Sherman Oaks, CA
Thursday, October 11, 2012
L.A.'s Daily News wrote this week about LAUSD's Nury Martinez, School Board member acting to restore arts in education budgets in a story by Barabara Jones. School climate changes when students feel engaged by the catalyst the arts can play to make words, images, signs and symbols make sense to youngsters. Science can be taught by aligning concept with new words and movement with issues, themes, projects, observation, and assessment.
Unlike the limitations of traditional science in the past, children can use phones, tablets, cpus, smart boards, production, software, online learning sites in tandem with field trips or as virtual means to spur interest in land, water, air, and atmospheric conditions that make learning about the seasons, a drought, the water cycle, oceanic awareness, storm water, ground water, resources or ocean literacy.
Urban and rural children can learn about wildlife, agriculture, weather, crises, solutions, new research all online.
Access to the The Earth Charter, the Mississippi River City Pledge, lyrics, mp3s, songbooks, and video are all a part of using computers as part of hearing the past and protecting or planning the future.
What is exciting is the breadth of learning about plants to learning about ph factors. Whether the overview of the watershed or photos of the Great Barrier Reef, children and teachers can now revel in affordable and relevant material for learning.
With issues like "Bringing Back the Bat" by Nancy Schimmel or fungus on frogs....teachers can use these as teachable moments and news bytes that stir emotions as well as concern that can make a lesson come alive.
This kind of "new" pedagogy is emmerging despite concerns at a school level for being on time and on task. This kind of instruction is timely, moving, colorful, and leads children to understanding if not to acquiring soft and hard skills that will help them to perform at school and in the future out in the world they will soon enough inherit.
_______________________________________________________
Toads in Space? – NO, but rich vocabulary can impact both school and our wildlife
Using Art to teach about the Watershed:
http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/wp-content/e/Wind%20board%201.jpg http://www.towerofyouth.org/ http://waterbuddyweb.blogspot.com http://www.take2videos.org/ EEI Curriculum:
http://www.calepa.ca.gov/Education/Principles/EPC.pdf http://www.globe.gov/explore-science/student-zone/be-a-scientist/introduction http://neoninc.org/budburst/getstarted_occasionalobserver.php Stream to Sea:
http://randalldavidtipton.blogspot.com/2012/09/stream-to-sea.html http://sierratosea.ucdavis.edu/ Worldwide Water Day:
http://www.globe.gov/documents/11865/354450/hydro_la_phgame.pdf Health of the Barrier Reef:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/great-barrier-reef-has-lost-half-its-coral/2012/10/01/c54d7bb0-0bfe-11e2-bb5e-492c0d30bff6_gallery.html Streams of Sounds:
http://www.bso.org/brands/tanglewood/features/tanglewood-75-anniversary-season/tanglewood-75-free-digital-downloads.aspx Images of Mr. Toad
https://www.google.com/search?q=toad+of+wind+in+the+willows&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=BAW&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=fflb&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=t9tzUO_7NoW22gWtyYCwCg&ved=0CDQQsAQ&biw=1242&bih=642 Dialogic Reading:
http://www.amazon.com/Commander-Toad-Space-Jane-Yolen/dp/0698113551#reader_0698113551 http://www.toadsofdavis.com/ http://illumin.com/shop/something-special-p-60.html Sounds of Frogs:
http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&biw=1242&bih=642&tbm=isch&tbnid=FN2dxFMv-FYjYM:&imgrefurl=http://www.tradebit.com/filedetail.php/47163259-sounds-of-north-american-frogs&docid=biXpYneiWIupbM&imgurl=http://cdn.tradebit.org/usr/mp3-album/pub/9002/471/471632/47163259.jpg&w=350&h=350&ei=AN1zUJjdPKrW2gX1s4Bg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=119&vpy=289&dur=2961&hovh=225&hovw=225&tx=74&ty=244&sig=116404417286201932487&page=1&tbnh=139&tbnw=142&start=0&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:12,s:0,i:108
Screaming and clucking frogs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtkxVdDOZCM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=948rhsRvIkw&feature=related https://www.google.com/search?q=images+of+the+sounds+of+frogs&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a Endangered Frogs-Fungus, Pollution, Heat
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11324438/ns/us_news-environment/t/frog-species-yosemite-its-last-legs/#.UHPfghihs7A Impact of Nitrates:
http://www.herpconbio.org/Volume_2/Issue_1/Burgett_etal_2007.pdf http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1566592/ Images of Nitrates on Frogs:
https://www.google.com/search?num=10&hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1242&bih=642&q=images+of+the+impact+of+nitrates+on+amphibians&oq=images+of+the+impact+of+nitrates+on+amphibians&gs_l=img.3...3626.23529.0.23742.49.14.1.34.35.0.118.1291.9j5.14.0...0.0...1ac.1.ICe9Sv4oCl8 http://www.newslook.com/videos/478667-website-keeps-endangered-frogs-alive-online?autoplay=true http://www.newsleader.com/videonetwork918219369200/1805732681001/Website-Keeps-Endangered-Frogs-Alive-Online http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166445X12000239 http://ceng.tripod.com/ld2.htm http://www.epa.gov/owow/wetlands/bawwg/monindicators.pdf ftp://ftp.parks.ca.gov/pub/Carnegie%20CHWA/Final%20CHWA%20%28062707%29-Clean.pdf http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/ftp/resort_development/external/!publish/web/resort_plans/approved/Crystal/Crystal_Addendum_Report.pdf http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/amphibians/spring-peeper/ http://www.amazon.com/Colores-Other-Latin-American-Songs/dp/B00000AG6C http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9-Luis_Orozco
Sherman Oaks, CA
