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November 2009: Pacific salmon and steelhead trout have unusual life cycles that take them from fresh water to the ocean, and then back again. Protecting and restoring salmon and steelhead habitat also means safer and more vital watersheds for people. The Agua Pura Pescadores: Exploring Salmon and Steelhead in California Communities curriculum is designed to enhance participants’ understanding of salmon and steelhead, and the critical relationship these fish have to healthy watersheds. Through a variety of “hands-on” and “heads-on” learning activities, participants are encouraged to explore their surroundings and the connections between salmon and steelhead and the people in their community. For more information, please contact Michael Marzolla at ammarzolla@ucdavis.edu or visit http://sns.ucdavis.edu/
November 2009:  The Youth Experiences in Science (YES!) Project provides high-quality children's science education projects for after-school settings. These easily adaptable activities make science fun and exciting. This curriculum includes seven science education experiences. Each activity guide includes the time required for the activity, suggested grouping of participants, materials needed, preparation information, activity directions, and discussion directions. An Activity Booklet, designed for parents and children to use at home to continue the science fun, follows each guide. Hard copies are currently available for order at http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/4HResourceSciences/3404A.aspx. The curriculum will be made available for free digital download in the SET Library this Winter 2010.
October 2009: 4-H SET-Ready curricula are available for free electronic (PDF) download in the online library! Curriculum includes "It Came From Planted Earth", "Nature's Partners: Pollinator Protection", "Pond Mapping", "Ridges to Rivers", and "Veterinary Science". Visit the library at http://www.ca4h.org/SET/curriculum.asp
October 2009: The Junior Master Gardner program offers a new series of activities, Building a Vegetable Garden. These novel, hands-on learning experiences will help youth to evaluate the best garden site, select the right vegetables plants and will learn "Paper Towel Gardening" to establish the space requirements for plants. A new Golden Ray Series certification is offered to those young gardeners completing a set of activities from the JMG Teacher/Leader Guide. More information is available at http://67.59.137.247/index.cfm?did=15948§ionID=2017
October 2009: Lessonopoly is a free software portal developed by Silicon Valley Education Foundation. While the site is primarily for classroom teachers to organize, create, share and connect with other teachers, there are many free activities in a searchable database. For more information, visit http://www.lessonopoly.org/svef/?q=lessonplansearch
October 2009: The Global Educational Outreach (GEO) initiative uses new technology to provide outstanding Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) teaching material. It is a highly flexible medium enabling a wide range of different educational approaches to be explored and it is particularly useful for SET educators who will find valuable downloadable teaching resource material created by the best science and technology experts and educators. Visit the site at http://www.geoset.info/
September 2009: A new 4-H robotics curriculum, titled "4-H Robotics: Engineering for Today and Tomorrow", is being developed by a multi-state partnership, funded by the National 4-H Council. The curriculum will contain three tracks: 1) Virtual online or DVD activities to explore concepts of robotics; 2) "Junk Drawer Robotics" will engage youth in exploring processes behind robotics and then apply these using household materials to engineering robotic designs; and 3) access to specific platforms, such as Lego FIRST, VEX, or Robotix. California 4-H is lead designer for Track 2, with an estimated publishing date of Fall 2010. For more information, please contact Richard Mahacek at rlmahacek@ucdavis.edu.
September 2009: PBSKids FETCH 2010 Challenge Packs are now available! The 2010 Challenge Pack contains new activities that explore sound, light, and energy – and require inexpensive materials that won’t break your budget! Use these challenges to create a fun, engaging event for kids and families or to provide additional challenges for your 4-H meeting. 2009 activities are available at http://pbskids.org/fetch/parentsteachers/activities/challengepack.html. To obtain the 2010 activities, please email fetchnews@wgbh.org. Be sure to include your name, organization, and mailing address (please indicate work or home).
August 2009: For 4-H Academic Staff: As you develop new 4-H curricula and adapt existing curricula, these resources are available to aid in ensuring 4-H Curricula are "SET-Ready":
- Reviewing curriculum with the California 4-H SET Curriculum Rubric
http://www.ca4h.org/wrp/set/curriculum/4HSET-Curriculum-Rubric.doc
- Using the framework by Wiggins and McTighe, "Understanding by Design" 2005.
http://www.ubdexchange.org/
Understanding by Design
poses the core, essential questions of understanding and design, and
provides readers with practical solutions for the teacher-designer.
