Maine
Science
Newsletter of the Maine Science Teachers Association
Visit us at www.mainescienceteachers.org
Dear MSTA Members, President’s Letter
As many of you “wind down” for the
end of school and graduation festivities,
the MSTA will be “winding up” plans
for the upcoming school year. As
Maine’s statewide professional
association of science educators, the
MSTA board and committee members
volunteer countless hours to support our
membership. Reflecting back on this
past year, the MSTA has accomplished
several successes in recognizing,
supporting, energizing, and networking
teachers throughout Maine including:
our first ever Iron Science Teacher
competition; the Fall Science Conference at Gardiner High
School, NCLB- Nothing Connects Learning Better; the Phil
Marcoux Award; The Lou Lambert Award; MSTA
Minigrants; Dine and Discuss nights at the Auburn Land Lab
and the Challenger Learning Center; statewide survey of
membership needs; three newsletters; the Boston Museum of
Science October field trip for members and their families;
science safety information; and MSTA representation at the
CAGS functions during the NSTA National Convention. It
has been a busy year!
It is my responsibility as MSTA President to ensure that
MSTA is fiscally sound and able to carry out its function.
Our organization was dealt a financial blow due to the low
attendance at our October statewide conference. The
statewide conference is our major revenue generator for
1
May 2005
This transition to a two-day option
was informed by our survey. I also
polled other state associations
throughout the U.S. and over 80%
of the responses I got back indicated
other states have a 2 or 3 day
conference. This format will provide
longer sessions and more in-depth
opportunities for professional
development which was also a
membership request indicated by the
survey (results of the survey are
posted on the MSTA web site at
www.mainscienceteachers.org).
This year’s conference will be held on the Friday and
half-day Saturday, before the Martin Luther King
holiday at the University of Maine- Farmington.
January is the month that seems to avoid the most
conflicts and is actually one of the winter months
with the least snowfall, one of our concerns for
moving the date to winter/early spring. Many thanks
to our new Board member, Dr. Andrea Freed,
professor of science education at UMF, who is
helping us with the site arrangements and
organization of the conference. You will hear more
about the conference and several exciting
opportunities planned over the two days in our Fall
newsletter.
As a result of the lost revenue, the Board had to make
covering our Board operating expenses and members’
services. The survey sent to members this winter helped us
understand why the attendance was so low. The major factor
was the date: the traditional October inservice day, which is
increasingly becoming a mandatory day when teachers are
not released to attend other activities. As a result, combined
with the feedback we received regarding the availability of
professional development days and suggested dates and to
avoid a conflict with the NSTA Regional in Hartford this
fall, the Board decided to change the date of the 2005-06
conference to January and offer a two-day option.
2
difficult decision to postpone minigrants and awards
to make sure our budget will carry us through until
the next conference. We will let members know when
the minigrants and nominations for awards become
Inside this issue:
MSTA & Maine News ..................... ..Pp 2-8
NSTA and Other National News.......Pp 9- 13
Professional Development..............Pp14-16
Teacher & Student Resources……..Pp17-18
available again. We are also cutting costs for our
monthly board meetings and trying out an
electronic newsletter to cut back on printing and
postage costs.
On the positive side, I am happy to announce a
new opportunity for MSTA to be involved with
our national organization, NSTA. I submitted a
proposal to NSTA, through the MMSA, and
listed MSTA as one of our partners, to be one of
the seven states selected for NSTA’s National
Science Foundation funded scale up of the e-
MSS Project- Electronic Mentoring for Student
Success. This innovative online mentoring
project matches middle and high school science
teachers (practicing and retired) with new
teachers in their first or second year of teaching
and also provides online access to research
scientists. I highly encourage MSTA members to
apply to be science mentors. There is a 3 week
online mentoring training given over the
summer, and mentors receive a $1400 stipend. If
you are a new teacher or if you know of new
teachers being hired over the summer- please
pass on the word about this exciting opportunity.
