We are delighted to welcome participants to this Science Community micro-group! For those of you attending the COABE 2014 interactive workshop conducted by Cynthia Zafft, please use this discussion thread to introduce yourselves.
This micro-group is open to anyone who is interested in developing and sharing science lessons for ABE/ASE instruction. This continuing discussion will be based on the Eight Scientific Practices discussed in the free online LINCS course “Engaging Adult Learners in Science.” The purpose of the online course is to introduce ABE and ASE instructors to the relevance and importance of science in the ABE/ASE classroom and how to incorporate scientific practices. The course is self-paced, freely available, and accessible 24 hours a day is accessible through the LINCS Learning Portal. (Please note: Individuals will need to create a separate login and password to access the online courses housed in the LINCS Learning Portal.)
If you haven’t been able to go to COABE 2014, please join this discussion anyway. Take this short online course and use this discussion thread to introduce yourself, as well!
Susan Cowles
Comments
Greetings!
I'm Cynthia Zafft and I am part of the LINCS Regional Professional Development Center here in Region 1 at World Education, Inc. Many thanks to those of you who were able to attend the COABE-PAACE Science Workshop. You made it a great session. Some of you will be posting your follow-up experience here as you test a brief science lesson with your students. We look forward to hearing about your experience.
But first, please tell the group a bit about yourself, how science fits into your work with students now, and what you would like to do next. My next post will include a description of the content of our workshop and one of the activities that was so much fun, "Two Truths and a Lie."
Cynthia
Hello, everyone,
I'm Susan Cowles, the "Subject Matter Expert" in science for the LINCS Communities of Practice. As a former basic skills instructor at Linn-Benton Community College, Albany-Corvallis, Oregon, I have used topics in science as a platform for teaching a variety of skills, as well as informing others about the importance of scientific literacy. In using science this way, I found that learners in our programs were quite engaged, motivated, and willing to take on tough concepts in math and analysis of documents (graphs, charts, texts).
As has Cynthia, I've been involved in professional development projects at the state, regional, and national levels. The subjects I especially like are those related to polar science and ocean sciences (so that means just about everything!) Research in these areas and their related online resources give us lots of opportunities to practice skills in numeracy, reading/writing, critical thinking, and language acquisition.
The COABE session sounds as if it was a lot of fun, and I am sorry to have missed it. I am excited to learn more from all of you! This micro-group is a wonderful addition to the Science Community of Practice.
Susan Cowles
I attended Cynthia's workshop at COABE 2014. It was great to hook up with others developing Science Curriculum!
I am not a Science teacher by training, but I am more fascinated by it, now, than I ever was when I was in high school and should have been paying more attention. I do need to bone up on Physics and Chemistry before I can develop lessons in those areas. However, I did a little teaching in Science, prior to 2013, around the old GED requirements. I definitely want to deepen what we are doing in our program, around Science and critical thinking, and I like (and am a bit overwhelmed by) having the CCRS to spur on the re-vamping. My goal is to have a usable curriculum for our program by July 2014, without having to spend much of our meager supply money on expensive workbooks. I'm looking to LINCS, OER Commons and a few other free educational and training resources for this.