The book proposes a multifaceted approach, with the six “facets” of
understanding. The facets combine with backward design to provide a
powerful, expanded array of practical tools and strategies for
designing curriculum, instruction, and assessments that lead students
at all grade levels to genuine understanding.
- Ensuring content is linked to appropriate standards:
- Following Experiential and Inquiry Learning Models
July 2009: Are you looking for something more interesting to do this summer than watching TV? Maybe you’d like to help protect our environment, explore the stars through a telescope, work with animals, or escape it all and conduct fieldwork in the mountains. Whatever your dream, Discover Your Summer can help you find it. The third annual Discover Your Summer guide is now available online from Project Exploration. Discover Your Summer is aimed at helping middle and high school students find summer science opportunities. With over 175 listings in 30 scientific fields, Discover Your Summer showcases offerings from aerospace engineering to zoology in locations across the Midwest and beyond. http://www.projectexploration.org/dys/
July 2009: Can you design an air-powered rocket that can hit a distant target? Build a rubber band–powered car that can scramble across the room? Ready to get creative? Try out your own design skills with these 21 Design Squad challenges. You can build all of these projects using materials you can usually find around the house. Engineers have led a technological revolution that has improved the quality of our lives, yet many youth do not understand how the technology they use in their daily lives works. They are also unclear about the engineer's role in society or even what an engineer does. PBS's Design Squad is one of the places on TV where kids can learn about engineering. http://pbskids.org/designsquad/projects/index.html
July 2009: NASA/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) present the SciJinks Weather Laboratory. Youth in grades 4–8 will learn about weather through interactive games, illustrated text, and fun facts. More than 20 ideas for weather-related science fair projects are described on weather-related topics and posters on clouds, satellites, global weather patterns, and ocean science. http://scijinks.jpl.nasa.gov/weather/
July 2009: The Solar System SciPack explores the solar system and the various bodies within it. The focus is on the solar system and what we know about the planets, moons, and other bodies in the solar system. Special focus is also given to how the solar system and its bodies formed. SciPacks are 10 hour online learning experiences to enhance understanding of a particular scientific concept. You’ll be presented with problems, phenomena, demonstrations, and simulations utilizing inquiry-based learning. http://learningcenter.nsta.org/product_detail.aspx?id=10.2505%2f6%2fSCP-SS.0.1
July 2009: The US Dept of Energy, National Institutes of Health, and the Human Genome Project (HGP) has publications available on bioinformatics and the Human Genome Project; genes, environment and human behavior; genetics and the methods of science; and and more! Materials are available in K–12 curriculum modules and lesson plans, teacher guides, software, slide sets, and posters. Links lead to tutorials, videos, webcasts, teacher training and workshop opportunities, and genetics websites in Spanish. http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/education/education.shtml
July 2009: From the National Information Center for Polymer Education comes a series of hands-on science activities to help youth, grades K-9 learn about polymers! http://www.uwsp.edu/chemistry/polyed/teachers.htm
May 2009: The UC Museum of Paleontology offers activities to help youth understand the science process. Youth begin with a simple "warm up" activity that introduces them to the process of science. Youth then read a story about the geoscientist, Walter Alvarez, and identify phrases within the story that indicate that Alvarez was doing science. Youth are introduced to the Science Flowchart and are asked to plot the scientific journey of Walter Alvarez. Youth find that science is seldom a linear story, but instead involves unanswered questions, surprising leaps, reinterpretation of data, and the unexpected. The activities may be found at http://undsci.berkeley.edu/lessons/introducing_flow_hs.html
May 2009: The BirdSleuth curriculum gets youth outdoors watching and identifying birds! The modules, designed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology are specifically geared toward middle-school students. Each module focuses on a specific aspect of bird biology or behavior. Each is designed to help students ask, and answer, their own questions about birds—true scientific inquiry achieved through engaging activities and a healthy dose of fresh air. Each module comes with teacher materials, a student journal, a resource DVD, and more. To learn more about BirdSleuth, visit www.BirdSleuth.net
May 2009: Understanding Science, by the UC Museum of Paleontology of the University of California at Berkeley offers activities, teaching tools, a K-16 conceptual framework,
tips, and strategies for integrating the process of science into your projects. Visit http://www.understandingscience.org to access these and many other tools for teaching and learning about how science works.
