NWESD Science Announcements and Opportunities

At Northwest Educational Service District, we rely on partners for local as well as statewide work. And I wanted to take some time to highlight Pacific Education Institute, one of Washington's science education biggest partners. Please know that if you get an email from PEI or their Field STEM Coordinator, Amy Keiper, the offer is legitimate... it is aligned to regional work... and 9BONUS!) it is often something that is free to districts! 😀 Pacific Education Institute (PEI) is a statewide nonprofit based in Olympia, Washington. PEI provides tools, materials and customized professional development for K-12 educators to engage students in outdoor-based STEM learning. Since 2003, PEI has been supporting teachers and school administrators to deliver culturally inclusive, integrated, standards-aligned science education grounded in locally relevant economic and ecological systems, in collaboration with community partners in conservation and natural resources. PEI is an invaluable partne

From:  Amy Keiper <akeiper@PacificEducationInstitute.org> Sent:  Monday, December 4, 2023 11:31   Dear School and District Leaders,  I hope this email finds you well. I am reaching out to extend a special invitation to you and your leadership team to join us for an enlightening session that explores the transformative power of place-based education through the lens of FieldSTEM. Before you close this email, Pacific Education Institute is not trying to sell you anything - in fact, all of our resources are available FREE on our website. The work we do is supported by grants and partially funded by OSPI. We are a vision-focused non-profit working toward more civic-minded, scientifically literate Washington students graduating prepared for careers and ready to make informed decisions. FieldSTEM goes beyond traditional education boundaries, weaving the tapestry of learning with the rich threads of our local environment and community. Our upc

From:  Lori Henrickson <lori.henrickson@k12.wa.us> Sent:  Tuesday, December 5, 2023 09:37 Subject:  Deliberative Democratic Climate Change Pilot Program RFP   Hello ClimeTime Network & Climate Educators, Please note that the Deliberative Democratic Climate Change Pilot Program RFP is now available on the OSPI competitive-procurements website https://ospi.k12.wa.us/about-ospi/contracting-ospi/competitive-procurements  and the Washington Electronic Business Solution (WEBS) Procurement website https://pr-webs-vendor.des.wa.gov/ .  Applications are due on 1/2/2024.  All questions must go to Kyla Moore, contracts@k12.wa.us.  A Pre-bid conference will be held on December 8, at 1:00 p.m. and registration for that Zoom is found in the RFP.  Please share with your network and anyone you think may be interested.    Lori Henrickson she/her Climate Science Curriculum Integration Consultant Secondary

Current State of NGSS-Aligned Materials Because of the time it takes to do full curricular reviews and the resources at their disposal, I often defer to EdReports for evaluating complete curricular offerings. At this time, EdReports has identified only one national K-5 curriculum (Amplify), only two national MS curricula (Amplify and OpenSciEd), and one HS curriculum (BSCS Biology) as being fully-aligned to the NGSS. History of NWESD and NGSS aligned Materials NWESD first engaged in K-5 Amplify a few years before the pandemic through our science materials center and at the recommendation of our K-5 collaborative adoption effort. At that time, OpenSciEd was not yet fully released for MS and  they had not yet started any work in the K-5 world. So K-5 Amplify received a very hearty recommendation from the teachers to the districts and our SMC board made a decision to adopt Amplify the way our co-op model always had: individual districts would purch

EarthGen does amazing work in our region and throughout Washington State. Check out their listings on PdEnroller! [ PdEnroller ]

Join OSPI, Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association, and additional partner organizations for field experiences to highlight: tribal sovereignty, school gardens, and local ecosystem recovery projects that engage students preK-12 in hands-on, real world learning, and civic engagement. Our goal is to ensure that environmental educators are offering high-quality outdoor learning opportunities that are aligned with standards, considered best practices in environmental education, and anchored in local, relevant phenomena for student learning. 11/07 at Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association! Learn more and register on PdEnroller: https://www.pdenroller.org/ospi/catalog/163547

CBO’s are Community Based Organizations. Sometimes we hear them referred to as “informal educators”, “place based educators”, “NGO Educators”, etc. As an educational service district, we foster relationships with CBO’s who are in turn fostering relationships with our districts. Follow this link to learn more about our ClimeTime CBO Partners! In the NWESD Region, we are fortunate to have such an amazing group of CBO partners who help us reach teachers in our region!  

