1

“Fall 2003

GEMS Goes Algebraic! wo guides that provide elementary students with a solid foundation inalgebraic reasoning have been a major focus of mathematics curriculumdevelopment in GEMS in recent years. They include a guide for Grades 3–5and another for Grades 1–2. The first, entitled Algebraic Reasoning is nowavailable and the second, Early Adventures in Algebra will be ready by spring2004.

Introducing Professor Arbegla

Subtitled “Professor Arbegla Introduces Variables & Functions,” the 3-5Algebraic Reasoning guide, with six main activities in 13 class sessions, opens ina challenging context by introducing students to Professor Arbegla’s “FabulousFunction Machine.” A letter from the Professor herself then describes amalfunction in the machine that students are asked to solve. Other problem-solving challenges occur throughout the unit.

Students gain essential algebraic understandings, learn about equations, andapply what they’ve learned to problems related to area. With algebra’s strongconnections to number and operations, students’ computational and mentalmath skills also develop and they gain a deeper understanding of the numbersystem. Throughout the unit, students write in journals and the class createsand adds to an “Algebra Tool Kit.” This new GEMS guide makes strong

continued on page 10

T

GEMS is pleased to announce the formation of agreat new GEMS Center at the University ofArizona in Tucson. It’s also officially known as theSAGE Center (Southern Arizona GEMS EducationCenter) and will be a part of UA’s Science andMath Education Center’s ongoing support ofeducational excellence in the area. An exciting partof this Center is its unusual collaboration betweenseveral educational agencies, an observatory, and amuseum—the University of Arizona, CentralArizona College, Eastern Arizona College,Sunnyside School District in Tucson, the NationalOptical Astronomy Observatory, and GrahamCounty Discovery Park Science Center. Theleadership team from these institutions is extremelyskilled and is headed by the Center Director, Dr.Tim Slater. An additional collaboration has beenestablished with the Flagstaff GEMS Site to ensurethe entire state will be well served. Joelle Clark,GEMS Site Co-Director in Flagstaff, was one of thepresenters in Tucson and served on the planningteam.

The Center was launched in April with 28enthusiastic and talented participants from thecollaborating organizations. Due to the involvementof the Astronomy Department at UA and theObservatory, there was a focus on space science andoptics-related GEMS guides. Invisible Universe, TheReal Reasons for Seasons, Microscopic Explorations, andMore Than Magnifiers were featured along with threeother GEMS guides helpful in meeting the ArizonaScience Standards.

Since the launch, participants have presented GEMSactivities in their summer and fall institutes. Thistalented group of GEMS Associates meets again inNovember.

Great New

GEMS Sites and Centers!

Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, California

Continued on page 6

” There is only one

child in the world; and

that child’s name is

ALL CHILDREN.

Carl Sandburg

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Many hundreds of you have already signed up for the electronic versionof the GEMS Network News. We invite you all to sign up! The electronicversion is NOT a replication of the content in this print newsletter, but amore frequent and concise bulletin, delivered via e-mail, with selectedinformation of interest to GEMS users. Five issues of the E-GNN havegone out since January 2003. Often, these may announce availability of anew GEMS guide. One issue focused on Living with a Star, with samplecontent and a detailed overview. Others include information on profes-sional development opportunities, special offers on GEMS Kits fromCarolina Biological, news about events at the Lawrence Hall of Science,and notice of meetings around the country where you can see GEMSguide and kits, meet some of us, and mingle with other GEMSians.

We hope you can sign up! Just send an e-mail from the account whereyou want to receive GNN Online. Address your message tomajordomo@listlink.berkeley.edu and in the body of the messagewrite “subscribe gems_network_news” with no other text in the body.That’s all! You’ll receive a confirmation, as well as instructions on how tounsubscribe (in the unlikely event that should ever happen!). Ideas?Requests? Send a note with thoughts on what you would like to see inthe GNN Online to gems@uclink.berkeley.edu. See you when youget connected!

”“

The GEMS Network News is published on a biannual basis by theGEMS program of the Lawrence Hall of Science.

Initial support for the origination and publication of the GEMSseries was provided by the A.W. Mellon Foundation and theCarnegie Corporation of New York. Under a grant from theNational Science Foundation, GEMS Leaders Workshops wereheld across the United States. GEMS has also received supportfrom: the Employees Community Fund of Boeing California andthe Boeing Corporation; the people at Chevron USA; the Crail-Johnson Foundation; the Hewlett Packard Company; the WilliamK. Holt Foundation; Join Hands, the Health and Safety EducationalAlliance; the McConnell Foundation; the McDonnell-DouglasFoundation and the McDonnell-Douglas Employee’s CommunityFund; the Microscopy Society of America (MSA); the NASAKepler Mission Education and Public Outreach program; theNASA Office of Space Science Sun-Earth Connection EducationForum; the NASA Origins Education Forum/Hubble SpaceTelescope; the NASA Swift Mission Education and PublicOutreach program; the Shell Oil Company Foundation; and theUniversity of California Office of the President. GEMS alsogratefully acknowledges the early contribution of word-processing equipment from Apple Computer, Inc. This supportdoes not imply responsibility for statements or views expressedin publications of the GEMS program. For further information onGEMS leadership opportunities, or to receive a publicationscatalog and the GEMS Network News, please contact GEMS.

Director: Jacqueline Barber

Associate Director: Kimi Hosoume

Associate Director: Lincoln Bergman

Mathematics Curriculum Specialist: Jaine Kopp

GEMS Network Director: Carolyn Willard

GEMS Workshop Coordinator: Laura Tucker

Staff Development Specialists: Lynn Barakos, Katharine

Barrett, Kevin Beals, Ellen Blinderman, Gigi Dornfest,

John Erickson, Stan Fukunaga, Karen Ostlund

Distribution Coordinator: Karen Milligan

Workshop Administrator: Terry Cort

Trial Test and Materials Manager: Cheryl Webb

Financial Assistant: Vivian Kinkead

Distribution Representative: Fred Khorshidi

Shipping Assistant: Justin Holley

Director of Marketing and Promotion: Steven Dunphy

Principal Editor: Nicole Parizeau

Editor: Florence Stone

Principal Publications Coordinator: Kay Fairwell

Art Director: Lisa Haderlie Baker

Senior Artists: Carol Bevilacqua, Lisa Klofkorn

Staff Assistants: Marcelo Alba, Kamand Keshavarz, Eyad Latif,

Andrew Lee

We welcome letters and e-mails to the editor, comments, andanecdotal contributions to the GEMS Network News. If yourmissive is published, you’re entitled to receive a free GEMSguide of your choice.

The Lawrence Hall of Science is a public science, teachereducation, research, and curriculum development center.

DirectorElizabeth K. Stage

© 2003 by The Regents of the University of California.Volume XVI, Number 1

University of California, BerkeleyGEMSLawrence Hall of Science # 5200Berkeley, CA 94720-5200

phone: (510) 642-7771.fax: (510) 643-0309.e-mail: gems@uclink.berkeley.eduwebsite: www.lhsgems.org

Online GEMS Newsletter – Sign Up Today!

GEMS stands for Great Explorations in Math and Science.

GEMS is a program from the Lawrence Hall of Science,at the University of California at Berkeley.

GEMS is a growing national and international resource for the advancement ofinquiry-based science and mathematics, including teacher’s guides and handbooks,specialized professional development opportunities, and a growing network of 60GEMS Centers and Network Sites. The educational excellence and effectiveness ofGEMS has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Education’s Special Panel onMathematics and Science Education, and GEMS has received the Award forExcellence in Integrated Mathematics & Science from the School Science &Mathematics Association (SSMA). GEMS guides and handbooks serve as a strongsupport to the National Science Education Standards, other leading benchmarks andframeworks, and the curriculum standards of the National Council of Teachers ofMathematics (NCTM). The GEMS publication series includes more than 70teacher’s guides and handbooks. Activities are developed at the Lawrence Hall ofScience, tested nationwide and modified for classroom use. Presentation of GEMSactivities does not require special training in math or science. Materials areaccessible. Motivation and excitement are combined with key math and scienceconcepts and abilities. For a GEMS catalog or information on becoming a GEMSLeader or Associate, please write to us.

GEMS STAFF What is GEMS and How Can I Take Part?