New teachers receive a $500 stipend for their
participation. Many new teachers in Maine are
assigned a trained mentor, but these mentors are
often in other content areas and do not know the
specific content and pedagogy of science. One
high school I know of assigned a business
teacher to a physics teacher as a mentor- fine for
Electronic Mentoring for Student Success (eMSS)
The MMSA is pleased to announce that Maine is
one of six states chosen to partner with the
National Science Teachers Association (NSTA),
The New Teacher Center at the University of
California Santa Cruz, and Montana State
University as part of an innovative national
NSF-funded online mentoring project called
eMSS- Electronic Mentoring for Student
Success. This program matches new teachers in
Maine (first or second year of teaching middle
or high school science) with an experienced
Maine science teacher mentor. Together, the
mentoring takes place online and is focused on
content and pedagogy. Scientists from the
University of California and Montana State
University also participate to provide content
support when needed or share their research
2
general skills but not a lot of help for becoming
a knowledgeable teacher of science! This is a
great opportunity for mentors to receive mentor
training specific to science as well as an
opportunity for new teachers to build a
relationship with an experienced science teacher,
and all benefit from being part of a “community
of science teachers.” One of the greatest gifts
you can give to our profession is supporting our
new teachers. You can get more information
about eMSS and fill out an online application by
going to the web site at emss.nsta.org and
clicking on the Maine button.
As many of you may know, I recently published
my first book, as part of an MMSA NSF-funded
project, and am excited to be working with
educators around the country who are using this
new tool. I never fail to mention that this work
was developed through the input and
experiences of Maine’s extraordinary science
teachers- I am so proud to be associated with
you, to learn through your eyes and ears, and to
combine our collective wisdom for the benefit of
teachers and students everywhere. I hope
everyone has a wonderful summer and comes
back refreshed to start a new year.
Until then,
Page
Page Keeley, President
activities. Discussion areas are provided for
earth, space, life, and physical science and
several modules are designed to explore
different aspects of science teaching between
mentors and mentees. The eMSS project has
built a very impressive community of online
science mentors and mentees, working together
to improve teaching and learning.
Maine will be accepting 20-25 mentees into the
program for this fall. All mentees are paid a
$500 stipend for participating online throughout
the school year. There are also 2 optional
opportunities to meet your mentor at a statewide
event. The specific details regarding the program
are on the web site at http://emss.nsta.org .
If accepted into the Maine eMSS program, you
will be matched with someone who is not from
your own school who teaches the same subject
area as you and is interested in being your
mentor. If you love science and are seeking
support, want to learn how to be a successful
science teacher, enjoy sharing great classroom
ideas, want to meet other teachers around the
state, and are comfortable interacting online
(through threaded discussions, not chats), then
consider applying to be part of the eMSS
project. The Maine application for mentees is up
Doing Science – My Experience with the Science Olympiad
by Rosemarie Smith – Waterville Senior High School
I remember seeing a T-shirt at an NSTA
convention when I first started teaching in the
80’s. It read “Science is a Verb” and, like most
teachers, although I can’t remember the author I
have remembered and used the motto throughout
my career. Real science occurs in my classroom
when my students think beyond the facts of the
lesson or procedure of the lab and make their
own connections. Better yet, science is really
happening when they dare to go off on their
own, change this factor or that, and make their
own discovery. This happens sometimes in my
classroom, when I don’t feel the pressure of
finishing the curriculum, getting the students
ready for an early May AP exam, or reaching all
of my students with their myriad of interests and
abilities. It happens all the time when my
Science Olympiad team gathers and prepares for
the next competition.
I had been teaching for four years before coming
to Waterville in 1987. In the fall of 1989 I
showed an episode of “Discover, the World of
Science” to my physics class. (As a new teacher
I taught a little of everything back then.) One of
my students, Jamie Lewis, was fascinated with a
15-minute segment about the Science Olympiad,
a national organization just a few years old
which sponsored one-day meets where schools
competed in around 20 events covering all
aspects of science. At least six of these were
engineering events, and this television segment
featured one of them, the ‘Scrambler”
competition.
