The Science Education Council of Ohio (SECO) is accepting proposals its annual SECO Science Symposium to be held January 28–29, 2019 in Lewis Center. Conference strands:
P- Practical Applications in Life, Earth and Space, and Physical Science
O- Outcome Based
W- Web-Based Learning
E- Engaging Learners Through Literacy in Science
R- Resources in STEM and Scientific Inquiry
Presentation proposals are due October 15. For more information, visit the SECO website.
From the Ohio Department of Education:
The Ohio Department of Education and State Board of Education have released a working draft of the state’s five-year strategic plan for education: EachChild=OurFuture.
The plan’s purpose is to help each child become successful through the guidance and support of caring adults empowered by an effective system. More than 150 preK-12 educators, higher education representatives, parents and caregivers, employers, business leaders and philanthropic organizations worked collaboratively over the last six months to develop it.
This plan lays out a vision and goal for education, along with 15 supporting strategies. Ultimately, it seeks to put Ohio on a path to prepare the next generation of innovators and influencers who will go on to change the world.
You can share your thoughts and comments two ways:
Thinking about professional development plans? For teachers with Ohio Early Childhood Education licenses (age 3–3rd grade), there are lots of possibilities for getting a license endorsement to add 4th and 5th grade:
Bowling Green State University
Ohio University: Online summer program
Walsh University: Online summer program
From the Ohio Department of Education:
There is less than a month left to nominate grades K-6 mathematics, science and computer science teachers for the 2018 Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST). The nomination deadline is April 1. The deadline for nominees to complete their applications is May 1.
Being recognized as a PAEMST awardee is a tremendous honor. Each awardee will receive a trip to Washington, D.C., a certificate signed by the president of the United States and a $10,000 award from the National Science Foundation.
Consider nominating a teacher for this award to recognize the excellent educators you work with every day.
Looking for ways to fund classroom projects, teacher professional development, and science education change at your school? OCESS’s annual “12 Grants of Christmas” can help out:
And during the rest of the year, you can find even more grant opportunities on the OCESS Twitter feed (http://twitter.com/OCESS) and Facebook page.
Environmental Education Council of Ohio (EECO) Retreat and Winter Snow Conference
February 2–3, 2018
Camp Nuhof, 1077 Hanover Twp. Rd 2916, Perrysville, OH 44864
Conference theme: Creative Ways to Teach STEM in Winter
Conference strands
2018 EECO Annual Conference
April 12–15 2018
Maumee State Park
Conference strands
Updated information will be posted to the EECO website when available: www.eeco-online.org
From the Ohio Department of Education:
Beginning today through Jan. 5, 2018, educators who have expertise in science, social studies and financial literacy may nominate themselves or colleagues to serve on writing teams to update Ohio’s Model Curriculum. We are seeking content experts with experience ranging from kindergarten through higher education.
Model curricula writing team members will make updates based on revisions to Ohio’s Learning Standards, which are expected to be approved in early 2018. Click here to nominate yourself or a colleague to serve on a writing team.
Guidelines for Transition to Revised Science Standards
(This document is not official ODE guidance, but was created with information from the ODE science team and educators on the science revision advisory committee and working group)
As most of you are aware, ODE is in the process of revising the standards and model curriculum for science, social studies and financial literacy. The details below are specifically for the science revisions.
Science Standards Bottom Line:
With input from the field last winter, the advisory committee and working group developed a draft of changes to the standards. Input on those changes was solicited over the summer and a final draft has been submitted to the state board. The draft will be considered by the board and legislature and be available this winter. But once adopted, the standards we see this winter will be incomplete. If you are familiar with the structure of a one-page content statement in K-8, you will remember that there is the content statement along with some descriptors in the left column. The content elaborations, with the real explanatory detail, are in the right column. Officially, the “standards” are only the left column. The “elaborations” are officially part of the model curriculum. The elaborations drafts were developed in tandem with the standards, since they need to be considered together to accurately communicate the expectations to teachers. But the elaborations won’t be approved until next year. Likewise, the high school standards consist only of the syllabi. The elaborations which follow and define the scope of material to be covered for each topic are a part of the model curriculum and will not be officially adopted at this time. Major curriculum and resource decisions should be delayed until information in the elaborations is available and adopted.
Note that as of today (10/19/17) the ODE website is still suggesting that implementation of the revised standards begin as early as spring, 2018.
http://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Learning-in-Ohio/Standard-Revision-Overview
But since the elaborations part may not be released by that time, or if released will only be in draft form and not adopted, we are strongly advising that you hold off on implementation and, instead, begin transition planning during the 2018-19 school year when we will have a more complete and accurate picture of the expectations.
We are hoping that the content elaborations draft will be released later in the school year so districts can have a better idea of what is coming. As soon as we know, we will get the word out. Thanks for your patience.
David Vernot, curriculum consultant, vernotd@bcesc.org
Butler County Educational Service Center
The Role of Youth Leadership & Stewardship in Connecting Children to Nature
Thursday, August 24, 2017 2:00–3:00 pm EDT
Registration
Cultivating youth leadership & stewardship can be a valuable tool for city leadership to equitably connect youth to nature. Through strategic youth leadership activities, youth in cities can be more connected to nature and take a leadership role in ensuring younger children are able to experience the benefits of nature connection. In response to the disconnect many youth living in urban environments experience from parks and open spaces, elevating youth stewardship in a city can be a tool to empower youth to see themselves as change-makers in creating accessible public lands. Learn from several cities within the CCCN cohort on strategies they employed to strengthen youth leadership & stewardship in their cities.
Featured Speakers:
Bennett Knox, Parks Administrator, Parks Administrator,
Louisville Metro Parks & Recreation
Sonya Sankaran, Consultant at Madison Dane County Public Health
Pegah Rahmanian, Executive Director, Youth in Action
From the Ohio Department of Education:
A partial release of items from the spring 2015, 2016, and 2017 Science Ohio State Tests is now available in the Ohio’s State Test portal. These items give educators insight into the kinds of questions students experienced, and they are a useful tool to inform classroom instruction. Both teachers and parents may use this resource to help students know what to expect.
Included with each item in this release are the associated learning standard(s) and the scoring rubrics. Examples of student responses also are available to illustrate actual work and the corresponding points earned on the student examples.
The student on-line practice tests accessed through Ohio’s State Test Portal now feature real-time item-scoring to allow a student immediate feedback on each item. The item score will show how many points the student earned for the response; how many points are possible for the item; and information about why the student’s response was correct or incorrect. The practice tests will not provide test scores (e.g., no scale score, no performance level) or item scoring information for test administrators. If the Practice Test Sign In page does not appear after selecting the Student Practice Site, try using a different browser, such as Firefox or Google.
To obtain scores on these practice test items, users need to select the End Test icon on the top row of the screen. This icon only appears on screen when the user reaches the last question in the practice test session. Constructed response items are not eligible for scoring by computer. A scoring rubric is available in the Item Release Scoring Guide for each set of these practice items. For released constructed response items, educators can use the scoring rubrics as tools for providing feedback on written student responses.
A pair of new item types, Inline Choice and Gap Match, are now available for online Ohio’s State Tests. These new item types will be eligible to appear as field test items during the 2017-2018 school year. Field test items do not count for or against a student’s overall score. To help teachers and students become familiar with these new item types, the practice test for each grade level or high school course feature an example of each new item type.
A video tutorial demonstrating the functionality of each new item type is available in the test portal. Students can access tutorial videos for each of the various item types, including the newly added Inline Choice and Gap Match item types through the test portal any time before or after testing. During testing, students can access the tutorial videos through the testing platform.
Ohio Council for Elementary School Science 