Summer 2002

The Exploratorium EduNews is sent out in an email text format four times a year to teachers, school librarians, school administrators, professional developers, and others involved in K-12 education. Each issue includes announcements about Exploratorium-produced Webcasts, print publications, new online resources, and updates about our initiatives in teaching and learning.

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CONTENTS
1-IRON SCIENCE TEACHER RETURNS
2-NEW EXHIBITION: SEEING
3-FEATURED WEBSITE: K-12 INSTRUCTIONAL MEDIA CENTER
4-NEW BOOK BY BARBARA ROGOFF

***SUMMER 2002 IRON SCIENCE TEACHER SEASON STARTS JUNE 28
Watch Exploratorium staff and middle and high school teachers as they demonstrate their science projects and compete for the title of IRON SCIENCE TEACHER! In this Live@ webcast series, you'll learn about great science explorations you can conduct yourself at home or in the classroom! Past secret ingredients have included kitty litter, pantyhose and the infamous holiday fruitcake confront.
http://www.exploratorium.edu/iron_science/index.html
For a schedule of other upcoming webcasts go to
<http://www.exploratorium.edu/webcasts/>

***SEEING EXHIBITION BEGINS JUNE 29
After more than three years of research and experimentation, the Exploratorium's revitalized collection of exhibits on visual perception is about to officially open to the public. SEEING showcases classic Exploratorium exhibits as well as new visual experiences created especially for this project.

SEEING is a massive topic, spanning the amazing range of what it is possible for humans to know--from the physical and atomic (the behavior of beams of light) to the social and philosophical (the subjectivity of visual interpretation). The collection's exhibits are loosely gathered into groups revolving around the phenomena they illustrate:

Light and the Eye
These exhibits explore the architecture of the visual system and the transformation of light into information by our eyes and brains.

Seeing Color / Seeing Motion / Seeing Depth
The exhibits in these areas highlight how we perceive and interpret information about fundamental properties of our visual world.

Seeing in Context
SEEING's context exhibits focus on how the environment affects the way we see everything--even things as fundamental as color and brightness.

Seeing and Attention
These exhibits illustrate the powerful role of attention in determining what we see--and what we don't see.

Interpreting ../images
One of the most profound aspects of seeing is its subjectivity: No two people see the world in exactly the same way. Because our eyes and brains aren't identical, we don't agree on simple experiences like color, and our beliefs and past experiences lead us to vastly different interpretations of what we see.

***FEATURED WEBSITE: K-12 INSTRUCTIONAL MEDIA CENTER
About 2000 carefully annotated resources, uniquely capturing the special power of the Web, will propel you into the center of telecommunications action for professional enhancement. Like an IMC in the real world, you will find
(1) tools for managing your own online environment (including PDA's);
(2) classroom projects and field trips (especially in science and social studies and the arts), extended studies, international and inter-disciplinary databases;
(3) references and contests for ALL students;
(4) multimedia creation and samples;
(5) professional development and publishing opportunities;
(6) tips for school, family and community partnerships, public groups and private industry; and
(7) a solid foundation for supporting standards and assessment.

The rooms, sections and shelves are chockfull of the best-of-breed for designing, implementing and refreshing electronic learning communities. Check it out <http://www.k12imc.org/>

LEARNING TOGETHER: CHILDREN AND ADULTS IN A SCHOOL COMMUNITY, by Barbara Rogoff, Carolyn Goodman Turkanis, & Leslee Bartlett. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.

The central idea is that children (and adults) learn effectively when they are involved with others who share their interests, building understanding together. In such a community of learners, children contribute to planning learning activities, as do adults, and adults learn from their involvement with the children as well as fostering children's learning. People are motivated to be involved in learning for the sake of accomplishing meaningful, productive activities.

The principles of LEARNING TOGETHER are illustrated with observations in a public elementary school in which collaboration among children and between children and adults is central to the curriculum. For example, parents spend 3 hours per week in instructional activities in the classroom.

LEARNING TOGETHER is meant to inspire readers to consider their own ideas about how children and adults learn, and how their learning can be fostered, in ways adapted to the interests and resources of different
communities.

For more information, look at Oxford's site:
http://www.oup-usa.org/isbn/019509753X.html
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