SMILE wants chemistry to be easier for informal educators, and is creating a special collection of hands-on chemistry activities to that end. The new collection will launch just in time for the 2011 International Year of Chemistry.
Ask Suzy Gurton, Education Manager at the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, about hands-on astronomy, and you'll be disabused of any notion that studying the cosmos need be a solely intellectual pursuit.
When astronomer Isabel Hawkins was growing up in Argentina, an encyclopedia salesman showed up at the door one day with an illustrated book about the planets.
"Libraries are our new community tech labs," says Keith Braafladt, Director of Learning Technologies at the Science Museum of Minnesota.
And more and more, he says, librarians find themselves doing inquiry science.
Educator Anne Richardson of the Exploratorium uses SMILE to compile grade- and subject-specific lists of activities for teachers who bring their students on school field trips to the museum.
SMILE’s August newsletter was all about sharks and hands-on ocean literacy activities
"Simply put," says Billy Spitzer of the New England Aquarium, "ocean literacy is understanding how we affect the oceans, and how the oceans affect us." Spitzer is the aquarium's Vice President for Planning, Programs & Exhibits.
1. Scientists can determine the age of a shark by counting the rings that form on its vertebra, much as you can count the rings on a tree to tell its age. Sharks typically live from 20 to 30 years.
I still remember when my sixth grade science teacher took us outside, gave us each a block of wood and a magnifying glass, and showed us how to harness the sun's energy to burn our zodiac sign into wood.
Educator Cheryl McCallum talks about one of her favorite SMILE outdoor activities, and how to make it work even if you don't have "an outdoor space teeming with living things.”
These days, I work in a museum. But before that I was an outdoor educator, taking 5th graders on hikes through the East Texas Piney Woods and canoe trips on Lake Livingston.
