Keystone Weekly
volume 4, issue 19        February 24, 2003

This week's Key Points: *Web Pick of the Week* and *Free Science Workshop*
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All of the melting snow and flooding streams have lately inspired some thoughts about topography. Maybe you and your students would also like to find out more about the elevation of your town and school in relation to higher and lower points around you, and this neat web resource is a good place to start.

TopoZone calls itself "the center for recreational and professional topographic map users," and they are indeed a great source for maps on several different standard scales. They have worked hand in hand with the United States Geological Survey (the USGS is another excellent source of map information on the web and in print) to create the first interactive and manipulatable topographic map of the entire United States. Easy to use, you can enter place names to reach maps, then go up to the scale bar and hit the 1:25,000 button to zoom in on specific features. Be sure to take a look at the map reading tips and symbols explanations in the Help section. Interpreting maps (a skill in itself) can also be very interdisciplinary, combining math, science, and social studies knowledge and skills.

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Organized by an enthusiastic high school teacher at Williamstown High School in New Jersey, this free event (formally titled the "6th Annual Williamstown High School/Rowan University Science Teacher's Favorite Demo Workshop") is open to science teachers of all grade levels in Pennsylvania as well as New Jersey.

The demonstrations promise to be informal, and address the following areas: elementary science; general science; earth/environmental science; life science (grades 10 and lower); biology (grades 9 and higher); chemistry; physics; and AP level. Demonstrations can be handy tools for highlighting phenomena using materials, and they're useful for raising curiosity and questions in the classroom. This may be a fun event to attend with a fellow teacher at your school. Take a look at the website above for more information and registration information.

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This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 9819641.
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

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