NWESD Science Announcements and Opportunities

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

  Science Fellows Leadership Network   The Washington State Science Fellows Meetings Begin October 26th  What is the Science Fellows Network? A group of science educators interested in leadership in science education  Teachers and/or curriculum leaders that want to increase their understanding of the Washington State Science Learning Standards Regional convenings with learning and networking (4 sessions: 2 face-to-face, 2 synchronously online)  Learning about the  _ Crosscutting Concepts (CCC) _   dimension of the 2013 Washington State Learning Standards (a.k.a. NGSS). Explore how to support student thinking and reasoning in both instruction and assessment using the  _ CCC's _ .  Science Fellows receive a copy of the NSTA book; Crosscutting Concepts Strengthening Science and Engineering Learning    Why? Instructional growth and leadership of self and others  24 STEM clock hours (provided free by OSPI) Develop relationships with other science teachers across the region.  Fellows pr

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.  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.openscied.org .  This virtual learning community will share best practices, learn together, trouble-shoot issues with implementation, and share resources. The community will meet from 4:00-5:30 pm for three sessions. Learn more and register at:  https://www.pdenroller.org/n

The  Outdoor Learning Grant  is now open for schools, tribal schools, districts, and ESDs to apply! Look for FP 357 in iGrants or  use this link  to learn more. This grant is dispersed on a rolling basis with initial awards occurring at the end of September. In our inaugural year, these funds served more than 37,000 students! In Ellensburg, Mount Adams, and Neah Bay, students grew native plants, created medicine, and harvested food to share with their communities in partnership with local tribes. In Chehalis, Nisqually, Pullman, Spokane and Yakima, students worked with natural resource professionals to research and restore local habitats. What can you do to bring your students outdoors to learn? Come with your ideas and questions to our  office hours  Mondays, 3:30-5pm, or contact Sheila Wilson for more information:  sheila.wilson@k12.wa.us  or 360.561.0203  Apply for Outdoor Funding here: [ LINK ]