It is great to see this activity and I applaud your efforts, but in my experience the real challenge is not creating the curriculum or making it widely available, but actually getting teachers to use it in their classrooms. I found that if I did not first contact the school district and make a direct inquiry as to what science teachers were interested and then follow up with meetings and return visits and finally demonstrating the use of the curriculum by teaching their class in a way and at a time that fit with a lesson they were already working on, then the curriculum that I had created was pretty much guaranteed not be adopted. It didn't matter how wonderful I thought it was or how much I impressed myself or my colleagues. Bottom line, I had to invest as much or more time working with teachers one-on-one as I did creating the curriculum to get it to be used at all and on a regular basis in K-12 classrooms. Just something to consider as you continue on this path. Regards, Steve
From: "Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news" <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> on behalf of "Rosenbaum, Stacy" <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Reply-To: "Rosenbaum, Stacy" <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Date: Tuesday, September 29, 2015 at 1:46 PM To: "[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>" <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Disseminating research to K-12 students Some colleagues and I are working on a digital learning platform called Planet Lab that (among other things) is specifically being designed to accommodate what Nicole is describing. We are in the process of conducting interviews with different types of potential users (teachers, administrators, students, scientists wanting to disseminate results etc.). We're interested in hearing about what users are looking for, the hurdles they face in disseminating research to the public, what efforts they've made previously and how they worked out, etc. If other Ecologers in addition to Nicole would be interested in talking to us, we'd love to hear from you! Cheers, Stacy Rosenbaum, PhD Institute for Mind and Biology University of Chicago [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> and Davee Center for Epidemiology and Endocrinology Lincoln Park Zoo Chicago, IL ________________________________ From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> on behalf of slug2be <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Sent: Tuesday, September 29, 2015 11:58 AM To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Disseminating research to K-12 students We developed a variety of inquiry-based learning modules in the environmental sciences through a recent NSF GK-12 graduate training fellowship. Our classroom/field modules can be found here: http://scwibles.ucsc.edu/SCWIBLESModules.html [http://scwibles.ucsc.edu/images/thumbnails/Jenkins_Argument_thumb.jpg]<http://scwibles.ucsc.edu/SCWIBLESModules.html> SCWIBLES Modules Learning Modules (click on title or image to see module details) "Gender Bender: How the media influences our perception of gender" byJenny Lovell Read more...<http://scwibles.ucsc.edu/SCWIBLESModules.html> Enjoy! On Tue, Sep 29, 2015 at 8:37 AM, Nicole White <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Is anyone aware of a website that allows researchers/scientists to create modules or lessons out of their own research that can be used in K-12 classrooms? I am under the impression that such a site exists but am unable to find it with extensive searching myself. I have many graduate student friends who would be very interested in sharing their own research with young minds so any leads would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, Nicole