To talk to a child, to fascinate a child, is much more

difficult than to win an electoral victory. But it is

also much more satisfying. Colette

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G E M SBuilding Communities and Networks of LearnersProfessional Development

Two Special Space Science Saturdays—FREE!January 24 and February 7, 2004

On the day after the GEMS Associates II gathering (Saturday,January 24, 2004) you are invited to take part in a special session,up the hill from LHS at the Space Science Laboratory (SSL). Thisfree session will feature GEMS guides The Real Reasons for Seasonsand Living with a Star, developed with support from the NASASun-Earth Connection Education Forum, plus an introduction to“Eye on the Sky” a developing astronomy/literacy project for K-3.Participants will also receive the related GEMS guides. Please letTerry Cort at GEMS know if you plan to attend. Another freespace science session will be held at SSL on the Saturday followingthe February 2004 GEMS Associate’s Workshop, on Saturday,February 7th, 2004. Again, contact Terry Cort if you plan toattend.

Sessions Coming Up at Lawrence Hall of Science

February 4–6 and July 2004GEMS Associate’s Workshops

Do you actively present professional development workshops toteachers? Do you have ongoing opportunities to support teachersin mathematics and science education? Here’s a way to becomeeven more effective as a resource for teachers—become a GEMSAssociate. Enroll in one of our upcoming Associate’s ProfessionalDevelopment Seminars and gain: In-depth knowledge of theGEMS philosophy and approach; familiarity with how GEMSaddresses standards; knowledge of how GEMS can be used toconstruct curriculum; strategies to introduce teachers to inquiryscience and GEMS; and first-hand experience with many GEMSunits.

GEMS Associates Workshop, (February 4-6, 2004)Sessions are from 8:30-3:30 each day.

GEMS Associates Workshop (July, 2004)(contact Terry Cort for specific datestcort@uclink.berkeley.edu)

We look forward to associating with you!

January 2004 Associates IIOur next Associates II Seminar

January 20–23, 2004

By popular demand, we again offer our highest-level exchange ofeducator experience, focusing on best practices in professionaldevelopment, curriculum construction, and curriculumimplementation. Join us for a chance to learn from and with otherGEMS Associates. You must be a GEMS Associate to attend.

Reception and Poster Session—January 20, 2004 (4-6 pm)3 Days of Learning-Packed Activities—January 21–23, 2004(8:30 am–3:30 pm)

We look forward to deepening our association with you!

Summer 2004Three GEMS Leader’s Workshops

Leader’s Workshops are designed for teachers and educatorsseeking greater in-depth familiarity with GEMS guides at specificgrade levels. There is a leadership component, but emphasis is onintensive experience with GEMS units, their implementation, andtheir connections to standards. GEMS Leader’s Workshops includehighly participatory involvement in a number of GEMS units,often with a focus on newer GEMS guides. A series of threetwo-day GEMS Leader’s Workshops will be offered inSummer 2004. Sessions will be from 9:00-3:30 each day. Eachworkshop will be focused on a different grade range, includingplans for a K–6 math-focused Leader’’s Workshop. Contact TerryCort at tcort@uclink.berkeley.edu or 510/643-0672 for specificdates and other information.

We look forward to helping you get to know GEMS!

National Council for Teachers of Mathematics(NCTM)

Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, April 23, 2004

Jaine Kopp, GEMS Mathematics Curriculum Specialistwill present a Grades 1-2 workshop entitled:

Adventures in Algebra: Build a Foundationfor All Students

Location: Loew's Philadelphia

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Editor’s Note: This issue’s column focuses on the use of GEMS in South Carolina in an innovative, technologically-adept distance learning professional development program. Greenville, where the Roper Mountain Science Center islocated, is also the hometown of a great GEMS Site. The authors are particularly interested in knowing if there areother folks out there engaged in similar efforts. They’d love to hear from you and exchange ideas and experiences. Thecontact information is at the end of the column.

Roper Mountain Science CenterDistance Learning Program

by Shirley Smith, with Garrison Hall, David Leeke, and Rex Smith

GEMS Associate’s Column

Roper Mountain Science Center (RMSC) is well known, not only at home in the Greenville County School

District, but in the whole state of South Carolina as well, for its high quality instructional programs for students,teachers, and the general public. The center presents science to classes of students in an exciting and entertainingmanner, provides teachers with continuing education programs and materials to improve their skills in theclassroom, and stimulates public interest in the sciences through involvement in open programs and special events.Visitors to the center are able to enjoy resources that come about when you combine high quality content,excellent staff, and exceptional facilities that include a planetarium and observatory; health education classrooms,physical science labs, weather and astronomy labs, life sciences lab, sea life room, a tropical rain forest, an earthscience lab, and a computer lab. In fact, the center delivers unduplicated science programs to more than 100,000children annually. In addition, more than 2200 teachers have participated in one or more courses offered by theScience P.L.U.S. Institute since the beginning of the program in 1993. The Roper Mountain Science CenterAssociation (RMSCA) provides financial and operational support beyond the scope of the Greenville CountySchool District. Using private and public funding sources, the association committed to a major project to extendthe reach of the Center’s successful programs via distance learning. Extending the successful “Roper Mountainexperience” to teachers around the state began this past summer when we offered two courses for teachers inforensic science, using GEMS Mystery Festival. These courses involved 44 teachers who helped build the modeland set a standard of excellence.

Guiding Principles

In planning the curriculum for the distance learning program certain guiding principles, based on research, wereused as the foundation for the program. In the implementation process, these principles have served as a guide inmaking decisions about the content and delivery of services. The guiding principles and the implementationstrategies include:

Technology must be organized around the learning;the focus is the content, not the technology.

The technology delivery design encompasses a far-reaching vision that includes three phases.Phase 1— live, two way video conferencing via ISDN and video IP; Phase 2— one way satellite delivery via thedistrict’s cable channel for local audiences and SCETV for statewide audiences; and Phase 3— a web presence toinclude video streaming, course authoring software, and other electronic tools that enable learning communitiesand support program participants.

To accommodate hands on, inquiry based content, which requires participants to be active and mobile, live, twoway video conferencing was selected as the technology that would enable the interaction needed for this learning.In addition to the traditional video conferencing set up with two cameras and two monitors at the originating site,there was also a need for participants to be able to view lab work “up close.” Smaller cameras such as goose neckcameras and “handi cams” were purchased for use at the originating site as well as a remote site if needed, to ensurethat the content was not compromised for lack of proper equipment.

Content must be standards-based and model inquiry-based, hands-on teaching methods

According to the National Science Education Standards, scientific inquiry refers to the diverse ways in which scientistsstudy the natural world and propose explanations based on the evidence derived from their work. Inquiry alsorefers to the activities of students in which they develop knowledge and understanding of scientific ideas, as well as

5

understanding of how scientists study the natural world. In order to helpteachers teach through inquiry, we selected as the content for our pilot, anationally known, research based, resource from GEMS entitled MysteryFestival—a forensics science curriculum. We also incorporated the GEMSFingerprinting and GEMS Crime Lab Chemistry materials into the course.This content, for use in grades 4- 8, was aligned with South Carolinacurriculum standards and had kits that included all necessary materials.Teachers observed the “crime scene,” then conducted crime lab tests onthe evidence at stations, analyzed the results, and tried to solve theMystery of Felix. Crime lab tests include thread tests, powder tests, DNA,chromatography, fingerprinting, and many more. Many key content areaswere explored, and the important distinction between evidence andinference was emphasized. Understanding of science deepened as theteachers experienced the ways that science is like the process of detection.

• The right team of people and partnerships are critical to the successof this program.

• It was imperative that the instructors be as well qualified in theirfield as possible while being enthusiastic about the use of distancelearning as a vehicle for the Association’s vision. It was decided thatthe sessions would be team taught by Rex Smith, on staff at RoperMountain Science Center and Garrison Hall, a Presidential Awardee,Milliken Educator Awardee, and a nationally board certified teacher.David Leeke, a science lab instructor from Greenville CountySchools, was selected as the content facilitator. This team proved tosurpass our expectations in their level of expertise, professionalism,and, in particular, their enthusiasm for the use of the technology.They set a standard of excellence that will become a hallmark of thedistance learning program.

• An outside evaluation was important in establishing a baseline fordefining, tracking, and measuring the success of the program.Research data is an important tool for growing the project as well ascommunicating to stakeholders the results of the program. Thephase 1 assessment agenda included determining instructors’ learningobjectives, approaches, and concerns; reviewing pre and post testinstruments to determine if any new learning by the participantsresulted; determining the extent to which participants had experi-ence with distance education, currently used information technologyand any reservations or expectations they had regarding distancelearning; developing a series of questions regarding participantsfeelings of engagement during the course, their comfort levels withthe distance learning environment, and the extent to which they feltthe experience could be extended to other learning experiences forteachers and students in schools. Phase 2 of the assessment agenda isa follow up with the summer pilot participants in early spring 2004to determine the extent of implementation of new teaching methodsand materials. Dr. Dan Barron, a nationally recognized expert in thefield of distance education in the College of Library and InformationScience at the University of South Carolina in Columbia wasselected as the outside evaluator.

