Welcome Back! Hope you all have a wonderful and productive school year.  Here is the September installment of the District Directors' eBlast:

“Have you Seen ?”

Over the summer the draft of the “Conceptual Framework to Develop New Science Education Standards” were released and a public comment period for them ended Aug. 2.  This framework will more than likely have a profound affect on science teachers as it will be used to develop a set of K-12 science standards. The framework is expected to be completed by the end of this year and the standards by the end of 2011.  As you can see this is quite an aggressive timeline. The implications may be far reaching. You can expect to see changes in preservice teacher prep., inservice and professional development, common core standards, curriculum development, and classroom practices.  If you did not get a chance to see them you can request a pdf copy of them by emailing bose@nas.edu You will be emailed the draft, not the final version and it is no longer open to public comment.  Eric Brunsell, a WSST member and professor at UW-Oshkosh, has a blog article that discusses it on Edutopia, which you can read it at: http://www.edutopia.org/blogs/national-science-standards Eric has also put together a nice summary of the framework which you can read and view at http://www.teachingscience20.com/2010/07/exploring-the-nas-framework-for-new-science-educatin-standards/  I would highly recommend learning more about the changes that are coming.

“Conference Up-dates”

The WSST conference is in Wisconsin Dells at Kalahari from March 17-19, 2011.  You can reserve your room now for only $139! A real steal at this site as is comes with 4 water park passes!!  This price is good Wed – Sat night so bring your family. (1 night will be charged to credit card immediately)

Also, please think about presenting at this years conference.  We would love to see some new faces along with the tried and true.  The call for presenter is now open.  You can very quickly and easily submit your presentation online on the www.wsst.org website.

“Did you Know ?”

The participants of Science Futures this summer came from over 15 school districts across the state.  They developed their science leadership skills, learned about science inquiry, and are continuing to improving science education in so many different ways.   

“Your WSST funds in action”

Please nominate an exceptional teacher of science for one of the WSST awards.  Award nominations are accepted through Dec. 1^st.  While you’re at it, apply for one of the foundation grants as well.  You can find both on the WSST website.

“Spotlight on Professional Development”

Did you know you can take free online courses from a variety of higher ed. sources?  Want to see what they are teaching in biology, chemistry, physics, earth science, etc. since you graduated?  It is called Open Courseware. Check out their offerings!  MIT http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm; Carnegie Mellon University http://oli.web.cmu.edu/openlearning/forstudents/freecourses; Berkeley http://webcast.berkeley.edu/courses.php; Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health http://ocw.jhsph.edu/;

“Favorite Websites”

http://www.sciencenews.org/ great place for new things happening in science

http://www.scienceagogo.com/ Interesting science news, research tidbits and science discussion

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/ wonderful site. It has a really great set of online short videos on a variety of science topics that are appropriate for your students.

“Committee Spotlight”

The Public Relations committee works to help promote WSST and its members.  Did you see the wonderful new display they put together at the conference last year?  Kelley Hoffman, from Rio, is the chair of this committee.

This installment of the WSST eBlast was brought to you by Kathy Cady, District VI Director.  She teaches Biology, CAPP Biology, and Human Anatomy and Physiology at Winneconne High School.