In this competition, students had to design and
build a vehicle which would transport an
3
and ready at http://emss.nsta.org . Please share
this information with any other new teachers
you know. Mentees can apply on a rolling basis
as they get hired and as long as we have enough
mentors. The earlier you apply, the better your
chances of us finding a mentor for you.
Hope you will take advantage of this great
opportunity to be part of an exciting science
network of teachers in Maine!
uncooked, unprotected egg on the front of it.
The vehicle was powered by the fall of a 2-kg
mass, and it had to stop before hitting a wall
which might be placed anywhere from 8 to 12
meters from the start. Jamie was persistent. I
simply had to see if Maine had a state meet and
we had to build a scrambler. I was directed to
Earl Coombs, a colleague from Winslow, and
was invited to a planning meeting of the coaches
who were going to compete in a spring meet at
MCI, organized by Donna Young. Maine had
held meets for the past few years, almost since
the beginning of the organization, and I signed
Waterville up to compete.
We read the rules, built everything required with
some care, studied a little, and looked forward to
April with little understanding of what it was all
about. The exception was Scrambler. Jamie
excitedly took on the project, consulted various
experts from other Waterville departments, and
built a very competitive vehicle. He designed an
adjustable braking mechanism with Ed Roy, a
vocational teacher. This was the key to success
in this event throughout the years, and we never
changed the braking mechanism in all the years
that Scrambler was part of the event list.
At the April meet we took first place in
Scrambler, a hint of the success that is possible
when one becomes totally involved in a Science
Olympiad event. We had a reasonable showing
in a few other events and came in tenth out of 18
teams. But that first competition was enough to
launch us into a partnership with the Science
Olympiad which has enriched the lives of over
200 Waterville High School students over the
past 15 years, and has profoundly changed my
teaching career. The emotional tie that I have
shared with these students has been phenomenal,
and I have formed many friendships that will
last a lifetime.
My Waterville team improved each year,
winning an increasing number of medals and
getting our first trophy for second place in 1993.
In 1996, at Mt. Ararat in Topsham, we beat a
dominate Oxford Hills team to win the state
championship and we have never looked back.
This year at Windham High School on March
18th, we won our tenth consecutive state
championship.
It is hard to put into words what all this has
meant for the school community and for me
personally. We have competed in the national
meet each May, traveling to nearly every area of
the country. The community has donated over
$100,000 in these ten years, and this has been
done in a matter of only six weeks each time.
We have always been able to attend the National
Meet due to the continued generosity of
corporations, small businesses, and friends and
relatives in this community. Donations are now
coming in from former students who were on the
team. Many of these students have pursued
highly successful science careers.
This year, the national meet is at the University
of Illinois in Urbana, Illinois. We compete with
the best, and we have improved every year.
State winners are usually from enormous
schools or private science magnet schools.
Maine has been the sixth smallest school,
determined by the number of students
throughout the state who compete in the Science
Olympiad, competing out of around 60 schools
in the last few years. Still we have improved.
Last year for the first time we were in the top
half of the finishers, placing 27th out of 54
teams. We beat one of the California teams,
both of the North Carolina teams (a science-rich
state including the famous Research Triangle
area around Duke) and many other much larger
schools. We actually beat the national winner in
several engineering events. We have won 3
national medals in 10 years, but improving each
year is the way that we measure our success.
We now have our own space in the back of a
former vocational workshop; the same room in
4
which Ed Roy first helped Jamie design his
braking mechanism for Scrambler. The room is
filled with lots of textbooks and files of notes
taken by countless members over the years.
Like we did with the braking mechanism for
Scrambler, we build each year from what we
learned before. We use the knowledge gained
by others before us as we design, cut, assemble,
test and tear apart our projects.
How long can our reign last? I have always said
that we win because we put in the time it takes
to be excellent in all the events. This can be
hundreds of hours from September to March,
preparing for our one state meet. We have
followed Jamie’s lead that first year. But now we
do it for every event. We will eventually lose to
a team that does the same thing a little better
than we do.
Yet that will not be losing. The afternoon before
the state meet this year, a few of the parents
(many of them educators at Colby and other area
schools) were standing around as the students
worked. The catapult was hurling an object as a
student checked a graph, the robot was being
tested yet another time for speed and accuracy,
and the names of fossils, trees, and chemical
compounds were being tossed back and forth.