Implementation Strategies

During the planning phase, certain instructional and logistical designelements began to emerge from the guiding principles. These elementsand the implementation strategies were the following:

• The instructional team needs support in modifying the contentfrom traditional teaching methods to distance learning methods.

• The instructional team needs to use multiple technologies tomodel technology integration into science curriculum.

• Each remote site needs to replicate the originating site in regardto access to instructional materials.

• A content facilitator would needs to be available at the remotesite to assist participants.

• Teachers need to receive materials- three complete GEMS kitsto take back to the classroom. This summer they receivedMystery Festival, Crime Lab Chemistry, and Fingerprinting.

• Teachers need to be given the option of receiving one hour ofgraduate recertification credit.

These principles held true for the pilot and will be an integral part of yeartwo planning. For the next year, the program will scale up from the initialpilot offerings, building content “packages” to offer on an on going basis.The program offerings will grow from one to five in the coming year, theremote site locations will increase from two to fourteen, and the numberof participants will increase to approximately 174, potentially impactingover 5200 elementary and middle school children. In concert with theprogram development will be the continuation of building the technologyinfrastructure—increasing access and support by delivering programs viasatellite and internet.

Using technology to deliver high quality content that improves teachingand learning is one of the major goals of this project—in keeping withthe center’s commitment to provide the best in science education. We areexcited about these new opportunities to share the wonderful resourcesavailable at RMSC to others around the state and eventually, beyond ourstate. For more information, you may contact Dr. Shirley Smith atssmith8153@sc.rr.com or 864-679-7020.

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A strong GEMS presence at the state science and mathconferences is planned, along with local partnerships. GEMS isthrilled to watch this Center grow and honored to be part of thecollaborative effort in Arizona.

To find out more about this exciting new GEMS Center and keepabreast of upcoming workshops in south/central Arizona, see:http://samec.lpl.arizona.edu/outreach/SAGE.html

Albuquerque GEMS Network Site

This wonderful new GEMS Site was launched in June throughfunding from UC Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL)Education and Public Outreach programs. The site is directed byGEMS Associates Selena Connealy and Judy Stanley, and housedby partnering institutions, the New Mexico Museum of NaturalHistory and Science and the LodeStar Astronomy Center. Selenaand Judy, GEMS presenters Carolyn Willard and Jaine Kopp, andBryan Mendez of SSL presented the two-day workshops forteachers from Albuquerque and several other New Mexico towns.The agenda focused on earth and space science units for grades 5–8 that align to the new New Mexico science standards. Everyoneenjoyed getting their hands on Oobleck: What Do Scientists Do?,Convection: A Current Event, Messages from Space, Invisible Universe,Math Around the World, and The Real Reasons for Seasons.

After the Site Launch workshops, the team met to plan siteworkshops and other teacher support for the first year, includingSelena Connealy (New Mexico Museum of Natural History andScience, Professional Development); Judy Stanley (LodeStarOutreach Coordinator); Jayne Aubele (Chief of Education, NewMexico Museum of Natural Science and History); AileenO’Catherine (LodeStar Education Specialist); Trish Wagner(Albuquerque Public Schools Science Instructional Coordinator);Kirby Gchachu (Southwestern Indian Polytechnic InstituteCoordinator for Special Projects); Paula Steele and Diana Montoya(University of New Mexico Family Development Program); aswell as Bryan Mendez, Carolyn Willard and Jaine Kopp. Threeworkshops at the GEMS Site were planned for the first year. Eachwill be on a Saturday, will fit with an exhibit, include literacy andmath emphases, and be publicized statewide. They include: a fall2003 workshop on Elephants, for Pre-K – 2nd grade, with links tomuseum exhibits, and the fossil record; Crime Lab Chemistry,Fingerprinting, and Mystery Festival for K–8, to fit with the SherlockHolmes exhibit; and Mars, in December 2003, K-12, planned byLodeStar and Albuquerque Public Schools to link GEMS units toexciting Mars Rover NASA missions. Many other workshops andfamily events are in the works. Please contact Selena or Judy (seepage 14) for more details.

Lewisville, Texas GEMS Site

The great new Lewisville GEMS Network Site was launched inJune, 2003 and is housed at the Lewisville Instructional ServiceDistrict office. It serves the many teachers of this fast-growingdistrict, and will also extend to other teachers in the populousMetroplex area around Dallas and Fort Worth. The site’s co-

directors are Kevin Fisher and Rosemary Martin. This new GEMSsite was born through its association with the Austin GEMSCenter. Since 2000, the Lewisville ISD has worked closely withKaren Ostlund, Director of the Austin Center. Karen also workspart time on the LHS GEMS staff, helping to launch sites andcenters nationwide and internationally. In recent years, Lewisville’sKevin Fisher and Rosemary Martin, Elementary ScienceSupervisor, hosted Karen and her team of Austin Associates, whopresent annual June GEMS Associates Workshops for the region.As a result, Lewisville teachers, science supervisors, and parentsbecame very enthusiastic about GEMS, and its use in theLewisville science curriculum expanded under Rosemary andKevin’s leadership. It was only a matter of time until it was“official” and the new GEMS Site was established. Karen Ostlundco-presented the successful site launch workshops with BettyCrocker, Mimi Halferty, Tracey Harros, Pat Jones, Gayle Evertson,and Pam Jones. Two Super Saturday GEMS workshops wereplanned for fall and spring for inservice teachers and teachers intraining in the University of North Texas preservice programs. Theannual GEMS Associate’s Workshop is planned for next June.Please contact the site directors—see page 15—for details ofworkshops planned. The Lewisville GEMS Site sells GEMS guides,and has a GEMS materials kits library.

Red Bluff, California GEMS Center

As announced in the last issue of the newsletter, in November2002, a new GEMS Center (the 60th GEMS site/center!) wasestablished in Red Bluff, California, initially funded by theUniversity of California’s Office of the President and housed at theTehama County Office of Education, directed by Lisa Sandberg.The new center serves the counties of Tehama, Butte, Glenn,Plumas, and Lassen. A GEMS Associate’s Workshop helped launchthe center, with a focus on grades pre/K through 2, leading to 33new GEMS Associates in the remote and deserving region.Among GEMS presenters helping out in Red Bluff have beenCarolyn Willard, Laura Tucker, and John Erickson, along with BevMarcum from the California State University at Chico. Futureplans call for Associate’s Workshops at the 3-5 and 6-8 levels. Anactive and admirable GEMS Kit library serves this large region.

Special Inquiry Workshops

Demystifying the inquiry process in the classroom has been highon the list of many professional developers this year. The GEMSteam was often invited to provide two custom workshops.

Last April, the Ohio Aerospace Institute (OAI) in Cleveland hosteda one-day workshop for K-8 educators focused on movingstudents from “wondering why” to full inquiry and addressing theAcademic Content Standards for Scientific Inquiry. Various GEMSguides were used as exemplars (Oobleck: What Do Scientists Do?,Bubble Festival, Crime Lab Chemistry, Paper Towel Testing, MysteryFestival.) Teachers focused on ways to address questions thatemerge and the idea of generating even more questions at the endof the inquiry activities. In June, the GEMS Site in San JoaquinCounty, California brought us in to provide a day on inquiry-

Great New GEMS Sites and Centers! (Continued from page 1)

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tand literacy education at the primary level at a time when scienceinstruction at these grades is on the decline. It is intended to serve as acore resource in both science and literacy to the benefit of studentlearning in both domains.

The new grades 2-3 Seeds/Roots units, now in prototype pilot testingwith a group of outstanding teachers, are provisionally entitled: TerrariumInvestigations (life science/earth science), Designing Mixtures (physicalscience/chemistry), and Shoreline Science (earth science/life science).GEMS familiars may recognize activities derived from Terrarium Habitats,Secret Formulas, and On Sandy Shores. But an exciting transformation istaking place. We’re reshaping these units to: make literacy developmentintegral; create and integrate student readers; give students experienceconstructing meaning from informational text; and focus on the advan-tages of this approach for English language learners and students whohave difficulty reading. The science activities are transforming too—notonly because the interweaving of a substantial literacy component changesthe sequence and pacing—but also because, from a 21st century scienceeducation viewpoint, the GEMS units need revision. The central elementof inquiry in both science and literacy will be a “hallmark” of the series.

It’s a tall order—but we are well launched—have great literacy colleaguesand a splendid team. We’re all learning a lot! A national field test of thesefirst three units is scheduled for fall of 2004. We’ll keep you posted in thisnewsletter and via the e-mail GEMS bulletin (see page 2 for moreinformation). Until then, spread the word—Seeds of Science/Roots ofReading is starting to sprout!

based teaching during their summer institute. This instituteinvolved eight teams, each with two middle school teachers, twohigh school teachers, one graduate student, a master teacher, ascientist from the community, and a faculty member from theUniversity of the Pacific in Stockton. These teams participated inthe GEMS Dry Ice Investigations guide as an exemplar of inquiryand focused on both experimentation and science content.