April 2009: 4-H staff, volunteers and members are both creators and users of copyrighted materials in their 4-H work. Each of us must be respectful and good stewards of copyright law when we create activity guides, lesson plans and other 4-H materials in print or online media. While some material is in the public domain and has no copyright restrictions, most material is subject to copyright laws. Using copyrighted material without asking for permission and giving credit to the author is illegal and against UC policy. Nonprofit and educational uses of copyrighted works allow limited copying, called "fair use," without the permission of the owner. Specific criteria apply. More information on copyright and fair use is available at http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/copyright/
April 2009: The Youth Development through Veterinary Science Series is a 4-H Youth
Development curriculum that introduces youth to many aspects of
veterinary science. Modules include: 1. Behaving like Animals, 2. Fur,
Feathers, Skin and Scales, 3. The Eyes Have it, 4. You've Got to Have
Heart, 5. Dem Bones, Dem Bones, 6. Food in, Waste Out, 7. Is your Bird
Feeling Blue?, 8. Is your Dog Feeling Down?, 9. Is Your Goat Feeling
Green?, 10. Is Your Horse Healthy?, 11. Is Your Snake Sick? Download a copy at http://ca4h.org/set/curriculum/index.asp?ID=17
April 2009: State 4-H Camping Advisory Committee: The Committee is creating 4-H camp curriculum using experiential and inquiry-based learning in astronomy, hiking, environmental science, engineering and outdoor cooking. The curricula will engage youth in OMK camps this summer and provided on the web for other county 4-H camps. More information is available at http://groups.ucanr.org/_4Hbaseca/
April 2009: The California Oak Foundation is committed to preserving the state's oak forest ecosystem and its rural landscape. Investigating the Oak Community is designed to involve 4th through 8th grade students in a variety of activities that will develop their awareness, understanding, and knowledge of the important role of oaks in the California landscape. It will encourage students to take action to foster the sustainability of this vital natural resource. Its goal is to help today’s youth join the ranks of Californians who value and protect the state’s rich biodiversity. http://www.californiaoaks.org/ExtAssets/investigating_the_oak_community.pdf
April 2009: The 4-H Livestock Disease Prevention Module is one of two on-line modules brought to you by Washington State University Veterinary Medicine Extension. This training module teaches youth bio-security practices and how they can be used to reduce the risk of contracting and spreading diseases while raising 4-H livestock. It is a great way to learn disease prevention while providing you with inspiration and teaching ideas so you can bring these concepts to youth in your county! http://4h.wsu.edu/volntr/elearning.htm
March 2009: The 4-H Filmmaking Studio and Workshop will assist you with making your
own film. Take your time and view each module. Practice with your
camera, tell your story, and upload your film to share with others.
This workshop was developed by 4-H in collaboration with Montana State
University and TerraPod. http://ca4h.org/set/curriculum/index.asp?ID=15
March 2009: UC Berkeley presents, "Understanding Science," a fun, accessible, and free resource that accurately communicates what science is and how it really works. The website, intended for both the general public and K-16 teachers, draws students into real-life examples and looks at the social side of science, science and society, and asks, “What has science done for you lately?” It also provides users with a comprehensive science toolkit. Teacher resources are targeted to specific grade bands. http://undsci.berkeley.edu/
March 2009: Where do rotten apples go after they fall off the tree? Does the temperature of the wood affect the heat of the fire? The NSTA book, "Everyday Science Mysteries: Stories for Inquiry-Based Science Teaching" offers 15 mystery science stories for elementary school youth examining science concepts and reinforces the value of learning science through inquiry. Each mystery presents opportunities for youth to create questions, form hypotheses, test their ideas, and come up with explanations. Focused on concepts such as weather and climate, thermodynamics, interdependency of living things, adaptation, life cycles, properties of matter, reflection and refraction, and chemical bonds, these mysteries draw youth into the stories by grounding them in experiences students are familiar with, providing them with the foundation for classroom discussion and inquiry. http://www.nsta.org/store/product_detail.aspx?id=10.2505/9781933531212
March 2009: PBS.org and PBS KIDS web sites are full of great content and activities that educators can use to enhance teaching and learning. Get acquainted with PBS free educational content, use it in your teaching and share it with parents and colleagues. http://www.pbs.org/teachers/_files/pdf/PBS_Science-Tech_resources.pdf
- Invent It, Build It - Created in partnership with Lemelson-MIT InventTeams, this guide (available in English or Spanish) delivers five hands-on challenges to kids ages 9-12. These challenges bring invention to life, inspire kids to think like engineers and inventors, and illuminate how invention improves people's lives. http://pbskids.org/designsquad/parentseducators/invent_guide.html
- On The Moon - This guide, a collaboration with NASA, contains six open-ended challenges that will develop kids creative-thinking and problem-solving skills. Along the way, kids will learn about and consider key issues related to living and working on the moon. http://pbskids.org/designsquad/parentseducators/activity_guide_moon.html
February 2009: The Federal Junior Duck Stamp Conservation and Design Program (JDS)
is an arts curriculum that teaches wetlands and waterfowl conservation
to students in kindergarten through high school. Contact the California
Waterfowl Association for information at: duckstamp@calwaterfowl.org. The deadline is March 15, 2009.