Teaching Outside for K-5 Educators! The Teaching for the Climate Collaborative (TCC)  's Teaching Outside workshop is designed to provide teachers and other elementary education staff with the basic skills and tools to implement experiential activities on school sites, in local parks, and in urban settings. Teachers will partake in hands-on, experiential, and discussion based learning while practicing assessing and managing risk in an outdoor classroom, participating in outdoor and climate centered NGSS aligned activities, and collaborating on ways to make outdoor lessons effective and engaging for students.* * Please note, the majority of this workshop will be held outside on school grounds. TCC are offering two different sessions for you to choose from! https://www.pdenroller.org/nwesd/catalog/163173 (THU 21 MAR 2024; Skyline Elementary in Ferndale)   https://www.pdenroller.org/nwesd/catalog/163390 (THU 18 APR 2024; Irene Reither Elementary in Meridian)  

Hello Wonderful Educators!   Are you interested in learning how to use science notebooks as a way to foster outdoor observation skills with your students?  If so, join PEI on for a free professional learning experience where you will practice several simple activities you can use with your students and collaborate with grade-alike peers to plan how you might integrate the content into your teaching practice.    Those who attend both sessions and complete a short asynchronous task between sessions will receive six STEM clock hours.  Register   here !   Who: K-12 Educators Dates: November 2 nd   and   16 th   from Times: 4:00 – 6:00 pm   Take Care, Amy Keiper  Hear me say it   (she/her) Northwest WA FieldSTEM Coordinator 724 Columbia Street NW, Suite 255 Olympia, WA 98501 (c) 360.464.8706 pacificeducationinstitute.org "My deep hope is that we rise to the challenge. The challenge of being the good ne

  OpenSciEd is an Open Educational Resource that is freely available to educators to use with their students. One of the reasons they created this as an "open" resource was because teachers invariably  find they have to customize and tailor things for their students and communities. And that's what Localizing is all about! Join us for this introductory Zoom session where we provide an overview of the process teachers use to make meaningful community connections from their science instructional units to their students' lives.  Tuesday, November 28th 4-5:30 pm This 1.5 hour Zoom will share strategies used by science teachers in the Localizing Amplify Science Project including the process and models of work. 1.5 clock hours (1 STEM & .5 Equity)  This session will support teachers interested in learning about the localization with just an introduction, and also teachers who might like to participate in an upcoming workshop in January to work on a unit they teach.   .5

  What is the Community of Practice? The OpenSciEd Community of Practice is a collaboration and professional learning space for middle school and high school teachers (as well as TOSA's supporting OSE science teaching, administrators who wish to engage in deep learning with teacher implementers/early adopters, and OSE facilitators) across Washington State working to implement OpenSciEd instructional materials and deepen their practice around these high-quality instructional materials in a collaborative environment.  This virtual learning community will share best practices, learn together, trouble-shoot issues with implementation, and share resources. The community will meet via Zoom from 4:00-5:30 pm for three sessions.  What is OpenSciEd? The OpenSciEd curriculum is an Open Educational Resource (OER) that fosters deep, engaging science learning and is the only curriculum designed for the NGSS that has had every unit rated as quality. More information is available at  www.openscie

  Today, I wanted to share with you a truly hidden gem in the Northwest region of Washington State: NWESD’s own Science Materials Center (SMC)! This has got to be one of the most valuable resources available to teachers of science in our educational community. This SMC is more than just a repository of science kits and materials; it's a dynamic, responsive service to make science education as effective and hassle-free as possible. Atop an amazing fulfillment process that SMC Manager, Kelly Spears, has created, let's explore some of the standout services that make the SMC a game-changer for teachers and students alike. Customizable Kits for Secondary Grades Science education within districts is never one-size-fits-all. Different teachers, schools, and districts have unique needs based on their instructional materials, student needs, and community expectations. That's why, for middle and high school levels, the SMC offers customizable kits. Teachers can order exactly those it

  At the time of this writing, it is mid-October 2023 and OpenSciEd is still making remarkable strides! This blog post is just to catch folks up on the status of their OER instructional materials development progress. Elementary (K-5) The K-5 field test began in Fall of 2023 and right now Round 1 of the field test is underway. The K-5 OpenSciEd materials will see two (2) units field tested in 2023-24 and two (2) more field tested in 2024-25. When released, there will be 4 OpenSciEd units in each grade level K-5. You can read more about the K-5 OpenSciEd unit structures and routines with these resources: The K-5 OpenSciEd Website The K-5 Teacher Handbook The  K-5 Scope and Sequence Middle School (6-8) The 6-8 field test has ended and all  of the materials have been released! You can learn more about them and access those materials here: The 6-8 OpenSciEd Website High School (9-11) The 9-11 field test is complete and the units are currently under review and revision. In August 2023, the

Apply Now! Teacher Workshop on Nov 4--“From Greenhouse Gases to Global Warming” Please consider joining us for our upcoming workshop for high school teachers on Saturday Nov. 4-- “From Greenhouse Gases to Global Warming”, led by Professor Kyle Armour (UW Atmospheric Sciences and Oceanography) with help from his graduate students.   This is a 1-day in-person workshop  at the UW Seattle campus  designed to work with you on adapting and developing new content for your classroom that focuses on how the climate system works and how we think about what will happen in the future. In addition to new content and deeper understanding of how we look at the climate system, from physics to social systems, you will receive  6 STEM clock hours $200 stipend Travel costs covered if you live over 50 miles from Seattle Opportunity to interact and work with climate scientists as you develop your ideas Coffee, lunch.... Registration is simple, just send a 2-page cv/resume, statement of interest and travel