NEXT WEEK: MI Sci PLN Thanksgiving Potluck – Sharing is caring!

A few weeks ago, a small team of MI Sci PLN friends met to gather ’round a virtual table for a smorgasbord of sharing; sharing ideas that we currently have under development. We all left feeling full, full of joy in our fellowship and gratitude for gifts we shared with one another. Like mama always said, "many hands make light work." You can check out our leftovers to see if there’s anything you might like to sample from the remains left on the table (of contents).

We had a such a good time, that we thought we would invite a few more friends to join us next time, for a MI Sci PLN Thanksgiving Potluck. The meal will be served Monday, November 30, from 10am-12pm. Bring a dish to pass (that’s an idea to share), or just join in the conversation and get a lickin’ on the pickin’s. If you’d like me to pull a chair up to the table for ya, RSVP here.

Either way, the MI Sci PLN Planning Team wishes you a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

What is deficit language and why does it matter?

Please join your Math and Science education colleagues across the state in exploring deficit language and how it impacts our schools, colleagues, students, and families through the new Deficit Language sutori. You may use what you find there for your own personal journey of self-directed learning or to facilitate a group of education colleagues in collaborative learning.

MMSLN Science Chats, 12-1 p.m. Schedule included

November 19 Science Chat! Join us: https://mimathandscience.org/courses-registration/

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You can register here! https://mimathandscience.org/courses-registration/

MI Sci PLN Thanksgiving Potluck – Sharing is caring!

A small team of MI Sci PLN friends met last week to gather ’round a virtual table for a smorgasbord of sharing; sharing ideas that we currently have under development. We all left feeling full, full of joy in our fellowship and gratitude for gifts we shared with one another. Like mama always said, "many hands make light work." You can check out our leftovers to see if there’s anything you might like to sample from the remains left on the table (of contents).

We had a such a good time, that we thought we would invite a few more friends to join us next time, for a MI Sci PLN Thanksgiving Potluck. The meal will be served Monday, November 30, from 10am-12pm. Bring a dish to pass (that’s an idea to share), or just join in the conversation and get a lickin’ on the pickin’s. If you’d like me to pull a chair up to the table for ya, RSVP here.

Learn: Next Generation Science Assessments (NGSA)

Oakland Schools invited Angie Kolonich, from Create4STEM, to meet us on Zoom and share an overview of the Next Generation Science Assessments (NGSA) for grades 6-8. These FREE tasks are ready-to-use and intended to support teachers in gaining insights into students’ progress for building proficiency with NGSS performance expectations (PEs). Registration is FREE, but REQUIRED, so click here to register for ‘Suite Science Assessment Tools’ on Nov 16th. The session will be from 3:15-4:00PM. Feel free to invite middle school teachers that might also be interested.

Thursday – Bi-weekly science chat

Join the MMSLN for a lunch time chat, Thursday October 22. The focus of this hour conversation with Dr. Angela Kolonich from the CREATE for STEM Institute at MSU will be science learning with Indigenous students. In addition to her role in CREATE, Dr. Kolonich is an affiliate faculty member of the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program at Michigan State, and works with the Native American Institute on campus to support Native American Students in STEM. Working with Dr. Christie Poitra and others, Angela will focus on a new grant titled “Growing Native American Pathways into Agriculture” and recently published a free access workbook titled: “Honoring the whole Student: Developing Space for Native American Students in STEM by Supporting Complex Identities. We will start our conversation using the findings from this article, Kolonich, A.,Richmond, G., & Krajcik, J. (2018). Reframing Inclusive Science Instruction to Support Teachers in Promoting Equitable Three-dimensional Science Classrooms. Journal of Science Teacher Education.(29)8, 693-711.https://doi.org/10.1080/1046560X.2018.1500418. Then we will have time for an extended question and answer time with Angie.

Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/science-bi-weekly-chat-october-22-2020-tickets-118454762383

MI Sci PLN Follow-up

We had a great meeting today! Many wonderful resources were shared by our community, along with opportunities to be involved in national work. Engaging discussion led to bringing us together around ideas, some new and some overdue…Check out the agenda for links to all of this, plus updates from the science education groups from around the state. If you weren’t there, you’ll really want to spend some time combing through all of the wonderful resources that were shared. After that, you should follow it up by registering for the rest of the meetings this year. Don’t miss out! They will be just as great!

2020-21 SAVE-the-DATES:

REGISTER FOR ALL OF THESE & OTHER GREAT PROFESSIONAL LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES ON THE Michigan Mathematics and Science Leaders Network (MMSLN) website.

BSCS Science Learning is seeking field trial teachers for HS COVID-19 unit

BSCS Science Learning is seeking teachers to participate in a field trial of an instructional unit for high school on COVID-19. The field trial is to be conducted between October 15 and December 15, 2020. The information gathered in the field trial will be used to revise the unit for publication.

About the unit.The unit focuses on the question How can we slow the spread of the COVID-19

virus to protect our communities? It is designed to teach students about the COVID-19

pandemic, transmission of the COVID-19 virus, and the impacts of the pandemic on communities.

The unit targets three broad learning goals:

Factors that determine the rate of infection and severity of illness in communities,

Strategies to reduce transmission of the virus,

Reasons for disproportionate impacts on certain populations.

It is also designed to support the development of two social emotional competencies—self awareness and social awareness. The unit employs an inquiry-based approach, and is designed for 15 class periods of instruction, with optional extensions. It is appropriate for use in high school science, social studies, and health classes. More information is available at: https://www.openscied.org/instructional-materials/covid-hs/

About the field trial. BSCS Science Learning, the developer of the unit, is conducting a field trial to gather information from teachers and students that will guide the revision of the unit for final release. The trial will be conducted from October through December 2020. Teachers who participate in the field trial will complete surveys that request feedback about individual lessons and the unit as a whole. They will also report on the experiences of their students. Where approval can be obtained to collect information from students, participating teachers will distribute surveys to students and submit copies of student work. All of this data will be analyzed by educational researchers to inform decisions about how to revise the unit. Teachers who participate in the field trial will be paid a stipend to compensate them for their participation in the data collection.

Virtual Unit Overviews: Getting ready to teach with Illustrative Mathematics

Are you a new or experienced "IM teacher"?
Are you looking for IM teaching support? For a teaching community?

Join the Michigan Math and Science Leadership Network and your teaching colleagues from across the state each month to dive into our Virtual Unit Overviews (VUO). Each VUO is designed to get you ready to teach your upcoming unit from IM 6-8 Math or IM 9-12 Math.

Find out more and register for the Unit 3 Overviews scheduled for October.