USTA Region One
Oct 2016
Serving Box Elder, Cache, Logan, Morgan, Ogden, Rich, and Weber School Districts
News:
- Nominate an amazing teacher for the USTA Teacher Awards. Click here for the nomination form.
- Presenters are needed for our USTA Conference in Feb 2017. The conference is amazing. We have a great Keynote speaker and many workshops to choose from K-12. Principals will often pay for your registration. It doesn’t hurt to ask. We would love to see your entire Science department at the conference. Click here to learn more about the conference and to register and click here to apply to be a presenter. (Presenters will get in free this year!!)
Upcoming Activities:
Oct 7th or 8th: Creatures of the Night at Ogden Nature Center
Oct 7th: USU Observatory Open to the Public Night
Nov 7th: Northern Utah Stem Expo for High School and a Free Family Night
Field Trip Opportunities:
Kaysville: Utah Botanical Garden
Student Competitions:
- Engage students in STEM education with The Bright Schools Competition! In this free competition, middle school students (grades 6-8) explore the links among light, sleep, and student health and performance by developing a prototype, creating an awareness campaign or writing a research proposal.
- eCYBERMISSION is a web-based Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics competition for 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th grade teams. Your team will propose a solution to a real problem in your community and compete for State, Regional and National Awards.
Field Trips brought to the classroom:
Hogle Zoo grades 1-5 (Up to 75 miles from the zoo
2nd Grade iSEE Program for 2nd Grade for Weber County
4th Grade Museum on the Move from Natural History Museum
Teacher Resources:
Logan: Purchase rock and fossil kits
Ogden: Science kits/toolboxes to check out and use in the classroom
State: Free Online Science Textbooks for the UTAH core grades 3-12
Grants:
STEM Classroom Grant up to $1500
Tractor Supply Company School Garden $500 Grant (K-5 schools located within 35 miles of a Tractor Supply Store) Due Oct 15th
Freebies:
Sign up now for Science News in High Schools and, at no cost to you or your school, receive 10 hard copies of the biweekly magazine, free digital access for the entire faculty and student population and a teacher guide that provides questions, activities and links to the standards to support your classroom learning.
Teacher Spotlight #1: Liz Wright
Teacher Name: Liz Wright
Current School: Logan High School
Subject Taught: Chemistry and AP Biology
Years as a Teacher: 19 years
University graduated from: University of Wisconsin
Hobbies, Married, Children: Yoga, gardening, hunting, fishing, reading, drawing, making jewelry and soaps, married to Scott Wright and has two awesome boys Andrew and Ethan and a giant dog named Aengus.
Favorite Lesson Plan: Cell structure and function and evolution
Extra-curricular stuff the teacher does:
What makes this teacher AWESOME: She is always willing to help her students and her colleagues. She is very knowledgeable in her science concepts and she is willing to offer suggestions when needed. She keeps our department organized and running smoothly. She is just AWESOME!
Any awards they have received: She was teacher of the year a couple of years back.
Teacher Spotlight #2: Shane Pearson
Subject and Grade Level: 7th and 8th Grade Integrated Science
How long I have been teaching: This is my 8th year teaching
Where I teach: South Ogden Jr. High School
Favorite Quote: Today I heard one in professional development that I really liked, but I don’t know the original source of the quote (I think Brad Barton was quoting someone). Halloween as
He said, “The easier it is to be good, the harder it is to be great.” “A Heavy Metal”
Another Favorite, “Be the change you wish to see in the world”
3 Things every science teacher should own:
1. A lab coat—I did not have one my first 6 years, and I just got to say, I did not feel near as cool as now that I have one. I don’t wear it every day, but it is great to have one.
2. An Erlenmeyer Flask—I wrote up a grant my first year because I was in a title one school and we did not have any of those for the students. It was important to me that the kids were using the “cool science equipment” (not just the plastic beakers, or whatever jars we could find)
3. Geaky science shirts, I do not have a huge collection yet, but Ms. Batt across the hall from me has quite the collection, the one I liked from today says, “I am not lazy, I am overflowing with potential energy.”
3 of my favorite Websites or Apps:
http://www.usnews.com/debate-club (there are a lot of political things on here, but also science topics and they have articles covering both sides of the issue so the students get the opportunity to view them for themselves and use evidence to construct their arguments)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEik-U3T6u6JA0XiHLbNbOw (I like the Bozeman science channel because I feel he does a good job constructing models for different science concepts).
https://www.wisc-online.com/learn/natural-science/ I haven’t explored this a ton, but I like using this for webquests with students when I have a sub, there are a lot of topics covered and some demonstrations to help illustrate key concepts.
Why do I teach science?
I teach science because of Mrs. Lunt (my Marine Biology teacher). I hated science because I equated it only to taking notes and using the textbook. Mrs. Lunt brought in all sorts of organisms for us to dissect and made this land-locked, Utah kid love the ocean and its marine life. I wanted to be that teacher that allows my students to see the fun side of science, not just the boring side.
Cool things in our school and department:
We are all having a lot of fun incorporating the 3 dimensions of science into the classroom. We have really focused our teaching approach on identifying phenomena around that students can explore and construct explanation of why they happen. We have had fun seeing the amazing things the students are able to think about when we sort of get out of the way of their thinking. Yes, we need to reign them in occasionally, but I have been impressed with the students rising above our level of initial expectations.