Up and Coming

Ongoing GEMS professional development work since the lastissue has included: Houston, Texas; the GEMS Center in Redding,California; Tallahassee, Florida; the Philippines; Singapore; all sixGEMS Centers in the San Joaquin Valley, and the Stockton GEMSsite. As of this writing, a new GEMS site is to launch inWillimantic, Connecticut on October 31-November 1, 2003.Launches likely in the farther future include Atlanta in 2004 andCarson City, Nevada in summer 2005.

We’re enormously pleased to announce that the GEMS Program, in closecollaboration with the Graduate School of Education (GSE) at U.C.Berkeley, as well as with other nationally-known literacy experts andresearchers, has begun intensive and enthusiastic work on an exciting newproject that combines inquiry-based science with literacy development.The Co-Directors of the Seeds of Science/Roots of Reading project areJacqueline Barber, GEMS Director and P. David Pearson, Dean of theGraduate School of Education, a world-renowned literacy scholar.

The National Science Foundation has awarded a $1.8 million 3-year pilotgrant that will allow our team to spread research-based roots and plantpedagogical seeds for this innovative program! With this funding, the teamis launching the planned Grades 2-3 strand of the program, with aresearch study and external evaluation to gather evidence of effectivenessand impact. The Seeds/Roots Grades 2-3 units will be tested in class-rooms nationwide, while additional funding is sought to develop thestrands for Grades 1-2 and Grades 3-4. Carolina Biological, the GEMSkit distributor, will be the publisher and kit producer for the Seeds ofScience/Roots of Reading program. The program will include—inaddition to three science/literacy units at each grade level, class sets ofnine ongoing student readers for each unit, materials kits, and an overviewto the entire series.

This program addresses the need for materials that combine inquiry-basedscience learning within a context of content-rich literacy development.Engaging student readers will provide a key component and give studentsexperience with authentic scientific text genres, journal writing, and thelanguage of science. The program seeks to set new standards for science

Seeds of Science/Roots of Reading Starts to Sprout!

One of the more recent GEMS guides, Invisible Universe,sponsored by the Education and Public Outreachcomponent of NASA’s Swift mission, was recentlypresented to students, along with the GEMS guideMessages from Space, in an innovative two-weeksummer science course for elementary and middleschool students in Inyo and Mono counties. Theprogram was a partnership between the CaliforniaInstitute of Technology/Combined Array for Researchin Millimeter-wave Astronomy Project and theValentine Eastern Sierra Reserve/Sierra NevadaAquatic Research Laboratory. It was conducted at theOwens Valley Radio Observatory, near Big Pine,California. Barbara Schuck, a leading GEMS Associatein the region, was one of the teachers. She told us,”The experience was fantastic!! Most challenging andmost rewarding teaching experience I’ve ever had.”For more details and some great photographs, go to awebsite put together by Dr. Tony Beasley atwww.ovro.caltech.edu/~tbeasley/GEMS/

Invisible Universe

“ ”I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy

godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that

gift would be curiosity. Eleanor Roosevelt

Thanks to Carolyn Willard and Laura Tucker for information in this article. Lookfor lots more news from the GEMS network in the on-line GEMS news andfuture editions of this newsletter.

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the Philippines to teach Padre Imo Luna’s teachers how to makesimple devices and use them to spark the interest of pupils and parentsin science. “For example, a drop of water can be used in place of alens. Water can be a great magnifier because it can spread light—justlike a lens—creating a larger image of an object. Things like thisshould be demonstrated so that a child will not only memorizeconcepts but also be able to explain what has just happened,” saidLHS presenter Kimi Hosoume.

Solving, questioning

According to LHS Director Elizabeth Stage, the FamilyScience Educational Program develops problem solving, questioningand communication skills. “It also reinforces the positive impact ofscience by highlighting discoveries from cultures around the world,”she said. “The long-term goal of the program is to encourage childrento consider careers in science, math and engineering.” For example,Hosoume said, students can learn about geography and geology bycomparing sand samples from different areas and then locating andmarking the source of the sand on a map. Teachers also learn basic andexciting hands-on science experiments to add to their classroomcurriculum, and parents can learn simple experiments that can beconducted at home to supplement their children’s formal schooleducation. “This can boost their confidence in helping their childrenlearn about science,” said LHS presenter Karen Ostlund.

Becky A. Alivio, general manager of Caltex’s refinery in SanPascual town, Batangas, said the Family Science Educational Programis one of the oil company’s local community partnership programsthat help educate and inspire children. “ChevronTexaco is proud toprovide participants with tools that allow them to succeed in life,” shesaid. Tim Leveille, country chair of Caltex Philippines, said hiscompany was pleased to have found “yet another positive way tofurther build upon our long-standing relationship with the communi-ties of Batangas. In choosing Batangas (as the Philippine pilot) of theFamily Science Educational Program, ChevronTexaco has recognizedthe importance of this relationship and the tremendous prideassociated with educational achievement and what it means to allFilipinos, particularly to those who may come from underprivilegedgroups.”

In previous issues of the newsletter we’ve reported on the launch and ongoingeducational work of the GEMS Center in the Philippines. The Center waslaunched in May 2001 at AMA University in Quezon City, and wasfollowed by another visit by GEMS Presenters in November 2001. Allparticipants who received professional development at both the May andNovember workshops became GEMS Associates. Another round of GEMS-presented workshops is scheduled for late 2003. Meanwhile GEMS sprang upelsewhere in the Philippines! GEMS activities that can be used for familyscience events were featured under the auspices of ChevronTexaco, which askedGEMS to come to Batangas. GEMS Presenters Kimi Hosoume and KarenOstlund led the workshops and community events which featured activitiesfrom the GEMS guide Microscopic Explorations. Local volunteers fromChevronTexaco also took part. An article by Charles E. Buban of the InquirerNews Service in the region summed up the visit and its purpose so well weinclude it here.

Batangas school teaches science

à la UC Berkeley

Unique hands-on curriculum

SAN JOSE, Batangas — Elementary school pupils and theirparents at the Pangalaalang Paaralang Padre Imo Luna were hunchedover tables, busy with their science experiments. Some groups weredifferentiating salt crystals from sugar crystals, others were describingwhat an insect’s legs look like when magnified eight times. Padre ImoLuna is no different from other public elementary schools in thecountry’s rural communities: it has a small teaching force and limitedbooks and materials. In fact, it has only one microscope. Yet students,parents and teachers at this school are getting a crack at honing theirskills in science, and are learning things the way it is done at theUniversity of California (UC) at Berkeley.

Through a unique hands-on curriculum developed by UCBerkeley’s prestigious Lawrence Hall of Science (LHS), they arelearning the basics of science and how it connects to their daily lives.The pupils and parents of Padre Imo Luna are the first outside theUnited States and Mexico to use the curriculum called FamilyScience Educational Program. LHS, a resource center for children,parents, educators and policymakers, seeks to improve the understand-ing and enjoyment of science and mathematics. It develops modelprograms for teaching and learning the two subjects and disseminatesthese throughout the world. Around 3,000 Filipino students will beusing the curriculum this school year, including those from the SanAntonio Elementary School and San Pascual Central ElementarySchool, which are neighboring schools of Padre Imo Luna.

Through the sponsorship of Chevron Texaco and itssubsidiary, Caltex Philippines Inc., two presenters from LHS came to

GEMS Helps InaugurateGEMS Helps InaugurateGEMS Helps InaugurateGEMS Helps InaugurateGEMS Helps Inaugurate

Family Science Educational Program in the PhilippinesFamily Science Educational Program in the PhilippinesFamily Science Educational Program in the PhilippinesFamily Science Educational Program in the PhilippinesFamily Science Educational Program in the PhilippinesSponsored by ChevronTexaco and Caltex PhilippinesSponsored by ChevronTexaco and Caltex PhilippinesSponsored by ChevronTexaco and Caltex PhilippinesSponsored by ChevronTexaco and Caltex PhilippinesSponsored by ChevronTexaco and Caltex Philippines

PHOTO

PHOTO

9

fungus. In fact, the worms present during thefirst time span were not the ones we now knowunder the soil, and the forms of fungus presentwere far removed from mushrooms! On theone hand, having something alive and/orfamiliar in the terrarium model is a great plusfor student interest; on the other hand onewould not want to foster in any way the seriousmisconception that any modern organismsprang onto life’s stage without evolutionaryantecedents! In the current climate, such amisconception could have unfortunate andunscientific anti-evolutionary overtones. Weexplain our reasoning on this and other choicesin notes and clarifications for the teacher, butwe will make further adjustments as needed torespond to this concern. It should be noted,however, that the vast and overwhelmingcontent, theme, and class discourse in the bookemphasize how life and its organisms changeand evolve over time, how every organism hadpredecessors. There are numerous examples andillustrations based on fossil and other evidencethat depict how paleontologists and otherscientists trace how various organisms evolved,how groups of organisms are related to eachother, and how, for example, the digestive tracts(or “guts”) of organisms evolved over time.