February 2009: Apple company offers three technology curricula for high school students.
Challenge Based Learning: For a generation of students with instant access to information, Challenge Based Learning (CBL) is an engaging multidisciplinary approach to teaching that lets students leverage the technology they use in their daily lives to solve real-world problems. Click Here
Quick Start Activities: Guide you step by step to proficiency through ten easy projects you can do in your classrooms. You can learn to create slideshows, presentations, and movies, host blogs and video chats, present data visually, and more to enrich your lesson plans in a variety of subject areas. Click Here
Integration Activities: Integration Activities are complete lesson plans with real-world case study examples that ensure students master core subjects and 21st-century skills such as critical and creative thinking, collaboration, information literacy, and more. Click Here
January 2009: The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has created science curriculum for elementary and middle school students. The curriculum is designed to help youth engage in bird observation, questioning and information gathering. Click here to view a full description of each of the bird curriculum modules available for purchase. You may order curriculum at www.birdsleuth.net.
January 2009: New curriculum, The Power of Wind, has been added to the National 4-H Curriculum Collection. The Power of Wind is geared towards grades 6-8 and focuses on wind power, engineering, and renewable energy. For more information on this curriculum and purchase details, visit: http://www.4-H.org/curriculum/wind.
January 2009: The (U.S.) National Research Council (NRC) released its highly-anticipated report Learning Science in Informal Environments: Places, People, and Pursuits. According to the NRC, "tens of millions of Americans, young and old, choose to learn about science in informal ways - by visiting museums and aquariums, attending after-school programs, pursuing personal hobbies, and watching TV documentaries, for example. There is abundant evidence that these programs and settings, and even everyday experiences such as a walk in the park, contribute to people's knowledge and interest in science." The report outlines six "strands" of science learning that can happen in informal settings, and these strands could help refine evaluations of how well people are learning in these environments. For example, learners can experience excitement and motivation to learn about phenomena in the natural and physical world. They can come to understand and use concepts and facts related to science. They can learn how scientists actually conduct their work using specialized tools and equipment. And they can develop an identity as someone who knows about, uses, and sometimes contributes to science. For an overview of the report, which was sponsored by the National Science Foundation, and a link to read it in its entirety, please visit: http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=12190
January 2009: The Kids Science Challenge, http://kidsciencechallenge.com, contains many great resources in building your 4-H SET program. The site will provide you access to videos about scientists and the work they do as well as ideas for science-based games and activities to use with your youth.
January 2009: If you are in need of new ideas for Science Fair projects to conduct, the Steve Spangler Science website has released their Top 10 Science Fair projects. The list includes topics exploring red cabbage chemistry, water absorbing crystals, and what bacteria may exist on that TV remote among others. The website also has a science library with hundreds of other ideas to choose from.
January 2009: PBS.org is a website full of ideas and activities you can use to encourage youth interest in science is http://www.pbskidsgo.org/fetch. To keep young students engaged in exploration during the winter months, you may visit the website for ideas on creating a science night with downloadable direction sheets and supporting materials. If you are looking for ways to start Kindergarten age students on the path to scientific discovery, visit: http://www.pbskids.org/curiousgeorge/parentsteachers/activities/ for instructions on how to set up science-based “Curiosity Centers”.
January 2009: For the latest research on the relationships identified between youth and digital media, the MacArthur Foundation has released a research study, Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project. Visit: http://digitalyouth.ischool.berkeley.edu/report for more information and to read the full report.
October 2008: The National 4-H Directory of Materials is a national database of 4-H materials designed to share national and state 4-H resources with educators, 4-H club leaders, youth and volunteers. This first of its kind online, the National 4-H Directory will allow you to share information about your 4-H projects, programs and more. Visit this directory often as 4-H continues to add new and useful resources to help you. http://www.4-hdirectory.org/
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