Science beyond the schoolhouse is the subject of this close-up look at informal science education in non-traditional settings, including Boys & Girls Clubs, 4-H, zoos, aquariums, and even public TV. More than a dozen writers draw on personal experience to tell why they became informal science educators and how they use the history and theory of traditional science education in their work. Among the book's features for informal science educators are a resource directory and a special section on program evaluation.

This book was developed by the National Science Teachers Association and the National Park Foundation. Resources are all around us not only in traditional science classrooms and laboratories, but also in gardens, nature centers, parks, youth programs, museums, and on television and radio. This offers advice on how to select community resource partners.

Lessons to begin using from the first day of school. Teachers are trained to manage misbehavior in the classroom, but receive little guidance about how to cultivate positive, prosocial behavior. With this book in hand, elementary teachers will be ready to launch the school year with confidence, using the concrete strategies in each chapter for improving students’ SEL skills in the five categories defined by CASEL (the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning): communication skills, emotion management, emotional awareness, social awareness, and decision-making skills. This handy guide breaks down instruction of these skills into small, sequenced steps, making it easy to foster students’ skills from the start of school and build on them as the year progresses.

This is The most comprehensive science curriculum for beginning learners that you will find anywhere * Here are 41 lesson plans that cover all major areas of science. * Lessons are laid out as stepping stones that build knowledge and understanding logically and systematically. * Child-centered, hands-on activities at the core of all lessons bring children to observe, think, and reason. * Interest is maintained and learning is solidified by constantly connecting lessons with children's real-world experience * Skills of inquiry become habits of mind as they are used throughout. * Lessons integrate reading, writing, geography, and other subjects. * Standards, including developing a broader, supportive community of science learners come about as natural by-products of learning science in an organized way. Particular background or experience is not required. Instructions include guiding students to question, observe, think, interpret, and draw rational conclusions in addition to performing the activity. Teachers can learn along with their students and be exceptional role models in doing so. Need for special materials is minimized. Personal, on line, support is available free of charge (see front matter).

This accessible and practical sourcebook is for parents who want to understand and contribute to their children's success in math and science and to their overall education. 25 illustrations.

Over recent years connective partnerships between educational communities and sectors outside of education have become increasingly popular. One significant reason behind this popularity has the expansion of information and communication technologies which have increased access and provided mechanisms for ongoing connections to be made between differing worlds. But... successful connections that cross cultural boundaries are not easy to establish and even harder to maintain in ways that are mutually beneficial. This book focuses on science and technology connective ventures and the complexity inherent in bringing such worlds together. . The authors have been ‘in the business’ of developing such connections and this book brings them together to describe how and why making connections can support the science/technology education sector, the technology/science communities, and the wider sociocultural life we all inhabit. A range of illustrative examples of connections-in-action provide an empirical basis from which to explore and gain insight into the issues for and potential of such connective ventures, alongside a rich mix of critical commentary, arguments, cautions and challenges. Five key principles have been distilled from the collective experience and wisdom of the authors, serving to capture that which underpins effective and efficient connective initiatives. Each principle is accompanied by a set of questions that reflect the issues raised and successes illustrated throughout the book. It is hoped these principles and questions will serve to guide people interested in developing, funding and/or participating in future connective initiatives in the fields of science and technology.