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Keystone
Weekly This week's Key Points: *From the Director's Desk,* *Get Ready for Wednesday!,* * Site Visit Journal Update ,* *Design Technology Connections,* and *Earth Science Connections* A very brief communication this week as we are all very busy with final preparations for Wednesday's Colloquium. Despite early cautions from sites that attendance might be somewhat light due to the difficulty being experienced in getting substitute coverage, we are looking at an extremely high turnout from nine of the ten sites. Almost all sites have their full Keystone team coming Wednesday. We will also have some new faces with us, in that Philadelphia has added two teachers (replacing Mia and Klair) and three sites (including Philadelphia) have site liaisons who were not with us at Messiah joining us at the colloquium. With staff and RFA documentors, we will number about fifty individuals. We look forward to having everyone together and renewing contact. It promises to be a full, productive, and enjoyable day. Cross your fingers (yes, I know it's not scientific) that bad weather stays clear.
Take your place in the Hall of Fame… Site Visit Journal Update This week's Site Visit Journal features Larry Warmingham of the Lancaster School District. Be sure to visit the website at: http://www.fi.edu/keystone/visits/. A description of Larry Warmingham's classroom kit practice will appear this week on the journal page. Specific connections to model car designs were previously published in the December 13, 1999, edition of the Keystone Weekly. Please look at "Teacher and Kit Connections" if you'd like to review those sites. Those teachers interested in a more advanced facet of design technology may wish to engage their students through robotics. Currently, there are many shows on PBS that feature design specifications of robots that are entered in various competitions such as "Robot Wars." Although robotics materials are costly, it is possible to create plans for the design of specific robotic jobs. A website that supports this type of investigation is listed below. Use the site to generate ideas for your class such as the "Technology Timeline" that will enrich kits that focus on models and designs.
Here's the link: Earth Science Connections The following article is courtesy of an email we received from Deanna Wilkinson of the West Chester Area School District. Dee included the following comments with her submission: "This was sent to me by a friend who teaches at Eastern. The website of the Educational Home Page is dynamite…a fantastic resource for students researching caves. I know this is not one of our inquiry based units…but the information may prove helpful for some earth science or geography units that some of our group may teach." The Borneo Caving Expedition Online Educational Project is up and running! This effort is a project of the Gunung Buda Project, which in turn is a project of the National Speleological Society in the US. The website is composed of dozens of pages designed for students and includes information on the jungles and caves of the area, lessons for teachers and students, a photo gallery, and much more. More pages will be posted in the next two weeks. The web site features the fifth caving expedition in the last six years to travel to Gunung Buda (White Mountain) in the Malaysian state of Sarawak. The upcoming expedition begins on January 31 and will involve more than fifty Malaysian, American, and British cavers, researchers, local experts, government officials, and support staff. The group plans to explore, survey, and photograph caves in the area. Research projects and sections of the website involve bats, cave biology, geologic history, and human health. New, updated information concerning cave exploration, research projects, local weather, and National Parks will all be added to the site during the expedition. This will involve the use of on-site cell phone and modem technology, or as a backup, trips into a nearby town. Use of the site is free. The Educational Project has been designed and coordinated by veteran teacher and caver Robert Childs. Much of the information for students and teachers on the site is designed to be used offline and thus computers in the classroom are not required to use the site. Lessons are aimed at seventh through ninth grade students (12 to 16 year olds), but could be adapted for use by many age groups.
For the Educational Project Home Page:
For a newspaper article about Robert Childs and the project
(Warning: this
takes a long time to load):
For the Gunung Buda Project Home Page: The Borneo Caving Expedition Online Educational Project has received support from the Richmond Area Speleological Society, the Gunung Buda Project, and Eureka City Schools, Eureka California, USA. |
| 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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