Teachers of the gifted spend two days at the Museum making salt dance, building and testing mousetrap cars, launching rockets, and more. Thanks to the GPEX Science Collaborative Curriculum Challenge Grant, funded by the Florida Department of Education, 25 teachers from gifted student programs at eight Title-I MDCPS K-5 and K-8 schools recently participated in two days of professional development at the Museum.

The GPEX Science project goals focus on improving gifted students’ academic achievement in science, increasing the number of hands-on inquiry science lessons provided to gifted students, and providing professional development to all project staff. Participants learned to use the Museum’s After-school Program Exploring Science (APEX) curriculum to address science standards, and practiced inquiry-based teaching strategies. They are now using APEX Science in their classrooms throughout the school year, and are working collaboratively to develop extensions of the APEX Science curriculum to meet the needs of gifted students.

This is the third year that the Museum has collaborated with Miami-Dade County Public Schools’ Advanced Academics Program to provide hands-on science training, curriculum and materials for teachers of the gifted. To date, almost 4,000 K-5 gifted children have been served, and 3 published collections of APEX curriculum extensions for gifted children (developed by master teachers trained at Museum) have been distributed to all K-5 gifted teachers.

For humans, if your home has a recognizable scent, that may or may not be a good thing. But for bees, it is a necessary part of life, and of finding its way home. Bees find their way to their own hive because of a distinct scent that they can recognize. If you want to see a real beehive up close, and safely, you can even come to the Museum and see our beehive exhibit, made possible by the Junior League of Miami.

Because bees are are so beguiling in many ways, they are the subject of one of the Museum’s Early Childhood Hands-On Science (ECHOS) curriculum units. After receiving training on the materials from Museum education staff, pre-school teachers throughout Miami-Dade County and Head Start schools, lead the children in exploring their world, as well as the bees’ world. The children learned first-hand that bees know which hive is their own only by the scent, by becoming bees themselves. Each was given a cup with a scent, and they had to explore their classroom to find the hive that matched their scent. But they did not want to stop exploring even after they found their hive. One wanted to draw his own beehive based on the ECHOS Busy, Buzzing Bees book, one wanted to see how the beehive model in the classroom compared to photos of real hives, and a couple wanted to match up the scents of all the “hives” in the room. These children in the photos below are true explorers.

Last Saturday, ECHOS teachers and teacher assistants came to the Museum on a quest to become prepared to host the Head Start Museum Family Day. Both ECHOS and Head Start are all about creating environments for young children to learn and develop in a safe and educational environment. This workshop in particular focused on the upcoming Head Start Museum Family Day, as well as identifying new ways to involve parents in ECHOS activities – with the expectation that teachers would then incorporate these strategies at their respective centers. As part of their “Quest” at the workshop, teaching teams explored museum exhibits that had been selected by ECHOS staff to help deepen their understanding of science concepts that are presented across all 9 ECHOS units. Throughout their Quest, teams compared features of live birds at the Museum’s Wildlife Center, learned about shells and fossils with “Fossil Frank,” observed bees at work in our new Beehive exhibit installation, and were even challenged to estimate how many gallons of water are in the large fish tank in the Sea Lab. Three teams guessed the exact number of gallons, and won prizes. Can you guess how many gallons? Scroll down to the photo from the Sea Lab to find out! (The answer is in the caption.)

This teacher was fascinated by this horseshoe crab shell, which she had never seen before. Have you?

One of the quest challenges was to spell out your own initials using these movable magnetic gears.

Teachers observed bee pollen and butterfly legs through microscopes.

There are 3,000 gallons of water in that large tank! How close was your guess?