One parent said “The energy in this room is
incredible. This is what education is all about.”
It is certainly what science is all about. When
you are a member of the Science Olympiad
team, doing science is what you do every time
the team meets. For this science teacher, that
makes these students winners before the state
meet even begins.
If you want to learn more about the Science
Olympiad, please visit the national site at:
http://www.soinc.org/ If you would like
information about the Science Olympiad in
Maine, please direct your questions to the state
director at this address:
mcobb@fc.wtvl.k12.me.us
 Maine’s Challenger Center Chosen for Exciting Biomedical Research Project
In order to support the human component of this
"vision," biomedical scientists from many
disciplines must answer dozens of "critical path"
questions before firm commitments can be
made. As part of this initiative, the Challenger
Learning Center of Maine has recently been
selected to participate in a special space
biomedicine program for K-12 students. The
program has been designed by the National
Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) in
partnership with the Colorado Consortium for
Earth and Space Science Education (CCESSE)
to promote the understanding that space
biomedicine is one of the most critical,
challenging, and exciting areas associated with
human space exploration.
The ten organizations selected for the first round
of this grant are:
Informal Education Organizations:
Space Science Institute (Boulder CO,
with national audience)
Denver Museum of Nature and Science
(Denver CO)
Fernbank Science Center (Atlanta, GA)
Challenger Learning Centers of:
Colorado
Alaska
San Antonio, Texas
Northwest Indiana, c/o Purdue
University Calumet
Tallahassee, Florida
Maine
New Jersey (Buhler)
With this program, students and teachers will be
able to experience space biomedical research for
themselves at Maine’s Challenger Learning
Center. Classroom teachers will know more
about the challenges of human space exploration
and the critical role space biomedicine plays in a
decision to go back to the Moon and on to Mars.
In addition, teachers will gain a broader
understanding of the disciplinary science of
human physiology and be able to teach the
subject better, using unique space-related
examples. Students will gain a better
appreciation of the basic principles of human
anatomy and physiology and how those
principles are applied to the human exploration
of space. By making this addition to the
Challenger Center curriculum, the simulation
experience for students at the Center becomes
that much closer to reality
With the guidance
and supervision of the
Challenger Learning
Center Flight Director
on board the
"spacecraft,"
Challenger Learning
Center students will
actually experience
some of the (angular
acceleration)
sensations and
vestibular illusions
astronauts experience
in space. Students
will be learning about
nervous system
adaptations and conducting neurovestibular
experiments like those conducted in space using
a rotating Barany chair. The student Mission
Control crew will work with the student Space
Station/spacecraft Medical Mission Specialist
crew to conduct rotating chair experiments
similar to those administered on the STS-40
Spacelab Life Science Laboratory-1 and STS-90
Neurolab missions. The Barany chair will be
installed in the space station of the Challenger
Center this August and ready for students at the
start of the new school year.
“We feel that incorporating a unit on spaceflight-
induced changes to the human nervous system
(which includes information on vestibular
illusions, sleep, circadian rhythms, spatial
orientation, and visuo-motor performance) into
the Challenger Learning Center curriculum will
greatly enhance the Learning Center's in-service,
classroom, and mission activities,” said Robin
Kennedy, Lead Flight Director at the CLC of
Maine. She continued, “The teacher
professional development workshops we’ll be
offering will provide teachers with a broad
overview of human physiological adaptations to
space flight with special emphasis on the
nervous system and neurovestibular adaptations.
It’s often hard to find good material on the
nervous system that really grabs students’
attentions. This material is both exciting to them
and real!”
In the workshops to be offered this fall and the
following spring, teachers will construct a
Opinion-Editorial
Science and Technology and the Local Assessment System – Tom Keller
This article contains my opinions and is not the
position of the Maine Department of Education.
It is based on my experiences contributing to the
construction of the Local Assessment System
(LAS) and working with science curriculums
across the State. The article was written on my
own time.
