Cephalopodcast

The 2007 Annual National Marine Educators Association Conference is under way in Portland, Maine. Sadly, I will not be able to attend NMEA this year. However, I did get a chance to present last year. My wife and I also took that opportunity to tour through New York City. Our last day was rather rainy, and somewhere in SoHo we serendipitously ducked into the Scholastic Retail Store to avoid the downpour. It was a pretty amazing space, with lots of primary colors and opportunities for young readers. I picked up a book on sharks to share with my co-workers.

Back at work, summer camp was still underway. During the first sessions the kids were asked to draw a picture of a scientist, which is pretty standard stuff*. Their efforts were posted up in the classroom and I had a chance to check in a couple of times to see the progress. Many of them initially drew the archetypal illustration of a white male in a lab coat doing something with test tubes. And it was also interesting to note how many of the younger Aquakids (students entering grades 1-4) had a hard time distinguishing between science and magic. Many of them conflated chemistry with potion making and mixed up the regalia of wizardry with that of the laboratory.

Which brings me back to Scholastic. They are the the American distributor for the Harry Potter series. Many people intuitively argue that Harry Potter is good because it gets young people reading. Others are not so sure. So one might also blame Scholastic for contributing to the confusion in the kids’ illustrations. But the picture isn’t that clear. Scholastic also has a remarkable partnership with the American Museum of Natural History called Science Explorations.

The program promises to, “engage students and teachers with authentic, hands-on science investigations with real scientists, primary documents, genuine artifacts, and standards-based science inquiries based on the Museum’s resources.” In additon to print publications, engagement currently seems to consist of a half-dozen interactive, Flash-based websites. These include exhibits on bats, bugs, space, reptiles and Charles Darwin. But naturally enough, my favorite one is Investigating The Giant Squid: Mysterious Cephalopods of the Sea. The exploration includes a virtual dissections and an interview/slideshow with Dr. Neil Landman from the AMNH. I am planning on posting this bit to TONMO (if it is not there already) because they recently started a new K-12 forum devoted to using cephalopods in education.

Science Explorations also has a section called Writing with Scientists. It offers teachers and students, “step-by-step support to transform a collection of notes, observations, research, and experiments into a well-organized, thorough, and thoughtful science report.” You can read examples of how students use the resource over here.

• *DAST: Draw A Scientist Test
• Science Explorations Teacher Guide to Investigate the Giant Squid
• TONMO K-12 Education: Cephalopod resources and information for teachers and students.
• My NMEA 2006 Flickr album
• Previously: Squidology