Monday, May 12, 2014

Take Me Out To The Ball Game: 3rd Annual After School Fantasy Baseball Tournament at Raley Field



On May 3, 2014 Raley Field was once again filled with energetic players and cheering fans, but the action was academic instead of athletic. Region 3's Third Annual Fantasy Baseball Math Tournament was held at the minor league ballpark of the Sacramento River Cats. 


Mike Osborn, on-field emcee for the River Cats fired up the crowd with a motivational speech before the tournament began. Then an a cappella version of the National Anthem was sung over the loud speaker by a very talented young after school student, as the children and their families saluted the flag. Once the pomp and circumstance was over it was time to play ball; fantasy baseball.

The exciting tournament featured 36 teams of fifth to eighth grade students representing school districts from the Sacramento area. In the competition, students used statistics from specially designed baseball cards to analyze data, compare players, complete circle graphs, and ultimately play simulated baseball games where they may even lead their team to a Fantasy Baseball World Series Championship.

The event was an end of the year activity for students who have participated in local tournaments held at their after-school programs. At the end of the challenging competition, the following team finished with a record of 10-1 in the tournament and was crowned Fantasy Baseball Champion of 2014:


The following schools after school programs participated in the 3rd Annual Fantasy Baseball Math Tournament:

•   Elk Grove Unified School District: David Reese, Edward Harris Middle School, 
     Samuel Jackman, Middle School, Cordova Gardens
•   Folsom Cordova Unified School District: Peter J. Shields Elementary School, 
     Rancho Cordova, Cordova Villa, Mitchell Middle School, White Rock, 
     Mills Middle School
•   Sacramento City Unified School District: Pony Express, Golden Empire
•   Twin Rivers Unified School District: MLK Jr. Technology Academy, Foothill Ranch, 
     Orchard Elementary
•   Washington Unified School District: Elk Horn Club West, Stonegate Club West, 
     Westmore Club West, River Club West

If your after school site is interested in participating in the 4th Annual Fantasy Baseball Tournament please email Ken McCulloch at KMcCulloch@cityofsacramento.org. League activities start in the Fall of 2014.

Raley Field

2014 Tournament Trophy
Russell greeting the participants.




Mike Osborn giving an inspirational speech.
                                   
                                                          National Anthem



                                                                     




Tournament Time



Championship Game


Samuel Jackman's Fantasy Baseball Team = 2014 Tournament Champions





STEM and Other Pertinent Articles:

1) Math Program a Hit with Pine - Richland Middle Schoolers









STEM (and other Integrated Core Content) Activities/Videos/Websites/Podcast:









STEM Profesional Development Opportunities:

1) Techbridge Summer Institute ($800 per person)

2) STEM Academy for Elementary School Teachers ($450 per person)

3) Steve Spangler Story Time Slime / Online Training ($199.00 per person)
    Connecting Science and Children's Literature

4) Click2Science Professional Development Program (Free)

5) Technical Writing for Science Class (Free)

6) Edge Up University Provides Online Professional Development (Free)
    Professional Development training for Informal After School Educators
    provided by Region 8

STEM / Misc. / Events / Grants / Contest:

1)  Teichert Foundation Grants (August 2014 Deadline)

     (Applications available until equipment is gone)

3) Saucony Run for Good Foundation Website: Program: After School, 
    At-Risk/Character, General Education, Health/PE
    Maximum Grant: up to $10,000 (Deadline: June 13, 2014)

4) Best Buy Children's Foundation Program: After School, Arts, General Education, 
    Health / PE, Math, Reading, Science/Environmental, Social Studies, STEM, 
    Technology Maximum Grant: up to $6,000 (Deadline: July 1, 2014)

5) Innovation Corps Sites Program: After School, Arts, General Education, Health/PE, 
    Math, Reading, Science,/Environmental, Social Studies, STEM, Technology 
    Maximum Grant: up to $6,000 (Deadline July 1, 2014)

6) Procter and Gamble Educational Grants Program: After School, Early Childhood, 
      General Education, Health/PE Maximum Grant: up to $10,000 
      (Deadline September 26, 2014)

    (Deadline: June 4, 2014)


Thanks again for all that you do in the field. Please keep us posted about STEM events/activities in your area. Please feel free to contact us at any time.

Monica Gonzalez-William (SCOE: Region 3: After School Regional Lead)
@ mgonzalez@scoe.net

Phil Romig: (SCOE: Science Curriculum Specialist) @ promig@scoe.net

Mark Drewes: (SCOE: Project Specialist II: After School) @ mdrewes@scoe.net




Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Oh! The Places You'll Go!