It’s important to understand that the terrarium/aquarium centerpieces for the five time spansare models. Models have many positive uses;they also have limitations. For example, thesecan be taken as five snapshots representing therange of organisms—both plants and animals—that existed during the five long time spans.Some of the organisms may have been moreprevalent during the early millions of yearsrepresented; others during the later stages; stillothers in the middle. We coalesced this in orderto make the backdrops and settings for eachtime span serve as a memorable and interestingsnapshot. We explain this choice and its trade-offs clearly in the guide. It could lead to somemisunderstandings about when an organism wasmost prevalent and/or whether it co-existedwith another. Some teachers may want to havesome reflective discussions with their studentsabout this and about the uses and limits ofmodels—as in the GEMS guide River Cuttersand others. It was also noted that the depictionof various early life forms in the first time spanmight fail to convey the billions of years thatpassed on Earth before any life began and alsonot make it clear that once life began, therewere many more millions of years when pondscum was just about all there was. The text andclass discussion do make this and related ideasclear, but the point is well taken.

Everything Evolves!Every GEMS guide goes through extensiveclassroom testing. We pay careful attention tothe comments of scores of teachers during amulti-stage pilot and trial testing process.Among many criteria, including aligning majorlearning goals with national standards andensuring classroom practicality, testing alsoprovides evidence as to whether the contentand its presentation are engaging to studentsand if major concepts are able to be grasped andapplied by students at the pertinent grade levels.

GEMS guides also benefit from scientific reviewso as to be as accurate as possible. For the newGEMS guide Life Through Time, one of theguide’s authors is an evolutionary biologist andit was reviewed by an internationally recognizedscientist. Still, Life Through Time is the mostencyclopedic of GEMS guides, with hundredsof illustrations, numerous charts and diagrams,and a whopping 350 pages. Obviously, thesubject matter is complex and, in many parts ofthe country, occasions considerable controversy!We consulted with other scientists on specificissues and made extensive use of the outstandingwebsite of the University of California atBerkeley Museum of Paleontology(www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/historyoflife/histoflife.html).

Thanks to post-publication comments byseveral evolution researchers/professors andscience educators at the National Center forScience Education in Oakland and theUniversity of California at Berkeley’s Museumof Paleontology, some corrections, refinements,and clarifications have been suggested. Wealways welcome criticism and revise guidesfrequently. Before that happens with this guide,we thought the GEMS website and newsletterwould be excellent places to provide someinformation on these comments, because they’reinteresting and instructive, and should be helpfulin presenting the unit. These suggestions willbe reflected in revisions of this guide—and infuture guides on other key aspects of evolution.We’d like to do more! And we’d also like torecommend the guide highly, and ask, if youpresent this unit to your students, for your andtheir comments. You can order through theGEMS website or by contacting us.

Eras and Time Spans

As explained in the guide, the more than 20formal time divisions of life delineated bypaleontologists and evolutionary biologists arenot introduced to students until the end of theunit. Instead GEMS curriculum developers andcontent experts selected five larger “chunks” oftime (called “spans” in the guide). These fivespans are represented by the terrarium/aquarium models that run throughout the unit’s

Updating Life Through Time

activities. Our goal here, similar to other GEMSguides, is to give students their own sense of thevast range and diversity of changes in the storyof life on this planet. Based on this experience,students are then motivated to grapple with andcritically think about how they might character-ize, generalize about, and come up with theirown names for the time spans—before they areintroduced to the whys and wherefores of thecurrent scientific classification of the time spans.

All well and good, but our colleagues com-mented on how and why we selected theboundaries of our five time spans. It’s agreedthat, for purposes of teaching, grouping timespans together can make sense. But some thinkit is very important to select the boundaries toemphasize certain major events more directlythan the GEMS guide’s time spans do, particu-larly to focus on the extinction of so manyspecies at the end of the Permean period. Onthe other hand, it could be educationallypowerful for students to discover the signifi-cance of these events through their own analysisof the evidence. The common goal here is tohelp make sure that students come away with anunderstanding of these key events and anunderstanding of how and why scientists havedrawn these lines. Another way to accomplishthis—in whatever way the time spans aredepicted—is to make sure these events are morefully emphasized when the scientific classifica-tion of time spans is introduced and whendiscussing with students the overarching ideasand conclusions gained through the unit.

One of the most original and compelling partsof each major activity/time span in the guide issparked by scripted role-plays put on bystudents in which some of the organisms of theperiod discuss their attributes and interactionsand assert their claim to represent the period.This also catalyzes students’ own criticalthinking. Student discussion and debate ofwhat they consider the most representativeorganism, based on evidence they’ve encoun-tered, may well, for any number of reasons,differ from the organism a scientist would select.But the strength of student engagement in thiscase has a lot to be said for it!

Of Worms, Toadstools, and Models

Another interesting and thought-provokingcomment involves instances in the unit ofmodern animals used as stand-ins or symbolicrepresentations for organisms that precededthem in evolutionary development. Thisinvolves a live earthworm (representing anearlier worm) that appears in the terrarium inthe first time span, as well as a drawing of theworm and of a toadstool, representing an earlier

continued on page 10

10”“

connections to the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics(NCTM) Principles and Standards of School Mathematics as itbuilds crucial scaffolding for more complex algebraic reasoning inlater grades.

You can order this 140-page page GEMS guide for $18.00 plusshipping directly through the GEMS website at www.lhsgems.orgor by contacting us by phone, fax, or mail.

Early Adventures in Algebra

Early Adventures in Algebra: Featuring Zero the Hero, is designed forGrades 1 and 2. It will be in print by spring 2004, for $ 16.00plus shipping. Its main introduction begins:

Algebra for first and second grade?“YES!” is the resounding answer.Although traditionally algebra has notappeared in the mathematics curriculumuntil middle and high school, there hasbeen a major shift in mathematicseducation that advocates teachingelements of algebra—as well as othermath content areas—much earlier!

This GEMS mathematics guide builds crucial scaffolding formore complex algebraic reasoning in later grades. Students learnthe important role “Zero the Hero” plays in our base 10 numbersystem. In a series of engaging games and challenges, studentssolve for unknowns, explore the concepts of equality and inequal-ity, and represent and analyze mathematical situations usingalgebraic symbols. Several read-aloud stories about Zero the Heroreinforce key ideas. Throughout, the teacher facilitates classroomdiscourse and encourages students to explain their thinking. Thisguide plants seeds for all students’ success!

Like its older sister, this GEMS guide is strongly aligned to theAlgebra Standard of the National Council of Teachers of Math-ematics (NCTM) Principles and Standards of School Mathemat-ics for the early grades, as well as the intertwined Number andOperations Standard. As children work with numbers appropriateto their skill levels, they improve their facility with computationaland mental math skills.

I’m zero the hero and I’m way coolYou may think I’m nothing but don’t be fooledI can take any number and change it fastAs a place value holder I’m unsurpassedTake any whole number, any old onePut me to the right of it and watch the funSay it’s a five then just add meYou get ten times more a big fiftyPut another zero after that oneYou get five hundred a very grand sumAnd that’s not all that I can doI’m zero the hero and I’m way cool!

You’ve Got to Hand It to Bacteria

In sum, we much appreciate the critique we have received. In additionto the larger comments, there are some errors that need correction,including more appropriate placement of several organisms in a timespan adjacent to the one in which they now appear and a misidentifiedreptile. Please see the GEMS website for a list of these corrections.

It’s also true that aspects of evolutionary understanding are alwaysevolving! For example, in the past scientists assumed a much closerconnection of the arthropods to annelids than is now considered to bethe case. Recent work with DNA has also led science to conclude thatorchids are part of the asparagus group, and that they appeared muchearlier in the evolutionary story than was previously assumed. Andmany more new understandings are constantly sprouting. We are surewe will continue to benefit from consultations with scientists and fromstaying alert to the many new developments in evolution and lifescience.

The title of this article “Everything Evolves” is accurate. As noted,GEMS teacher’s guides also evolve—through many trial versions andwith an active revision file for every guide. There is one kind oforganism however, that—while it had its own evolution in the earlystages of life’s development—has since kept on surviving and thrivingthrough all evolutionary time divisions—even as so many otherorganisms lived for a time but then became extinct. Those survivors, ofcourse, are none other than bacteria, as the guide dramatically conveys.

