This past week I spent a good portion of my Facebook time gazing longingly at photos our science teachers posted from the Monterey Bay Aquarium. These teachers advise our school’s Plastics Club, so they were at the aquarium learning how our plastic trash raises havoc with the oceans.
Speaking of plastics, our high school’s Plastics Club is a force to be reckoned with! In the past, students and their former adviser, science teacher Renee Link, secured funding for a water bottle filling station on our campus that’s a hit with the kids. The club, now overseen by teachers Gwen Rubio, Sheree Kuntz, and Christina Buechler, was featured on Good Day Sacramento recently. Students working with the Crayola ColorCycle Program placed small bins in each classroom so that teachers can recycle used markers instead of throwing that plastic into the trash, and Good Day Sacramento showed up to share the news. See the video here. (The photo of carnations in test tubes at the start of this post was taken in Gwen’s science classroom earlier this year. She placed the cut flowers in water colored with regular food dye to teach her students about diffusion.)
Check out information on the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Ocean Plastic Pollution Summit here. Future teacher professional development opportunities include Connecting with Marine Science Teacher Institute, Coastal Systems Teacher Institute, Project-Based Science Teacher Institute, and the Splash Zone Teacher Institute. Applications for these institutes close March 18.
High school science teacher Gwen Rubio teaches diffusion using colored water in beakers. She arranged the colors in rainbow order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet.
I tore myself away from the Monterey Bay Aquarium postings long enough to check my e-mail boxes and found a few gems there, which I will pass on to you. Check out these opportunities:
- The University of Montana announced registration for its Schwanke Honors Summer Institute closes April 1. The program is limited to 40 high school sophomores through incoming college freshmen, and applicants don’t have to be Montana residents to register. Those who complete the program receive three UM credits for either Creative Writing in the Environment or Climate Science, Society, and Solutions. Students live in the dorms from June 16-28. Morning classes, college readiness workshops and local field trips are included. A three-day trip to Glacier National Park and the Blackfeet Reservation to study the environment and sustainability is planned. Tuition for both in-state and out-of-state students will be charged at the Montana in-state tuition rate, according to the university announcement. Some scholarships are available.
- The California Museum in Sacramento has two interesting exhibits closing next month. The Sikh Project is a traveling exhibit of stories and photographs documenting the Sikh community and the obstacles members still face in the United States. This exhibit closes March 10. “Before They Were Heroes: Sus Ito’s World War II Images” documents the lives of the Japanese-American soldiers who made up the segregated 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the most decorated unit of its size in American history. This exhibit closes March 17.
- The University of Oregon and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) are looking for 25 teachers who would like to spend a couple weeks this summer learning about Native American history while traveling along the Lewis and Clark Trail from Billings, Montana to Bismarck, North Dakota. Deadline to apply is March 1. Stipends are available. Five spots are reserved for teachers who have five or fewer years of teaching experience.
- The Sacramento County Library is hosting a discussion on suicide 24 at the main branch in downtown Sacramento.
- The City of Elk Grove and Cosumnes Community Services District will host a fitness festival for adults and kids in Elk Grove Regional Park on Saturday, April 27. The Elk Grove FitFest is free, but there is a charge and registration requirements to participate in some activities.
- The National Agriculture in the Classroom conference is June 18-21 in Little Rock, Arkansas. Temple Grandin, who has autism and is known for her work with animals and for her advocacy for people with autism, is one keynote speaker. The other is Marty Matlock, an ecological engineering professor from the University of Arkansas whose research is focused on increasing resilience of the ecosystem. Early registration and its discounts end April 15. Scholarships are available to teachers who would like to attend. The deadline for scholarship application is March 1.