You won't lag behind, because you'll have the speed.
You'll pass the whole gang and you'll soon take the lead.
Wherever you fly, you'll be the best of the best.
Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.

The stanza above was written by Dr. Seuss for the Poem titled Oh! The Places You'll Go!

The Grant Managers, Expanded Learning Program Providers, Program Directors, Site Coordinators, and front line practitioners have visited many places this year. They have visited the outer limits of our galaxy courtesy of the Discovery Museum Science and Space Center. They have soared to new heights within Earth's atmosphere via a trip to the Aerospace Museum of California. They have also visited the different biomes of the Effie Yeaw Nature Center. These are just a few of the known locations that the professional development in Region 3 has taken those in the Expanded Learning world. There are countless destinations that haven't revealed themselves yet; for when you invest in your craft, the destinations are limitless and do not always reveal themselves right away. Being a life long learner will take you to places that you have never dreamed of.


There are a plethora of life long learners in the Region 3 Expanded Learning Program field and here are  two courses that some from the region enrolled in during March of 2014:
Professional Development Training: Advanced Project WET (Click to view News Story)
(Water Education for Teachers) 
Trainer: Brian Brown: California Project WET Coordinator
Contact Information: projectwet@watereducation.org
Date of Training: March 12 and 13, 2014
Brief Description of Training: This was an advanced training for participants who have already attended a Project WET training in the past. Participants were encouraged to bring their copies of the Project WET instructor guide that they received at a prior training. At this training, Brian Brown, led the participants on an in-depth exploration of 10 Project WET activities at the site of the American River. This training not only focused on how to incorporate these activities into their Summer Learning Program, but also how to make their field trips more impactful. This training and the activities that were facilitated also helped these Expanded Learning Program educators make a stronger correlation between the drought that California is currently experiencing and the effects that it has on our local environments.
Effie Yeaw Nature Center was the site of this training.

Brian Brown leading the group towards the American River.


Participants conducted a simulated bio-assessment of the American River by sampling aquatic macro invertebrates.



Participants play a game of tag to stimulate the effects of environmental stressors on macro invertebrate populations.

Professional Development Training: California Teacher Pathway STEM Institute:
Module III (Moon Rovers)
Trainer: Ryan McCarthy: Statewide Training Director for California Teacher Pathway
Contact Information: ryan@cateacherpathway.org

Date of Training: March 27, 2014

Brief Description of Training: In this professional development training, the Expanded Learning Program educators worked in collaborative groups to experience this activity first hand. They were asked to think like scientist and explore the idea of how a car works. Through this activity they identified real world variables that had effects on their moon rovers that they built such as friction, weight distribution, alignment, etc. Also by experiencing this activity first hand, the participants were also able to trouble shoot any potential road bumps that some of their students might face. 


Participants are working on creating one of their concave moon rover wheels.

Participants have just finished adding all four of their concave moon rover wheels to the chassis.

Finished Moon Rover called the Rainbow Rover










STEM and Other Pertinent Articles:


1) What Keeps Students Motivated to Learn?

2) Introducing Programming to Preschoolers

3) Should Kids Learn to Code in Grade School?

4) Why Programming Teaches So Much More Than Technical Skills

5) Demand for Computer Science Classes Grows, Despite Digital Divide

6) Why It's Imperative to Teach Students How to Question as the Ultimate Survival Skill

7) Follow the School Funding Formula (LCFF)

8) Districts Develop Goals for Foster Youth

9) SB 1221 (Hancock) Would Prioritize Year-Round Learning

10) After-School coding program in Mill Valley crammed with kids

11) California STEM Learning Network Supports AB2319 
      (Supplemental funding for Common Core and NGSS)

12) Quality After School STEM Necessitates Quality Teaching and Learning

13) AB 1879 Would require after school consultation in LCAPs


STEM (and other Integrated Core Content) Activities/Videos/Websites/Podcast:

1) Does Teaching KidsTo Get 'Gritty' Help Them Get Ahead?