The GEMS Life Through Time guide is dedicated to the great evolution-ary biologist, theoretician, author, and science popularizer, Stephen JayGould, who died in 2002. And speaking of bacteria, in a San Franciscoradio interview, Gould said:

Gould: When we think about evolution, we have atendency to focus on the most complex creature at anygiven time. Once the most complex creature was abacterium, then it was a jellyfish, then a trilobite, then afish, and then us. But the history of the most complexcreature is not a surrogate for the general thrust ofevolution as a whole. At the origin of life you had tohave creatures of minimal complexity because, given thenature of chemistry and physics, you can’t precipitate ahippopotamus out of the primordial soup. So, you’regoing to begin with a creature of bacterial grade, thesimplest kind of cellular organization. And there’s onlyone direction for change—toward more complexity. Butvery few creatures move in that direction. Occasionally acouple of species dribble off in the direction of com-plexity, but that doesn’t define a trend or a thrust. Themost outstanding feature of life’s history is that through3.5 billion years this has remained, really, a bacterialplanet. Most creatures are what they’ve always been:They’re bacteria and they rule the world. And we needto be nice to them.

Question: Nice to bacteria?

Gould: Right. I don’t think this leads us to any startling new ideasabout how we can keep going, but if I can impart some increasedrespect for those creatures that we consider simple and inferior,then I’ll have done a good deed.

By the same token—and with all due respect for bacteria, pond scum,and all other living organisms, past and present—we at GEMS thinkthat if we can impart some increased student interest in and criticalthinking about evolution, then we too will have done a good deed!

Everything Evolves! continued from page 9GEMS Goes Algebraic! continued from page 1

A child of five would understand this.

Send someone to fetch a child of five. Groucho Marx

11

jIn partnership with and support from NASA education and publicoutreach organizations—including the Sun Earth ConnectionForum, the Kepler Mission, the Origins Education Forum/HubbleSpace Telescope, and other leading astronomy educators andresearchers, we are launching the first-ever GEMS CoreCurriculum Sequence. We’ve only just begun and are alreadyexcited to be able to bring this vision of the GEMS future intotelescopic focus.

The Space Science Sequence for Grades 3–8 is divided into twocomponents, one for Grades 3–5, the other for Grades 6–8. Itbuilds on but will extend “far beyond” GEMS units such as Earth,Moon, and Stars, Moons of Jupiter, The Real Reasons for Seasons,Messages from Space, Invisible Universe, and Living with a Star. Newcontent areas will be represented by new activities developed andtested to connect the entire sequence conceptually in a morecoherent way, to include up-to-date space science and currentmissions, and to embed an accessible sequence-wide assessmentcomponent. Student readings on the work of past and currentscientists and missions will be interwoven throughout. Theprogram will include classroom materials kits. There are excitingplans, not yet finalized or fully funded, for inquiry-driventechnology and an accompanying research effort on educationaleffectiveness.

Countdown starts on GEMS Space Science Sequence

Here’s a quick glimpse at our thinking: As GEMS evolves into its21st century incarnations, we plan to develop a series of Grades 3–8 core curriculum sequences, each drawn from four or fiveexisting or pending GEMS units, correlated to an essential area ofthe national science standards, with assessments, readings, andtechnology. We see such sequences as something like a spine orbackbone for science instruction. Many of you already sequenceGEMS units in creative ways and want to build on that experiencewhile making such sequences more coherent and connected. Atthe same time, we want to retain the flexibility of GEMS, so anentire sequence (s)—each designed for from 6–8 weeks—could bepresented at one grade level, or articulated at several levels—and ineither case leave time for a teacher to supplement with her owntried and true materials. In this vision, teachers are able to choosean approach to teaching science that provides more depth andcoherence than separate supplementary units but requires less timethan a comprehensive curriculum. A core sequence provides arealistic approach to teaching essential science content at a timewhen the pressure on the curriculum is great. The Space ScienceSequence is the first—and we will keep you closely posted on itsrotation and revolution! Given the backbone metaphor we arealready joking about “space science—the spinal frontier!” Asalways, your thoughts and comments are much appreciated!

Elizabeth Stage, an educator and leader with a national and

international reputation in teacher development, student

assessment, and educational equity, has been named the new

director of Lawrence Hall of Science (LHS), UC Berkeley’s

public science education center and the home institution of

GEMS.

What’s more, in addition to all her other accomplishments,

Elizabeth is a GEMS author—of the GEMS mathematics guide QUADICE. She also provided essential input to the GEMS

handbook The Rainbow of Mathematics. Throughout much of the 1980s she directed the mathematics and computer education

department at LHS, contributing to GEMS and many other projects.

Most recently, Elizabeth directed the Mathematics Professional Development Institutes at the University of California, Office

of the President. Earlier, she was Director of Critique and Consensus at the National Research Council’s National Committee

on Science Education Standards and Assessment. She is president-elect of the National Center for Science Education; an

elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; and a member of the California Curriculum

Commission. She also serves as an expert in student assessment with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and

Development, an international organization helping governments tackle economic, social, and governance challenges of a

global economy. In 1996 she won the Smith College Medal, awarded to “those alumnae who, in the judgment of the trustees,

exemplify in their lives and work the true purpose of a liberal arts education.” She holds a doctorate in education from

Harvard University.

On her appointment, Elizabeth said “Lawrence Hall of Science played an important role in providing me with the wide

range of experiences I have had and the array of skills I have developed. I’ve spent thirty years of my professional life

working on one goal—to increase opportunities to learn worthwhile mathematics and science for all students.”

So Elizabeth, it’s our pleasure to welcome such a noted GEMS author back to LHS—and may your accomplishments hereby

multiply!

GEMS Author SelectedNew Director of

Lawrence Hall of Science!

12

P pLettersHere’s just a very small sampling of the letters and logarithmically increasing numbers of e-mails we receive. (Has e-mail changed our lives or what?) On the GEMS website(www.lhsgems.org) you can comment by individual guide and some of these comments camethat way. If your letter (or e-mail) is published in the GEMS Network News you areentitled to a free GEMS guide of your choice. Contact GEMS Editor Florence Stone toaccomplish this!

Math is on the Menu

Dear Laura: Hope all goes well in the Land of GEMS (and those GEMS of a crewtoo)! Hey I have been working my way through the Math on the Menu guide and Ijust want to say that I think Jaine Kopp is a math curriculum writing genius. Thatguide is fabulous. My kids are learning so much about mean median mode andrange and problem-solving it is just downright amazing. And I am not even thatfar into the guide. We are just completing Joaquin’s solution. I’m in 5th grade thisyear and this guide really gets in so much different math—it is a great beginning ofthe year review.

Teena Staller

Messages from Space

I can’t begin to describe how much I like this LHS GEMS Messages From SpaceActivity Book. I use it to start off my study of Astronomy as a way to “hook” theinterest of my students. I do Activity 1 where we receive a message from ET inpicture format with binary code via radio-telescope. Students have to interpretwhat the 7-page message means. As an extension I have my students design apicture binary message that they have to supposedly send back to ET...It’s a greatactivity!!!

Tom Palmer

Thanks Tom! You may want to explore Invisible Universe and Living with a Star too—and check out the plans for a GEMS Space Science core curriculum sequence, as noted onpage 11.

High Point

I have been using Crime Lab Chemistry, along with Fingerprinting, as a set-up for theMystery Festival with my 6th graders for several years and they are absolutelywonderful. Every student really gets involved and I think that it is the high pointof the year for them. My students that have graduated still comment on it. Forme—I love the open-ended format because each year it is a whole new problem.Thank you for all my students and myself.

Bonnie Beckum, Brookwood Middle School, Genoa City ,Wisconsin

You’re very welcome Bonnie, and a word about Crime Lab Chemistry. This is one of theearliest GEMS guides and has been steadily popular for more than 15 years. But we havegreat news. Crime Lab is one of the guides selected to lead off what we are calling NewGEMS! (see article page 16). Kevin Beals, the author of Mystery Festival is working onthis new version…and he tells us that the new Crime Lab Chemistry will “delve moredeeply into the chemistry of how chromatography works, and its many applications. We’readding a partial inquiry component, in which students design their own chromatography

system to separate a test substance.” The background for teachers will also be improved, soteachers can provide students with a more wide-ranging sense of the many kinds and uses ofchromatography.

Mystery Festival Kit Suggestion

I read in the GEMS Network News that Carolina Biological Supply will be sellingGEMS kits. I wanted to see what kits (and components in the kits) were for sale,so I checked the Carolina website. I was unable to get any information about thekits from their site. Will that change in the future? The reason I am asking aboutkit components is because I was wondering if you (or Carolina) were selling adurable plastic or cloth Mystery Festival crime scene mat with footprints printed onit. I think this would be a wonderful product for Mystery Festival devotees.