Since the passage of Learning Results legislation
in 1998, the Department of Education, in
collaboration with Maine educators and
technical experts, has worked to design and
define a Local Assessment System to inform
instruction, monitor programs, and certify
achievement. This has all been accomplished
while aligning curriculums to standards,
vertically aligning curriculums, creating
instruction aligned with standards, learning
about individualized instruction, incorporating
reading across the curriculum and the myriad of
other initiatives that have already consumed
existing time and money. In the last several
weeks, announcements from the Governor and
Commissioner of Education suggest that
significant changes to the LAS are imminent.
working model semicircular canal, phase
shifting eyeglasses, and receive sufficient hands-
on instruction to ensure their proper utilization
in the classroom. A CD will be produced and
distributed to each teacher trained to use the
curriculum. It will contain a slide presentation
for their use, as well as video clips and still
photos of astronauts using a Barany chair on-
orbit and a complete video performed by
Brigadier General (retired) Orwyn Sampson,
NASA consultant and previously the Head of the
Department of Biology at the USAF Academy.
The first teacher workshop will be held on
Thursday, August 18, 2005. Cost of the
workshop will be $20. Interested teachers
should contact the Center to reserve their space.
Once the remaining workshop dates are set, they
will be posted on the calendar on the Challenger
Center’s website at www.CLCofME.org. For
more information, call the Challenger Center at
990-2900.
The basics of the local assessment system are
that assessments must that truly measure the
content and skills (also known as ‘valid’), are
numerous enough to adequately represent the
discipline (also known as ‘sufficiency’), and
must report consistent, credible information
(also known as reliability).
In science, the system currently requires that at
least twenty performance indicators over
thirteen content standards must be selected and
assessed. That is twenty indicators across each
four year grade span K-4, 5-8, and 9-12. Local
educational agency select the performance
indicators (although a state prepared Balance of
Representation can be used to provide guidance)
and the assessments are selected, adapted, or
created locally as well. The system must include
a variety of assessments types since the
indicators include a range of cognitive demands
and a range of skills and knowledge. (The
current “gold standard” for assessment is
“multiple, up to date measures including those
that measure higher order thinking skills”.)
The twenty selected indicators at each grade span
can be addressed through twenty separate
assessments, or through as few as the 8-12 as
specified in the local assessment system guide at
the whole grade span. The “47 per grade level” or
“135 per grade span” planned by some local
educational agencies far exceed expectations and
would seem to exceed common sense. Frankly, I
can’t imagine that any school administers this
number of standards-based assessments and
wonder if these numbers refer to the total number
of tests, quizzes, and other assessments given in
Life science cluster Physical science
cluster
Standard B C E H I
A
3,3,3 2 2 3,3 2,2 2 3,3,3 2
Cluster score meets as Cluster partially
65% meets as 55%
Student meets by achieving 62.5% for all possible points for the content area
A student can meet standards in mathematics by
meeting assessment requirements on only 3 of
the 11 content standards. This was before the
advent of Learning Results Credit and,
according to the State House News Service,
“watered down standards”. How watered down
can we go when we are already down to 4 of 13
for science and technology and 3 of 11 for
mathematics?
The requirement of one assessment per content
standard and at least five per cluster ensures that
all students have opportunity to learn in the
major domains of life, physical, and earth and
space science and the nature and implications of
science and technology. This represents a
tremendous step away from the traditions of
physics only for the college bound and earth and
space science for the non-college bound
students. It offers equity of opportunity for all
students in Maine to learn in all areas of science.
There are lots of misconceptions about the
required number of assessments. The multiple
measures - 8-12 assessments if more than one
performance indicators is assessed in the task, or
up to 20 if each is individually assessed, embody
the core of the system. A truly local system
focusing on selected the indicators,
course of day to day classroom assessment.
The current LAS requirements dictate that there be
at least one assessment per content standard and at
least five per cluster at each grade span. This
distribution contributes to sufficiency. When one
crunches the numbers, however, it emerges that all
a student needs to do to meet standards in science
and technology is to meet assessment requirements
(a ‘3’) on only 4 of the 13 content standards, as
shown in the example below.