2) Learn to Code, Learn to Code

3) PBS How to Use Digital Tools Webpage

4) Student Science Resources

5) STEM-Finity (Free STEM Resources for K-12 educators)

6) Soap Souffle

7) Sun Science App from Lawrence Hall of Science (Free +Activities)

8) Lawrence Hall of Science Programs for Schools

9) Learning In After School and Summer (LIAS) in the News

10) Roadtrip Nation Career Roadmap

11) Natural Heroes Curriculum (KVIE)

12) SPARK Physical Activity Kit through CASRC 

13) Predators and Prey Kits through CASRC

14) Real Math Games Home Connection Kit

15) Discovering Science Through Inquiry Series



STEM Profesional Development Opportunities:

1) Techbridge Summer Institute ($800 per person)

2) STEM Academy for Elementary School Teachers ($450 per person)

3) Steve Spangler Story Time Slime / Online Training ($199.00 per person)
    Connecting Science and Children's Literature

4) Click2Science Professional Development Program (Free)

5) Technical Writing for Science Class (Free)

6) Edge Up University Provides Online Professional Development (Free)
    Professional Development training for Informal After School Educators
    provided by Region 8

7) Crafting a Winning Needs Statement: Give your grant proposals a competitive 
    advantage Webinar: April 23, 2014 10:00am PST (Free)

8) Beyond Sponsorship: How to Create Value Driven Corporate Partnerships
    Webinar: April 23, 2014 10:00am PST (Free)


STEM / Misc. / Events / Grants / Contest:

1) Speak Up! Speak Out! CalSAC's 10th Annual California Afterschool and Summer 
    Challenge (May 12 and 13, 2014) Register online

2)  Teichert Foundation Grants (August 2014 Deadline)

3) American Honda Foundation STEM Grants (May 1 Deadline)

4)  Batters Up USA (Baseball and Softball Gear) 
     (New Applications Posted May 1, 2014)

5) UC Davis Day of Service and Science (May 8, 2014)

6) Meet the Machines: Children of all ages have the opportunity to touch, climb on and 
    explore an expansive collection of machines and unique vehicles. (May 10, 2014)

7) Saucony Run for Good Foundation Website: Program: After School, 
    At-Risk/Character, General Education, Health/PE
    Maximum Grant: up to $10,000 (Deadline: June 13, 2014)

8) Best Buy Children's Foundation Program: After School, Arts, General Education, 
    Health / PE, Math, Reading, Science/Environmental, Social Studies, STEM, 
    Technology Maximum Grant: up to $6,000 (Deadline: July 1, 2014)

9) Innovation Corps Sites Program: After School, Arts, General Education, Health/PE, 
    Math, Reading, Science,/Environmental, Social Studies, STEM, Technology 
    Maximum Grant: up to $6,000 (Deadline July 1, 2014)

10) Procter and Gamble Educational Grants Program: After School, Early Childhood, 
      General Education, Health/PE Maximum Grant: up to $10,000 
      (Deadline September 26, 2014)




Thanks again for all that you do in the field. Please keep us posted about STEM events/activities in your area. Please feel free to contact us at any time.

Monica Gonzalez-William (SCOE: Region 3: After School Regional Lead)
@ mgonzalez@scoe.net

Phil Romig: (SCOE: Science Curriculum Specialist) @ promig@scoe.net

Mark Drewes: (SCOE: Project Specialist II: After School) @ mdrewes@scoe.net








Friday, March 14, 2014

You are My Sunshine. My only Sunshine. You make me happy when…..

The next verse of the song You are my Sunshine states "when skies are grey, but on March 1st at the SMUD Solar Schoolhouse workshop for educators, the sun also made us happy because it helped us to charge our smart phones.

There were 30 educators who attended the SMUD Solar Schoolhouse workshop for educators on March 1, 2014. The hands-on training was designated for 6th thru 12th grade educators, community college educators, and Out-of School-Time educators. It was at this five-hour training that Tor Allen of the Solar Schoolhouse, a leader in energy education, informed those in attendance that increasing the solar literacy in schools is an important step toward a clean-energy future.

"As we learn more about the effects of our current fossil-fuel-based energy habits, getting reacquainted with the sun, the primary energy source on Earth, is rich with hope and possibilities," Allen said. "Raising students' solar IQ will not only prepare them to be active participants in creating and adopting clean-energy solutions going forward, but it will also open them up to numerous college and career pathways. If we are going to prepare our kids for the future, we need to show them what jobs the future holds. They need to be proactive members of society and trying to keep them on the cutting edge would mean providing them a better advantage when it comes time to make a college (area of study) or career choice later on."

Teachers were provided with the materials to not only make a solar pizza box oven, but also solar-charging lunchbox kit that included a charging port for cellphones and other small electronic devices. Participants had to assemble the components.