Every year, the Museum celebrates our Universe, and everyone with a passion for observing, investigating, and learning about it. On a large scale, it’s officially National Astronomy Day. Here at the Museum, we called our celebration AstroJam: A Cosmic Quest. On Friday under a nearly full Moon, and on Saturday under sunny skies, visitors were treated to space-related film screenings, hands-on activities, planetarium shows, a live theater show featuring Galileo, and the chance to look through the Museum’s rooftop observatory on Friday night, and through solar telescopes on Saturday provided by the Astronomy Club from Florida International University. Also on hand at the event was the Southern Cross Astronomical Society, who provided materials for guests and shared news of their weekly observing nights that are open to the public. Visitors received materials from Astronomy Magazine, and were treated to an exhibition of astrophotography sponsored by the Smithsonian Affiliations’ Youth Capture the Colorful Cosmos project, and created by high school students from the Museum’s Upward Bound program. (Click here to see more of the students’ exhibition.) During the event, young visitors went on a “Cosmic Quest” throughout the Museum – every time they completed an activity, they received a sticker on their “quest port card.” Activities included a laser maze, building your own Mars Rover, making ultraviolet jewelry, and lots more. And of course, being so close to Halloween, what event would be complete without a costume contest? A few lucky visitors (like Mario & Luigi, Darth Vader, and Athena) walked away with prizes like Celestron telescopes, a Straddle game (kind of like a space version of Twister), and glow in the dark stars for their rooms. The whole event was a cosmic hit! Check out a slideshow of photos below.

Let ECHOS Year 2 begin! In the second week of September, just in time for back to school, ECHOS staff delivered 38 material kit sets to 38 classrooms at 21 Head Start childcare centers. Teachers of local Head Start centers across Miami Dade county are ready and prepared for a great year with materials needed for the first three ECHOS units: Rainy Weather, Feathered Friends, and Beginning Botanist. This year is sure to bring growth and learning in science to both teachers and children as another year of ECHOS implementation begins.

]]> http://www.miamisci.org/blog/beep-beep-special-delivery/feed/ 0 http://www.miamisci.org/blog/a-new-year-for-echos/ http://www.miamisci.org/blog/a-new-year-for-echos/#comments Wed, 22 Aug 2012 19:12:06 +0000 admin http://www.miamisci.org/blog/?p=2229 Continue reading →]]>

A week before children headed back to school, Head Start teachers were already getting re-energized for ECHOS at the first workshop of the year. The Museum’s Early Childhood Hands-On Science (ECHOS) initiative, in collaboration with the University of Miami’s Department of Psychology, is a comprehensive science curriculum and teacher professional development program being tested in 90 Head Start classrooms throughout Miami-Dade County. The project is funded by a grant from the US Department of Education’s Institute for Education Sciences. In ECHOS, children learn all about rain, birds, bees, plants, shells, blocks, water, air and magnets. And teachers learn effective ways to encourage scientific thinking in children, like wondering, observing, making predictions, doing experiments, and most importantly, asking questions! This ECHOS pre-service workshop focused on the idea of “productive questioning” and how to encourage scientific and creative thinking in young children. During the workshop, teachers experimented with some lessons and received new and updated lesson materials, which even included some “echoes” of their feedback from the previous year of implementation. Three more teacher training workshops are scheduled throughout the school year, in between lots of opportunities to use the science lessons and materials in the classroom.

Teachers explored simple science activities to learn how to engage children in science through productive questioning.

Teachers got picture cards with instructions to mingle and fit all cards into a big picture - just like each teacher is a part of the big ECHOS picture.

The Museum’s ECHOS program has a big goal: to test the effectiveness of a museum-developed early science readiness curriculum and related teacher professional development. By expanding science units to include math, language, and literacy, the research project will demonstrate the potential of ECHOS to improve teacher practice and student achievement at the preschool level.

A big program with big goals needs lots of materials. Get ready to do some math. There are 9 ECHOS units and 45 classrooms (involving 90 teachers and teacher assistants) throughout Miami. The Museum holds monthly workshops throughout the school year (1 per unit), and each of the 45 classrooms receives 1 bin of materials per unit. When preparing for these workshops, 150 boxes at a time get delivered to the Museum on 7 pallets. That is for 3 workshops. But we still need 2 more deliveries of that size to get all the materials for all 9 units. The final answer?

450 boxes + 21 pallets + lots of storage space + lots of time and effort = effective resources for teachers + young children learning science.

That’s a good answer.

