Keystone Weekly
volume 2, issue 23        March 12, 2001

This week's Key Points: *From the Director's Desk* and *Web Pick of the Week*
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From the Director's Desk

Spring Colloquia
Due to weather and illness the mailing planned for last week is going out today instead. This mailing contains a brief write-up for each colloquium and a postage-paid response card. You need not wait to receive the mailing—if you want to reserve your spot in the colloquium of your choice now, simply email Sharon and indicate your colloquium preference. The two choices are:

Tuesday, April 3 "Focusing Online" (focus on teacher-developed online resources)
or
Wednesday, May 16 "Sharing Work with Student Assessment" (Lancaster and Abington site's performance assessment efforts highlighted and a look at online resources).

Both sessions are at The Franklin Institute and space is tight, so we need to balance the number of people at each based on the order that preferences are received.

Summer Institute Enrollment
As of last week we have a full set of Year 3 forms in-hand from Pennsbury, plus two additional forms and a query regarding room for another five teachers expressing interest in attending! KSN has sparked a lot of enthusiasm throughout their district and other sites as well. (I've received queries from as far away as California.)

Everyone is urged to please continue your active efforts to get the word out to colleagues and to have site liaisons forward information on to the project office. After March 30, I expect to reassign any unfilled slots that might remain so we can insure maximum capacity early on and plan accordingly.

SITE LIAISONS: I'm continuing to receive indications of interest in additional slots, if available. The submission deadline is now less than three weeks away. Site liaisons should FAX APPLICATIONS to Sharon Kiefer (215-448-1219) AS YOU RECEIVE THEM, per the info you received. This will become increasingly important should one of the institutes near its maximum capacity. If you have additional teachers—once you've submitted your assigned quota—set up a waiting list (in the order received) and contact me to discuss the potential for more attendees.

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Web Pick of the Week

This week's Web Pick is courtesy of Kathy Porreca of the Pennsbury School District.

Balancing and Weighing

"I overheard some of our second grade teachers complaining about having to start the balancing and weighing kit so I went online to see what I could find to help them. I found a wonderful site that is directly geared to 2nd grade and was developed by National Science Resource Center and distributed by Carolina Biological Supply Company. It is called the HASP Balancing and Weighing Module. There are technology links to web sites that show balance and weighing, including the Alexander Calder site and a nail experiment that the students are having a great time trying to duplicate. (I had my husband get the materials for me so I could do the experiment the first time with the students.) There are specific lessons that can be used if you should so chose and I imagine they coordinate quite well with the kits that we are using. I also took the students to a site called Cirque Du Soleil and we went to one of the shows that I have seen and looked at the acts. The majority of the acts involve balance in some way and are truly amazing. The students were fascinated and have gone back to the Cirque site. I think that even the most skeptical 2nd grade teacher is now enjoying the unit."

Here are the links:
HASP Balancing and Weighing Module: http://www.dcs.edu/hasp/Balancing/
Cirque Du Soleil: http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/index.html

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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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