Deb Walter, science teacher

Dear Deb: The Carolina website has been undergoing a major transformation. Like manysuch transformations, there have been technical setbacks along the way and we are assured thatintense efforts to improve navigation are underway. In any event, the person at Carolina tocontact for all questions related to GEMS Kits is David Middendorf and he can be reachedat 800-334-5551, ext. 6252. We think your idea of a prepared crime scene layout withfootprints is could be a good one.

Secret Formulas in Japan

I teach in Japan at an international school, so when I began collecting the items forthis unit, I wondered . . . But I finished it today by making ice cream with secondgrade and it is the best unit of yours I’ve used yet, and I’ve used a lot of them.Everything worked and it was amazing!

Barbara DeMoss

That’s cool, Barbara! The Secret Formulas unit is captivating for students, as it sets afoundation for an understanding of cause and effect and empowers students to flex theirpowers of invention. Elsewhere in the newsletter you’ll discover that the ice cream activity hasbeen a big hit as a home kit (hey, that rhymes) and that the entire Secret Formulas guide isproviding the basis for a new science/literacy unit entitled Designing Mixtures in the just-now-being-invented Seeds of Science/Roots of Reading series.

Environmental Education

Environmental Detectives is a fantastic guide! It is well written and easy to use. Theproblems and investigations are interesting to middle school students and keepthem focused on solving an environmental problem with real world connections. Iwould recommend this unit to any middle school teacher charged with the task ofoffering environmental education. Thanks for quality work!

Angela Greene, Tecumseh Local Schools, New Carlisle, Ohio

Dear Angela—what can we say? We appreciate your recommendation. In addition to theenvironmental science activities and humorously-named characters in this guide (Juan Tuno,Don Juan Tuno, etc.), the guide encourages students to learn how to engage in researchinvolving analyzing newspaper articles, e-mails, reports of other scientific investigations, andother data in order to gather evidence and evaluate the strength (or lack thereof) of thatevidence in making a conclusion. This kind of research, which scientists often do as matter ofcourse when they review findings of other investigators before they begin their own, is animportant and sometimes neglected aspect of the inquiry process. Rather than being part of adirect hands-on inquiry, it involves a wide range of literacy abilities, including an ability tofind relevant portions of text, to accurately summarize a large amount of text—and—as partof both literacy and science—to recognize the distinction between evidence and inference.

Selected

and e-mails

“ ”Grown men and women can learn from very little children for the hearts of little children are pure.

Therefore, the Great Spirit may show to them many things that older people miss. Black Elk

Thank you Teena for your note to GEMS Workshop Coordinator Laura Tucker that shepassed on to many of us. We appreciate your praise for Jaine Kopp-GEMS mathematicscurriculum specialist and your kind words for the "M" in GEMS!

13

GEMS Home Kits from Scientific Explorer

We’re pleased to announce that the GEMS Home Kit Ice Cream Science, produced incollaboration with Scientific Explorer, received the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Award for 2003.GEMS enthusiasts will recognize the adaptation of one of the great activities from the GEMSguide Secret Formulas. Other GEMS Home Kits have been recognized previously. Soda PopScience won the Oppenheim Platinum Science/Crafts Best Toy Award and FamilyFun Toy of the Year(T.O.Y.) Award. The Oobleck home kit was selected as a Top 20 Toy for 2002-2003 by The Lion &Lamb Project, an initiative to stop the marketing of violence to children. These GEMS/Scientific Explorer kitscan be found in toy and educational stores across the country, or can be ordered from the Lawrence Hall of Science website(www.lhsgems.org/gemsathome.html).

Carolina’s GEMS® Kits-More on the Way

We’re pleased to report that a growing number of GEMSKits, both science and math, are now in stock and fullyavailable from Carolina Biological Supply Company.More are added weekly and many more will be availablein the coming months. We know some GEMSians havebeen frustrated by the kits they want and need notbeing ready to ship yet.

In a message for this newsletter, Carolina acknowledgedunfortunate delays in the availability of some kits. Theyexpressed a commitment to producing high-qualityGEMS Kits and to building a lasting relationship with allGEMS users, both teachers and students. The messagesays that the delayed availability of some kits reflectstheir organizational commitment to quality. It adds: “Webelieve that the long-term benefits for GEMS users willfar outweigh the short-term inconvenience. CarolinaGEMS Kits are unconditionally guaranteed. We’reconvinced you’ll agree that they are worth the wait.”We can attest to the high quality of the kits that havebeen delivered, and are confident that GEMS users willbe well served when they purchase kits built by Carolina.For questions concerning the development andavailability of GEMS Kits from Carolina Biological SupplyCompany, call David Middendorf at 1 800 334-5551,ext. 6252.

Calling Your Young Naturalists(Tell Your Students)

The American Museum of Natural History is pleased toannounce the 7th annual Young Naturalist Awards contest.Students in grades 7 through 12, throughout the United Statesand Canada, are invited to plan an expedition that will providedata, observations and conclusions on a topic in the area ofbiology, Earth science, or astronomy. Entrants can share theirdata and experiences in an essay that describes the expeditionand their findings. Essays are judged by a panel of Museumscientists, educators, and environmentalists. The top 12 studentswin a free trip to New York City (with a parent or guardian) anda behind-the-scenes tour of the Museum. Winners will alsoreceive awards from $500 to $2,500 and have their essayspublished. Teachers of the winning essayists will receive acollection of books and resources for their classrooms. Thecontest deadline is January 9, 2004. To learn more about theprogram, please visit the Museum’s web site at:http://www.amnh.org/youngnaturalistawards

What? No More Ivory Snow?

Whatever Happened to 99 and 44/100ths?

In the GEMS Secret Formulas guide, students design their owntoothpaste. One suggested ingredient is Ivory Snow powderedlaundry soap. But teachers tell us Ivory Snow in this form is nolonger available—the product with its name (often called “ultra”)is crystallized detergent and not pure soap. Because detergent hasadditives, we don’t recommend it for the toothpaste activity. Usinga grater on a bar of pure soap to make small pieces is an alterna-tive. Some stores may still sell pure soaps in the form Ivory Snowonce was. We’d welcome suggestions.

Play is often talked about as if it

were a relief from serious learning.

But for children play is serious

learning. Play is really the work of

childhood. Fred Rogers

“”

14

DIRECTORYALABAMA

• MobileLorie Pagan and Cindy SmithChickasaw School of Mathematics and Science251/452-0421tchrchick13@aol.com

• MontgomeryDebbie CookMontgomery Public Schools334/269-3776Fax 334/269-3993debra.cook@mps.k12.al.us

ARIZONA

* FlagstaffJoelle Clark and Jackie MenascoScience & Math Learning Center928/523-9534joelle.clark@nau.edu

• TucsonTim SlaterSAGE Center, University of Arizona520/621-8309dtreloar@lpl.arizona.edu (Donna Treloar)http;//samec.lpl.arizona.edu

ARKANSAS

* ConwayBelinda RobertsonUniversity of Central ArkansasArkansas Center for Mathematics Education501/450-3426belindar@mail.uca.edu

CALIFORNIA

* Fresno CountyBecky AvantsUniversity of California Center559/241-7406 (Judy Patin)avants@pacbell.netjudy.patin@ucop.edu

* Inyo/Mono CountiesLo LynessInyo County Office of Education760/938-2936, ext. 241Lo_Lyness@inyo.k12.ca.usLinda IrvingMono County Office of Education760/934-0031lirving@monocoe.org

* Kern CountyAnne Santer and Kaaren PageOffice of the Kern County Superintendent of Schools661/636-4640ansante@zeus.kern.orgKaaren_page@msn.com

* Los Angeles Unified School DistrictAnna GaiterEast Los Angeles Math/Science Center323/261-1139agaiter@lausd.k12.ca.us

* Merced CountyJay HawkesChallenger Learning Center209/726-0296challengersjv@mcoe.org

GEMS CENTERS & NETWORK SITES

✶ GEMS CENTER

GEMS NETWORK SITE•

* Red BluffLisa SandbergTehama County Department of Education530/528-7388Lsandber@tcde.tehama.k12.ca.us

* ReddingTraci WiermanTurtle Bay Exploration Park530/243-8850twierman@turtlebay.org

* Stanislaus CountyLaurel FisherStanislaus County Office of Education209/525-4696lfisher@stan-co.k12.ca.us

• StocktonJudi WilsonSan Joaquin County Office of Education209/468-9096jwilson@sjcoe.net