In February and March, the fun and learning continued for teachers participating in the Museum’s ECHOS (Early Childhood Hands-On Science) program with two professional development workshops. Each one is for 45 classrooms (90 teachers and teacher assistants) around Miami. In the unit about measuring, teachers learn how to introduce children to the concept of one inch. So children use 1-inch blocks as tools to measure things around them. But how do you make it even more fun for young children? Put it to rhythm, and, move around! ECHOS staff and participating teachers modeled a sing-along activity designed to integrate science with language and literacy. You can sing it too (to the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat).

The next workshop had ECHOS teachers learning how to teach young children to investigate scientific concepts like volume, density, and water displacement. Teacher assistants pretended to be the children and practiced all the activities, including one that integrated science and math. What’s the object of the game? Run with a cup of water, dump the water in a bucket, throw the cup into a bag, and run back to the start while your teammate does the same. When the buckets are full, we can see how many cups of water filled the bucket!

State Farm has generously donated $14,500 to the Museum in support of a future exhibition and programming that will explore how hurricanes have shaped and will continue to affect the physical and social landscape of South Florida. The exhibition will be very interactive and educational, including a specialized bilingual emergency preparedness kiosk and two hurricane-focused events, so that visitors can find valuable information and resources to better prepare them for natural disasters.

Miami Science Museum VP of Content Development & Programs Jennifer Santer; Frank Manusky and his daughter Madison, a 6th grader at Lyons Creek Middle School; Museum President and CEO Gillian Thomas; Iris Lopez, State Farm Agent; Jose Soto, Public Affairs Specialist; and Sean Duran, VP of Exhibitions at MSM.

“Increased awareness is key in lessening the risk of injury and destruction from natural disasters,” said Jose Soto, State Farm Community Specialist. “This exciting partnership with the Miami Science Museum will help spotlight hurricane awareness for South Florida families, helping them understand the importance of disaster preparedness. Our State Farm mission is to help people prepare for the unexpected, and this collaborative hurricane prep effort will help protect and increase the safety of Florida families.”

The exhibition will feature the technologies and expertise of Florida International University’s International Hurricane Research Center and will give visitors the opportunity to check out the instruments and methods professionals use to predict, track and assess weather patterns. At the heart of the exhibition, will be the Museum’s interactive spherical display known as “Magic Planet,” a system that enables visitors to explore connections between global climate change and hurricanes, with a focus on possible impacts on South Florida, and to track actual hurricanes on the 4-foot spherical display during storm season.

Hands-on activities will include miniature model house building where visitors can test if their creations can withstand hurricane force winds, as well as an air canon that simulates the way debris flies during a major storm.

The funding will also support two major events at the Museum: “Feel the Force: Hurricanes and Other Hazards” to be held June 2, 2012, and a special event marking the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Andrew to be held August 24, 2012. The Museum welcomes the community to attend both events. The exhibition will open in phases coinciding with both Feel the Force and Hurricane Andrew events.

For more information about the Museum’s exhibits, please visit: http://miamisci.org

If you ever wondered what your science teacher does for fun on Saturdays, take a look at these teachers playing with their spinning tops and making salt dance to the music of Pink! Thanks to the GPEX Science Collaborative Curriculum Challenge Grant, funded by the Florida Department of Education, 25 teachers of gifted student programs from five Title-I Miami-Dade County Public elementary schools participated in a professional development event using the Museum’s APEX Sience Curriculum (After-school Program Exploring Science). This professional development provided by the Miami Science Museum took place on two Saturdays in January and February. It was designed to provide teachers with hands-on interaction with the APEX Science curriculum materials as well as address the science content and inquiry-based teaching and learning strategies that accompany the inquiry-based program. The gifted program teachers at each of the GPEX Science target schools will use the knowledge they gained at the museum and will work collaboratively in order to adapt and extend the APEX Curriculum to meet the needs of gifted students. This is the second year that the Museum has collaborated with Miami-Dade County Public Schools to provide science training for talented and gifted program teachers; last year’s cohort of teachers represented ten elementary schools throughout the county.

A homemade top spinning so fast it's blurry!

The salt is "dancing" to the music of Pink!