These types of activities that we we as educators took part in and will take back to our respective school sites to facilitate will challenge our students to do a higher-level of thinking, one that is also centered on project-based learning. The solar pizza box oven and the solar mp3 charger activities incorporate the following five learning principles 1) Learning that is Active 2) Learning that is Collaborative 3) Learning that is Meaningful 4) Learning that supports Mastery and 5) Learning that expands Horizons. These five LIAS principles are also heavily rooted in Common Core State Standards, Next Generation Science Standards, and Habits of the Mind.

The SMUD educator workshops have concluded for the current academic year, but they will start up again in the Fall of 2014. Sign up to receive the SMUD newsletter and you will be alerted for the 2014-2015 educator workshops.

Solar charger for MP3 player that we created at the SMUD workshop.
Here is what has been taking place in Region 3s Out-of-School-Time Programs. The following reports were submitted by either site coordinators who facilitated the activities or by the students who took part in the activities.

Name of Out-of-School-Time Provider: Roberts Family Development Center

Name of District: Twin Rivers Unified School District

Grade Level of Activity: 3rd thru 12th grade

Number of students who took part in the activity: 20

Type of Activity: Javelin Rockets from CA Teacher Pathway

Learning Outcomes- Students were able to: 


  • construct and fly paper rockets
  • investigate launch angels versus distance with their rockets
  • students will apply their understanding of Newton's laws of motion to design a game or activity for a microgravity environment
  • collect data points that they will be able to plot on an X and Y axis graph
  • locate the launch angle of their rocket
  • discuss what made their rockets fly either shorter or longer distances
  • discuss what made their rockets fly the way that they did
Contact: Imani Lucas with any further questions that you may have about this activity. His email address is: imani_lucas@yahoo.com

Ms. Ada is facilitating the Javelin Rockets lesson.
The young men from the Roberts Family Development Center are displaying their  rockets they created.
Anthony is proudly displaying his rocket that he created.
STEM Articles:










STEM Activities/Videos/Websites/Podcast:





5) PI Day Lesson Plans (Lesson Plan)



8) Bohart Museum of Entomology (Traveling Museum)



STEM Profesional Development Opportunities:

1) Gopher Sports Webinar Meet Your ASES Physical Activity Requirements 
     (March 19 1:00 PM PST)

2) Techbridge Girls Summer Institute for Educators (July 30 - August 1, 2014 in Oakland)


    (July 18, 19, and 26, 2014)

    (K-7 but materials can be adapted for 8-12)

6) Forestry Institute For Teachers (June and July 2014 dates)

STEM/Misc./Events/ Grants/ Contest:


2) Teichert Foundation Grants (August 2014 Deadline)


4) Batters Up USA (Baseball and Softball Gear) (Open until all materials handed out)

Thanks again for all that you do in the field. Please keep us posted about STEM events/activities in your area. Please feel free to contact us at any time.

Monica Gonzalez-William (SCOE: Region 3: After School Regional Lead)
@ mgonzalez@scoe.net

Phil Romig: (SCOE: Science Curriculum Specialist) @ promig@scoe.net

Mark Drewes: (SCOE: Project Specialist II: After School) @ mdrewes@scoe.net


P.S. Here is an alternate recording of You Are My Sunshine by Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan

















Friday, February 14, 2014

This Valentine's Day, Let's Remember Dr. Daniel Hale Williams and Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler



Dr. Daniel Hale Williams


Dr. Daniel Hale Williams (January 18, 1856 – August 4, 1931) was an American surgeon. He was an African-American general surgeon, and performed one of the first successful pericardium surgeries. He also founded Provident Hospital, the first non-segregated hospital in the United States. At the time that he graduated from medical school,
black doctors were not allowed to work in Chicago hospitals. As a result, in 1891, Dr. Williams started
the Provident Hospital (in Chicago) and training school for nurses in Chicago, Illinois.

Dr. Williams was the sec on to have successfully performed pericardium surgery to repair a wound. Henry Dalton was the first. Dalton successfully performed pericardium surgery to repair a wound in
1891, with the patient fully recovering.

In 1893, Williams repaired the torn pericardium of a knife wound patient, James Cornish, the second on record. Dr. Williams performed this surgery without the benefit of penicillin or blood transfusion at Provident Hospital; in Chicago, on July 10, 1893. Roughly 55 days later, James Cornish had successfully recovered from his surgery.

In 1893, during the administration of President Grover Cleveland, Williams was appointed surgeon-in-chief of Freedman's Hospital in Washington, D.C., a post he held until 1898 when he married and moved to Chicago. In addition to organizing the hospital, Williams also established a training school for African-American nurses at the facility.

Williams was a teacher of Clinical Surgery at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee and was an attending surgeon at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. He worked to create more hospitals and for accessibility to African Americans. In 1895 he co-founded the National Medical Association for African American doctors, and in 1913 he became a charter member and the only African American doctor in the American College of Surgeons.



Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler

Rebecca Davis Lee Crumpler (February 8, 1831 – March 9, 1895) was an American physician. Rebecca Lee was the first African-American woman to become a physician in the United States. She married Dr. Arthur Crumpler after the Civil War. Her publication of A Book of Medical Discourses in 1883 was one of the first written by an African American about medicine.

In 1831, Rebecca Davis Lee was born in Deleware to Matilda Webber and Absolum Davis. She was raised in Pennsylvania by an aunt who cared for infirm neighbors. During the antebellum years, medical care for poor blacks was almost non-existent. She moved to Charlestown, Massachusetts by 1852 and was employed as a nurse until she was accepted into the New England Female Medical College in 1860. It was rare for women or black men to be admitted to medical schools, during this time. When she graduated in 1864, Rebecca Lee (later Crumpler) was the first African American woman in the United States to earn an M.D. degree, and the only African American woman to graduate from New England Female Medical College.

Crumpler first practiced medicine in Boston, primarily for poor women and children. During this time she "sought training in the 'British Dominion'".

After the American Civil War ended in 1865, she moved to Richmond, Virginia believing it to be "a proper field for real missionary work, and one that would present ample opportunities to become acquainted with the diseases of women and children. During my stay there nearly every hour was improved in that sphere of labor. The last quarter of the year 1866, I was enabled to have access each day to a very large number of the indigent, and others of different classes, in a population of over 30,000 colored." Crumpler worked for the Freedmen's Bureau to provide medical care to freed slaves; She was subject to "intense racism": "men doctors snubbed her, druggist balked at filling her prescriptions, and some people wisecracked that the M.D. behind her name stood for nothing more than 'Mule Driver'".

Rebecca married Dr. Arthur Crumpler around the time of her graduation but by the time she moved back to Boston. Her neighborhood on Joy Street in Beacon Hill was a predominantly African American community. She "entered into the work with renewed vigor, practicing outside, and receiving children in the house for treatment; regardless, in a measure, of remuneration.





STEM Articles:

a) The Georgetown STEM Report (Executive Summary)

b) K-12 NAE STREM Report

c) Integrated STEM Education: What is it? What Should it be?

d) MissionBit's Volunteer Hackers Close the Computer Science Education 
    Gap In SF's Schools

e) 'Math Bites' show with Danica McKellar makes numbers hip

f) What Afterschool STEM Does Best

STEM Activities/Videos/Websites/Podcast:

a) Do Math in Your Head

b) How Gardening Enables Interdisciplinary Learning

c) How making Robotics Captivates Kids' Imagination

d) Learning STEM Skills by Designing Video Games

e) Science Bob Experiments

f) California Academy of Sciences Teacher Resource Page

g) In Oakland, Using Video Games to Build a Bridge to Silicon Valley

STEM Profesional Development Opportunities:

a) Solar School House Primer: (For educators: Grades 4-12, Free)
    March 1, 2014

b) Project WET Training (Training is Hosted by Yolo County Office of Education)
    (February 28, 2014 is the registration deadline) Training is March 8, 2014

c) Up Your Game Older Youth Conference (Hosted by Region 6)
    (February 28, 2014 is the registration deadline)
     March 22, 2014 is the training date
     (Fee: Free unless you no show)
 

STEM/Misc./Events/ Grants/ Contest:

a) Teen Safe Driving Grant (Deadline: Rolling)

b) Fender Music Program Grants (Deadline: Rolling)

c)  SMUD Solar Car Race (Entry Deadline February 28, 2014)

d) Placer County STEM Expo (March 1, 2014)

e) The Young Naturalist Award (Deadline: March 1, 2014)

f) Access Fund: $10,000 (Deadline: March 1, 2014)

g) Siemens "We Can Change the World" Challenge (Deadline: March 4, 2014)

h) National Science Foundation Grants

i) SPARK Grant Finder

j) American Heart Association- Childhood Obesity Rapid Response Fund
   $15,000 to $100,000 (Deadline: Open)


Thanks again for all that you do in the field. Please keep us posted about STEM events/activities in your area. Please feel free to contact us at any time.

Monica Gonzalez-William (SCOE: Region 3: After School Regional Lead)
@ mgonzalez@scoe.net

Phil Romig: (SCOE: Science Curriculum Specialist) @ promig@scoe.net

Mark Drewes: (SCOE: Project Specialist II: After School) @ mdrewes@scoe.net