance to earn salary point credit!  You may register for courses on the Learning Zone.  Just login, select “Science” as the program, click the salary point box, and click the search button.If you need more information on anything related to LAUSD science, please visit our NEW BLOG AND WEBSITE!

Please visit our NEW and IMPROVED blog at LAUSDScience.edublogs.org. Here, you can post all of your comments, questions, A-HA moments; etc. Please subscribe to this blog by entering your E-mail adress under the “Stay Informed” section. This way, you’ll be kept in the loop as we announce our upcoming professional development sessions. Meanwhile, all the documents you used to rely on this blog to publish will be housed on the PreK-12 Science webpage at science.lausd.net. If you have any questions, please post them on the new blog. Looking forward to getting back in touch with some old friends–think of the blog as the Facebook for science teachers!

Greetings and happy new school year!  The pre-Kinder-12 Science Team is coming together at Central so while the dust is still settling, we want you to know whom you may contact with your Q’s and get necessary A’s.  At this time, we do not know about the future of SLTs and PD plans but Periodic Assessments will continue to provide us with the data we need to drive our instruction and PD.  You may find related PA information at the Periodic Assessment Program website.  We will be moving away from this blog and will have a Pre-K–12 website up and running soon.  Meanwhile, here is our contact information:

• Maura Crossin, Specialist–Maura.Crossin@lausd.net  (213)241-2578
• Lillian Valadez-Rodela, Specialist–Lillian.Rodela@lausd.net  (213)241-5689
• Diane Watkins, Specialist–Diane.Watkins@lausd.net  (213)241-6876
• KJ Walsh, Expert–KJ.Walsh@lausd.net  (213)241-6603

Looking forward to a great year and as things fall into place, they will be posted here so you know where to find all the great news pertaining to science!  Happy autumn!

A MESSAGE FROM THE FOLKS AT MUSICALLY ALIGNED…

Just a quick note to let you know that we now offer single song downloads!

In response to the many requests we have received, all of our educational songs (over 80) are now available for download in .mp3 format accompanied by a .pdf file of the lyric sheet. Now you can load single songs and lyric sheets directly into your computer, Smart Board, ipod, or other similar device for only $1.49 each.

When you have a chance, please visit our revamped website: http://www.musicallyaligned.com to take a look at the new selection of materials. You can now hear samples of every song we offer. Take a listen and order a la cart, download digital albums, or continue to purchase complete hard copy CD Packets and have them shipped!

If you do not have time today to visit our website, here is a link to our updated 2009 catalog, listing each song and product available as well as current projects in the works: http://www.musicallyaligned.com/1SIDEDORDERCARD.pdf.

Thank you for your continued support in education,

Kenny & Carolyn Hood
Musically Aligned – In tune with teaching standards
info@musicallyaligned.com
(619) 659-5087 Voice
(866) 895-4145 Toll-free fax

I hope this message finds you all well. While some of you are still contacting me for various things, I just want to refer you to my 02/08/2009 post where I announced my “retirement” from the world of elementary science. I’ve been at King Middle School three weeks now so it’s tough to keep up w/ your requests so I’m again letting you know you can contact the Central folks for support. You may call them at (213)241-6444 or e-mail Larry.Bye@lausd.net (Coordinator) or William.Chang@lausd.net (Specialist). Meanwhile, for those of you preparing to organize/inventory your FOSS kits, Heinrich Sartin from LD2 was kind enough to share the following document foss-k-5-materials-lists1. Good luck and all of you that feed into King MS have done a great job; the kids are great!!!

This online learning tool from the Chemical Education Library brings the periodic table alive. Students click on an element’s symbol to learn about its discovery, the origin of its name, directions for chemical preparation, chemical reactions, uses, and atomic characteristics. The site at www.chemeddl.org/collections/ptl contains images and video segments from the Chemisty Comes Alive! collection, and an interactive, 3D display of crystals.

Some of our second grade folks working on the Fossils Unit in OCR have been getting questions from students about petrified wood. I’m guessing this topic must be currently appearing in something on Nickelodeon… To clarify what’s happening for them, try this TOPS Idea called petrified-paper

and give students a better idea of what’s occurring. If you want to see more ideas like this one, visit www.topscience.org.

This site was recommended by the Arts Advisor in LD3; please check it out pass it along:
http://www.azuregrackle.com/periodictable/table/

 Ninety-seven printmakers of all experience levels, have joined together to produce 118 prints in any medium; woodcut, linocut, monotype, etching, lithograph, silkscreen, or any combination. The end result is a periodic table of elements intended to promote both science and the arts.  Very beautiful–enjoy!

Looking for student science notebook pages for Kindergarten that will promote writing and thinking? Some of you who attended the recent FOSS PDs asked about these so here are the pdfs for your perusal. I hope you’ll share these with your colleagues! Thanks to my colleague, Jackie Herst, from LD3 for sharing this great info!

animals-2-by-2-journal-sheets

woodpaper-journal-sheet

trees-journal-sheet

In the face of a potentially devastating hurricane, it is crucial to know when, where, and how intense it will be.  A group of scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research is meeting that challenge by using math and science skills to better predict hurricanes in Understanding Hurricanes.  This movie can be viewed on The Futures Channel website and is accompanied by classroom activities on environmental and Earth science, meteorology, physics, and the nature of science and technology.  You may want to check it out and share the information with your aspiring scientists who want to learn more about severe types of weather (fifth grade, anyone?!?).

For more information, visit www.thefutureschannel.com/dockets/realworld/hurricanes.