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Fall
2006 -
Subscribe here.
Happy
fall! The leaves are golden and falling in the San Francisco
Bay Area. The days are crisp and beautiful. And the rains
have come.
CONTENTS
1- LISTEN:
MAKING SENSE OF SOUND
2- THE PORTABLE EXPLORATORIUM: EXPLORATOPIA
3- EXPLORATORIUM IN SECOND LIFE
4- NEW EXPLORATORIUM INQUIRY RESOURCES FOR SCIENCE EDUCATORS
1-LISTEN:
MAKING SENSE OF SOUND
http://www.exploratorium.edu/listen/index.php
Dive into the sonic soup. Listen: Making Sense of Sound, a major new 5000-square-
foot Exploratorium exhibition, three years in the making, features over fifty-five
interactive exhibits, forty of them brand new. It opened at the Exploratorium
on October 21, 2006, and runs through December 31, 2007.
Even
if you can't visit the museum, there's plenty to learn
from the Listen Web site. Check out the interactive Listening
Guides where you can do everything from listen to bird
calls to building your own instrument to discovering how
car mechanics use their listening skills to fix cars. Find
out how a cochlear implant helped one man regain the ability
to hear. There are movies and activities with downloadable
materials.
2- THE PORTABLE
EXPLORATORIUM: EXPLORATOPIA
Bring the Exploratorium to your kids -- whether they're
in your classroom or your Home -- with our latest book,
Exploratopia. You can't learn to swim without getting in
the water, and you can't learn about science just by reading
facts. Whether they're looking into their own eyes, hunting
for snails in the backyard, or building a stripped-down
motor, Exploratopia shows kids how to explore the world
around them, how to ask questions, and how to experiment
to find the answers. This full-color, 384-page book for
children eight and older contains more than 400 activities
using simple, readily available materials, making it ideal
for teachers on a budget, homeschoolers, or families. For
Exploratorium members, there's a 15 percent discount on
this unique book. For more information, go to http://www.exploratoriumstore.com/exploratopia.html.
3- EXPLORATORIUM IN SECOND
LIFE
Check out the Exploratorium, known as
the 'Splo, in Second Life. (Second Life is a 3-D virtual
world entirely built and owned by its residents.) If
you are already a Second Life member, go to the Midnight
City (coordinates = 178,54,26) to find the 'Splo. If
you are new to Second Life, sign up for the FREE membership
(you do not need to give your credit card info nor
buy any Linden dollars) at: https://secondlife.com/
Click
on the Join Now button and follow the directions. Be sure
to read all the directions along the way and go through
Orientation Island BEFORE going to Midnight City. (Orientation
Island is where you become familiar with all the features
of Second Life.)
4- NEW
EXPLORATORIUM INQUIRY RESOURCES FOR SCIENCE EDUCATORS
Log
on to the Institute for Inquiry's new Web site at http://www.exploratorium.edu/ifi and
you'll find a wealth of free online resources, including:
- Over
50 hours of professional development curricula
- A
library of inquiry and education resources selected for
the field
- Tools
for teachers and teacher-educators
- Access
to a community of education practitioners and programs
- Information
about Institute for Inquiry workshops
- And
much more!
For
more than 30 years, the Exploratorium's Institute for Inquiry
has been helping education professionals introduce inquiry
to classroom teachers across the country. Now, with major funding
from the National Science Foundation, we've made many of our
most successful workshops available for professional developers
to use in their own districts.
Ten new Facilitator's Guides -- five that introduce teachers to science inquiry,
and five that investigate the use of formative assessment in the classroom --
are now available, free online. These workshop designs have been used by our
Institute graduates in more than 39 states.
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