WSST eBlast

This is  the November e-Blast from WSST District 1 Director Steve Gustafson. Hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving and for all you hunters out there, a successful season.

“Have you Seen ?”

WSN e-NEWS from the Wisconsin Science Network?

Leroy Lee of the Wisconsin Science Network sends out a weekly newsletter of current science information every Wednesday. To be added to WSN eNews, email WSN@WisconsinScience.net  with your name, email address, and school or business. 

“Conference Up-dates”

A Scientific Adventure: No Passport Needed

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 since it comes with 4 water park passes!!  This price is good Wed – Sat night so bring your family. (One night will be charged to credit card immediately.) Also, please think about presenting at this year’s conference.  We would love to see some new faces along with the usual suspects.  The call for presenters is now open.  You can very quickly and easily submit your presentation online at http://www.wsst.org/wsst-2011-conference.  In order to sign up for presentations you need to log in to your personal WSST Website account.

“Did you Know ?”

WSST isn’t the only organization with an E-Blast. NASA has one too and they’re looking for you to become an explorer school! This opportunity used to be difficult to achieve, but now anyone can sign up and take advantage of all their teaching materials, professional development and live events. Here’s a link to this month’s newsletter:

November 22 NES e-blast.pdf‎  

and here’s an email address for you to contact to get added to their list:

NASA-Explorer-Schools@mail.nasa.gov

 “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. Of special interest to District 1 members is the $500 Don Byerly grant, which is only available to members north of Highway 8.

“Spotlight on Professional Development”

Consider joining the National Science Teachers Association. One of the best parts of a membership is learning from your peers around the nation as part of their listserv. You can sign up for areas you are interested in, such as chemistry or physics or even general science. Have a question and looking for expertise? This could really be a place to get quick help from other classroom teachers.

 “Favorite Websites”

Webspiration: Online Visual Thinking Tool | mywebspiration.com
Have you ever used Inspiration,  a program to create concept maps and much more? Now you can do it online and for free!

http://www.jason.org/

The JASON Project is another free site that has loads of material for geology, meteorology, environmental science, physical science and much more. Activities, videos, games, labs and lots more at this site developed by Bob Ballard and the National Geographic Society.

“Committee Spotlight”

The Nominations and Elections Committee's duties are to identify and nominate well qualified candidates for each of the elective offices of the Society, make annual recommendations to the Board of Directors for the improvement of the nominations and election procedures, solicit names of qualified candidates for elective offices from District Directors and provide election information to WSST Newsletter editor in a timely fashion. The chair of this committee is Dan Nelson of Medford.