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Keystone
Weekly This week's Key Points:
*New Curricular Companion: Material Properties
and Change,* *Web Pick of the Week,*
and *Science Achievement
Update*
New Curricular
Companion! You might be thinking to yourself, "Hmm. Material Properties and Change. What does that mean, exactly?" Well, you may be excited to know that this new Curricular Companion addresses—count `em—sixteen kits, all related to chemistry, with a bit of physics. Those kits are: Water (FOSS), Solids and Liquids (STC), Changes (STC), Chemical Tests (STC), Properties of Matter (STC), Liquids (Insights), The Mysterious Powder (Insights), Changes of State (Insights), Wood (FOSS), Paper (FOSS), Fabric (FOSS), Solids and Liquids (FOSS), Mixtures and Solutions (FOSS), Comparing and Measuring (STC), Balancing and Weighing (STC), and Floating and Sinking (STC). Not only do these kits cover many topics, they also span many grades, from kindergarten to middle school. So, take some time and peruse this Companion carefully. Chances are good that you'll find something useful or interesting if you're teaching anything related to chemistry, materials, properties, changes of state… the list goes on and on. As always, if you know of a site that you find useful and it's not listed in the Companion, let us know (email alycec@fi.edu), and we'll add it!
Web Pick of the
Week Lest you think that inventors are all old historical figures, and that inventions just don't crop up as much as they used to, this site is here to show you differently. Browse through these archives of inventors, and you'll find people like Chelsea Lanmon (http://web.mit.edu/invent/www/inventorsI- Q/lanmon.html), a 12-year-old from Texas who's been an inventor since kindergarten, and filed a patent at the age of eight. Or maybe you and your students would be interested in learning about Arthur Granjean (http://web.mit.edu/invent/www/inventorsA- H/etchy.html), inventor of the Etch-a-Sketch. And where would we be without the woman (http://web.mit.edu/invent/www/inventorsA- H/anderson.html) who was laughed at for her invention of window wipers? Naturally, all of the well-known folk are included in the archive as well. Take a look, and I bet you'll get hooked.
Science Achievement Update The latest data from the 2000 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) indicates that high school seniors don't know enough science, and it's been getting worse every year since 1996. About twenty percent of students demonstrated a firm understanding of the curriculum, and only about half of students in total grasped the basics. Gerry Wheeler, executive director of the National Science Teachers Association and national advisor to the Keystone Science Network, comments that these results are not surprising, due to the emphasis schools place on math and reading over science. He says, "Teachers want to do a good job—they really want to see their students excel. But we have to give them the support they need." Read more about this issue in the article linked above.
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| The Franklin Institute gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the National Science Foundation and Unisys Corporation. | |||
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The Franklin Institute is the Demonstration Site for the
Eisenhower
Mid-Atlantic Consortium, providing science and math
resources for teachers.
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 9819641. © 2003. All rights reserved.
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