* Tulare CountyJon JanzenTulare County Office of Education559/651-3043jonathanj@tcoe.org

COLORADO

• DenverScott SalaFred N.Thomas Career Education Center303/964-3173scott_sala@dpsk12.org

FLORIDA

* TallahasseeEllen GrangerFlorida State University850/644-6747granger@bio.fsu.edu

• Vero BeachSue CurtisSchool District of Indian River County772/564-3067sue.curtis@indian-river.k12.fl.us

ILLINOIS

• GrayslakeCarla LittleLake County Educational Services847/223-3400, ext. 240clittle@lake.k12.il.us

• RockfordBarb JaquetKIDS815/636-3040bjaquet@kidsroe.org

INDIANA

• Fort WayneMairy SwimScience Central260/424-2400, ext. 417Mairy@sciencecentral.org

• IndianapolisDeb RobertsonIndiana University-Purdue University317/278-0758ddrobert@iupui.eduwww.cln.iupui.edu

• MerrillvilleBecky BarlogaDouglas Center for Environmental Educationc/o Lake County Solid Waste Management District219/769-3820, ext. 26bbladybugs@yahoo.com

IOWA

• BettendorfKathy WierzbaFamily Museum of Arts and Science563/344-4106kwierzba@bettendorf.org

• MarshalltownGinny ElliottArea Education Agency #267641/752-1578gelliott@po-1.s-tama.k12.ia.us

MASSACHUSETTS

• DanversMimi Cooper and Les BernalNortheast PALMS978/777-8434mcooper@massed.net

MICHIGAN

• Port HuronTerry ParksIntermediate School District of St. Clair County810/364-8990tparks@stclair-isd.k12.mi.us

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MINNESOTA

• BemidjiLaddie ElwellHeadwaters Science Center218/444-4472contact@HSCBemidji.org

MISSISSIPPI

• ClevelandMalcolm McEwenCenter for Science/Environmental Education662/846-4248mmcewen@deltastate.edu

MISSOURI

• St. LouisBarbara AddelsonMissouri Botanical Garden314/577-5147barbara.addelson@mobot.org

NEW JERSEY

• MadisonMalcolm SturchioFairleigh Dickinson UniversityScience Education Center973/443-8678 (Althea Talento)science@fdu.edu

NEW MEXICO

• AlbuquerqueSelena Connealy and Judy StanleyNew Mexico Museum of Natural History and ScienceLodestar Astronomy Center505/841-2840sconnealy@nmmnh.state.nm.usjstanley@nmmnh.state.nm.us

NEW YORK

• BuffaloPaul YoungCanisius College716/888-2395youngp@canisius.edu

NORTH CAROLINA

• Chapel HillPat ShaneCenter for Math and Science EducationUniversity of North Carolina919/966-5922pshane@email.unc.edu

OHIO

• Greater ClevelandBill BaddersCleveland Regional Council of Science Teachers216/858-4260baddersw@cmsdnet.net

• Southwest OhioCarol CollinsHamilton County ESC513/674-4257collinsc@hcesc.org

OKLAHOMA

• MooreShelley JaquesMoore Public Schools405/793-3188, ext.293shelleyjaques@moore.k12.ok.us

PENNSYLVANIA

• Central PennsylvaniaCaroline Owens, C. Edward Owens, Wendy GriestCapital Area Institute for Math Science717/948-6635information@mathscience.orgwgriest@psu.eduwww.mathscience.psu.edu

SOUTH CAROLINA

• GreenvilleBetty Hadden and Kathy BriggsGreenville County Hub for Math and Science864/241-3489bhadden@greenville.k12.sc.us

TENNESSEE

• ChattanoogaBarbara Fulmer and Ava WarrenHamilton County Department of Education423/209-8474fulmer_b@hcde.org

• Kingsport, Tennessee/Weber City, VirginiaRenee PolsonSevier Middle School423/378-2450rpolson@k12k.c

TEXAS

* ArlingtonMarilyn TolbertRiver Legacy Living Science Center817/860-6752, ext. 107marilyn@riverlegacy.org

* AustinKaren OstlundThe University of Texas, Dana Center512/232-6223 (Lilly Soto)Lillys@mail.utexas.eduostlund@uta.edu

• CommerceGil NaizerDepartment of Elementary EducationTexas A&M University903/886-5534Gilbert_Naizer@tamu-commerce.edu

• DallasKaty HendersonThe Science Place, TI Founders214/428-5555, ext. 351khendero@scienceplace.org

• El PasoJoyce ZarowskiRobert Rojas Elementary School915/832-3900jzarow@sisd.net

* HoustonDaniel FelskeHarris County Department of Education713/694-6300dfelske@hcde-texas.org

• HuntsvilleGinny HeilmanRegion 6 Educational Service Center936/435-8216gheilman@escb.net

• LewisvilleRosemary Martin and Kevin FisherLewisville Independent School District972/539-1551 ext. 194martin@lisd.netfisherk@lisd.net

• OdessaNancy ClarkEctor County Independent School District915/332-9151clarkn@ector-county.k12.tx.us

• San AntonioJenipher GreenRegion 20 Educational Service Center210/370-5200jenipher.green@esc20.k12.tx.us

• SeabrookTerri BerrySeabrook Intermediate School281/338-5905 or 281/474-1127tberry@ccisd.net

VIRGINIA

• Weber City, Virginia/Kingsport, TennesseeTammy MontgomeryWeber City Elementary276/386-7981

WASHINGTON

• VancouverAnne KennedyEducational Service District 112360/750-7500, ext. 252anne.kennedy@esd112.org

WEST VIRGINIA

* CharlestonAndrea AmbroseAvampato Discovery Museum304/561-3502aambrose@theclaycenter.org

WYOMING

• CasperRenee FunderburkNatrona County School District307/261-6130funderburk_2000@yahoo.com

INTERNATIONAL

* ISTANBUL, TURKEYMelek TalaENKA OKULLARI90-212-276-0543 or 0545melektala@enkaschools.comwww.enkaschools. com

* JAPANKazu FurukawaJapan Environmental Education Forum03-3417-5252t-kids@hh.iij4u.or.jp

* PHILIPPINESArnel F. Hibo and Marivic ManuelGlobal Education ServicesAMA Computer Universitympmanuel@amaes.edu.ph

* SINGAPORETan Kah GekFormation Centre65-6251-1300enquiries@formationcentre.com

16

”“

University of California, BerkeleyGEMSLawrence Hall of ScienceBerkeley CA 94720-5200

ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED NON-PROFIT ORGU.S. POSTAGE PAID

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

Yes, there’s a new GEMS logo that proclaims New GEMS! This logo appears on Living with a Star and on AlgebraicReasoning and will appear on all new GEMS guides in the future—next in line (soon) are: Electric Circuits: Inventive

Physical Science Activities (Grades 3-6) and Early Adventures in Algebra—Featuring Zero the Hero (Grades 1-2). Glimmeringon the horizon are three guides focusing on health and medical science (two for elementary grades and one, MedicalMystery Festival, for middle school) and, now in national testing, a great new guide on Matter: Solids, Liquids, and Gasesfor Grades 1-4.

But there’s much more to the “new” in New GEMS! Given that GEMS began in the 1980s and there has been a lot ofwater under the science education bridge since then, we’ve decided to take an in-depth look at some of the most

wonderful GEMS classics. Making sure to retain the essential elements that make them the “gems” they are, we are revising,updating, adapting, and enhancing to take into account 21st century standards, inquiry emphases, research-based pedagogy,

improvements in content depth, and new scientific understandings. The first three classic GEMS to be reborn as New GEMS arenone other than Crime Lab Chemistry, Oobleck: What Do Scientists Do? and Color Analyzers. You’ll hear a lot more about this from us soon, but we justwanted to give you, our faithful and dedicated GEMSians, a heads up! When you consider this New GEMS effort, along with the Seeds of Science/Rootsof Reading program and the Space Science Core Curriculum Sequence launch noted in this issue, you can see there’s a lot NEW in GEMS!

The NEW in GEMS!

I believe the powers of observation in numbers of very young children to be quite wonderful for its

closeness and accuracy. Indeed, I think that most grown people who are remarkable in this respect, may with

greater propriety be said not to have lost the faculty, than to have acquired it; the rather, as I generally ob-

serve such people to retain a certain freshness, and gentleness, and capacity of being pleased, which are also

an inheritance they have preserved from their childhood. Charles Dickens

The M in GEMS Stands for Mathand has been increasing in size lately, with two New Algebra Guides

JUST OUT: Algebraic Reasoning—Professor Arbegla Introduces Variables and Functions

ON THE WAY: Early Adventures in Algebra—Featuring Zero the Hero

And be on the lookout for your new GEMS Catalog!