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Keystone
Weekly This week's Key Points:
*Kit Use: Landforms (FOSS),* *Web Pick of the Week,* and *Awesome Science!* Kit Use Through a KSN Teacher's Eyes: Landforms Maureen Benner teaches fifth grade at Manor Elementary School in the Pennsbury School District. For the past five years, Maureen and her students have worked with FOSS's Landforms kit, which aligns to her school's earth science strand. In Landforms, students use stream tables to investigate the variables that influence erosion and deposition of earth materials and the subsequent creation of landforms. Students invent topographic maps and use them as a means for representing landforms. Maureen reports that it can take some time to set up the stream table for the first time that they'll be used, but after that, the rest of the activities are easy to prepare for and use. She has never encountered any difficulties. She's also noticed improvements over the years, commenting, "I have the current teacher's guide, which is awesome. It's improved a lot in five years. The FOSS stories do an excellent job of relating the concepts to real life situations." Maureen enjoys teaching Landforms, and her students respond very well too. Maureen really likes the way this kit allows the students to experience the main science concepts first- hand, saying, "The students were able to see everything. They saw what erosion does to the land. They saw what a mountain looks like through a model. The topographic maps and aerial photos are very helpful." She was particularly pleased when they were able to relate their stream table activities to the formation of the Grand Canyon. To extend the unit, Maureen asks the students to attempt to construct a bridge to go over a landform. As an additional innovation, the students use Legos to build the schoolyard models. Although Maureen definitely wants to continue to teach Landforms, she does have an idea for something she'd like to change next time. She says, "I would let the students plan more than one investigation. They were only able to plan one of their own. They did the standard, flood, and slope investigation. You can eliminate some activities and the students will still understand the concepts." She says this kit takes a lot of time, but she does recommend it to other teachers.
Web Pick of the
Week Every day, National Geographic posts a new photo from their vast collection on their website in this featured area. Along with explanatory information about the photo, National Geographic also offers links to information on their site (which is excellent) that is thematically related to the photo. It's a fun and quick way to learn a new thing every day.
Awesome Science! Have you ever pictured a big carnivorous dinosaur breaking into a fleet-footed run? More likely, you might imagine a slow, lumbering beast. Paleontologists might have agreed with you, until now. Scientists in England have uncovered the first known set of fossilized footprints that indicate that a large, meat-eating dinosaur broke from a walk into a run. Prior to this discovery, scientists weren't sure that larger dinosaurs of this particular type—believed to be a relative of Tyrannosaurus rex—were able to run. This set of prints does not continue long enough to indicate whether the creature could sustain a run or simply sprint after a tasty morsel, but either way it adds a new degree of excitement to imagining life in those times! Read more about this story at the link above.
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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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