“A community of learners - Sharing the joys of teaching and learning - Creating and refining a vision of science education - Helping teachers put this vision into practice with their students”

Resources & Links

Resources:
We encourage every teacher to send their comments, suggestions and, ideas for additional activities.

Salt River Project partners with ASTA by providing funding to support ASTA's annual conference. SRP also offers educational grants, inservice programs, and other educational resources as part of its commitment to the Arizona community. Please visit SRP's Education Resources webpage for information on the variety of resources and programs available to educators.

The Arizona Foundation for Resource Education (AFRE) provides high-quality, intellectually stimulating and enjoyable professional development opportunities to K-12 teachers and administrators and informal educators. AFRE’s primary mission is to promote environmental and economic literacy through natural resource education. AFRE’s free or inexpensive thematic workshops and expeditionary learning experiences are presented throughout the state during the academic year and in the summer. In addition, AFRE’s on-campus Best Practices workshops assist administrators in achieving systemic change that positively impacts student achievement.

Teaching Arizona’s Natural History and Promoting Preservation: Developed in 1997, Arizona State Parks free “Kartchner Caverns State Park Natural History Curriculum," for kindergarten through sixth grades, communicates the unique history of Kartchner Caverns and teaches responsible stewardship of this natural resource. Since the cavern's discovery by explorers Randy Tufts and Gary Tenen, it has provided an active example of environmental stewardship.

In lessons that range from role-play as cave explorers to observing and predicting the cave forming process by building a cave model, students develop an appreciation of the geological and biological forces that created the cave and learn the consequences of individual and group actions. More importantly, the students gain a sense of ownership and stewardship toward this non-renewable natural resource. Each lesson plan in the curriculum lists objectives, suitable age, materials needed, and provides lesson handouts. It is aligned with the Arizona Department of Education's curriculum standards to help teachers incorporate the lessons into their teaching.

Arizona State Parks school curriculum on CD for teachers of Kindergarten through Sixth grades can be requested by calling Mary Alice Daenzer at (602) 542-4174.To order a curriculum or for more information, e-mail a request with your name and address to maryalice@azstateparks.gov .

Links:

The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), founded in 1944 and headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, is the largest organization in the world committed to promoting excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all. NSTA's current membership of more than 55,000 includes science teachers, science supervisors, administrators, scientists, business and industry representatives, and others involved in and committed to science education. To address subjects of critical interest to science educators, the Association publishes a professional journal for each level of science teaching; a 52-page newspaper, NSTA Reports!; and many other educational books and professional publications. Publications, books, posters, and other educational tools are available through the NSTA Recommends catalog and online.

Building a Presence for Science: This initiative - NSTA's largest to date - seeks to strengthen the quality of science teaching by ending teacher isolation and promoting standards-based science teaching and learning. A key component of the program is the creation of a dynamic national electronic network that will allow for information sharing among teachers and create a viable two-way communications conduit that can be used by state and federal agencies and other organizations that need to share information with science teachers. Through the Building a Presence for Science program, NSTA works with local science teachers associations, state science education institutions, and private sector partners to identify a Point of Contact (representative for science) in every public and private school building in the United States. Thanks to the generous support of The ExxonMobil Foundation, the program, now in its sixth year, has been implemented in 13 states and the District of Columbia. Further support from the ExxonMobil Foundation, is allowing NSTA to implement Phase II of the program, taking it into 10 additional states.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 "to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; to secure the national defense…" With an annual budget of about $5.5 billion, we are the funding source for approximately 20 percent of all federally supported basic research conducted by America's colleges and universities. In many fields such as mathematics, computer science and the social sciences, NSF is the major source of federal backing.

Center for Science Teaching and Learning: The mission of CSTL is to engage educators in the quest for excellence, access, and equity in science teaching and learning. The CSTL is a teaching, research, evaluation, and materials resource for science faculty and students across the NAU campus, for K-12 science teachers, and for informal educators statewide. The CSTL provides leadership in and coordination of science education professional development, academic programs, and outreach activities. CSTL is responsible for the recruitment, advising, and student teaching placement and supervision for secondary science teachers. The CSTL collaborates with the College of Education in support of elementary science methods courses and provides extensive curriculum resources for K-12 preservice and inservice teachers.


Arizona Department of Education

• The Science Standard Articulated by Grade Level - by Strand

Arizona Science Coordinators Association: This organization is dedicated to providing and supporting leadership in science education. The ASCA and its membership are in the process of developing a web presence. The Center for Science Teaching and Learning at Northern Arizona University has offered to assist the ASCA by providing web development and additional services similar to those provided for ASTA. Please contact Barry Roth, wbroth@earthlink.net  for more information on ASCA and its work or to join their listserv.