Earth and space Nature and Implications of
science cluster science cluster
D F G J K L M
2 3,3 2 2 2
Cluster score meets Cluster score meets as
as 65% 60%
implementing specifically aligned curriculum
and instruction, administering assessments
selected adapted or created by teachers and
scheduled in concert with instruction and student
readiness should minimize the need for
replacement assessments.
Most importantly, these assessments provide
data, information necessary for improving
classroom instruction, monitoring programs, and
certifying student achievement. Good
trustworthy data can’t be obtained from a very
limited number of assessments. The science
program should address all four clusters, so the
assessments must provide sufficiently rich data
to inform and reflect each subdiscipline.
Teaching and learning feedback also requires a
breadth of assessments to provide sufficient data
to inform improvements. And then there is the
reliability of a decision regarding certifying
student achievement.
Our current LAS represents the thinking and
expertise of many people over many years of
discussion and decision making. I would greatly
regret reducing the parameters of the local
assessment system before we know how well it
works. Fewer assessments can only mean less
information, less reliability, less credibility, and
less utility.
 REGISTER NOW to be your school’s
SCIENCE CONTACT PERSON

The MMSA Science Team is interested in of information to distribute to their colleagues is

developing a database of school contacts for
MMSA information. We are interested in
identifying one person from every school in
Maine who would be willing to distribute
information on MMSA science opportunities to
colleagues in their school. Rather than mail
announcements, conference flyers and
registrations, etc. just to administrators from
each school, we are looking for an effective way
to get information out to individual teachers
without having to send an individual mailing to
every teacher. A science leader from each
school who would be willing to receive a packet
an effective and efficient way to get information
out to all teachers of science. If you would be
willing to be an MMSA Science contact for your
school, please complete the following and send
to Brianne Van den Bossche at
bvdbossche@mmsa.org
Thank you so much for your willingness to be a
contact person. We hope this network will
facilitate getting information out to teachers in a
timely and effective way.
The MMSA Science Team

MMSA SCIENCE CONTACT PERSON

Name: ____________________________________
Name of School: _______________________________
Union, SAD, CSD, or School District: ____________________________
County your school is located in: ________________________________
School Mailing Address with zip code
__________________________________
__________________________________
__________________________________
__________________________________
Your Email address: __________________________________
Please complete the following that apply (to your SCHOOL, not district):
# of K-2 teachers in your school that teach science: _____________
# of 3-5 teachers in your school that teach science: _____________
# of 6-8 teachers in your school that teach science: _____________
Total # of high school teachers of science: ______________
High School Science breakdown (count the same person more than once if he/she
teachers more than one subject area):
______ Earth Science ____ Physics ____ Integrated Science
______ Biology ____ Physical Science ____ Other: (specify)
______ Chemistry ____ Astronomy _________________
National Debut of Curriculum Topic  
Study (CTS)  Eastern Regional NSTA Convention
“Connections for Student Achievement”
Hartford, Connecticut
October 20-22, 2005
Curriculum Topic
Study: Bridging the
Gap Between
Standards and
Practice by Page
Keeley made its
national debut at the
NSTA Convention in
Dallas, Texas in
March. Keeley’s
book, co-published
by Corwin Press and
NSTA, has been described as “the missing link”
between science standards, teacher practice and Make plans early to attend the National Science
improved student achievement. The book Teachers’ Association Eastern Regional
details the CTS process, its versatility, and Convention being held this fall in Hartford, CT
includes 147 CTS guides listing relevant October 20-22, 2005. Dr. Henry C. Lee, one of
readings from a core set of professional science the most interesting and knowledgeable
education resources. international experts in contemporary crime
scene investigations will be a keynote speaker at
During the convention, Keeley was the featured this year’s convention. Featured conference
at two “meet the author” events - one held at the strands are Managing Transitions: Effective
NSTA convention bookstore and the other at the Teaching Strategies and Assessment, Coastal
Corwin Press booth. These sessions allowed and Wetland Environments, Next-Generation
convention attendees to meet Page, learn about Technology: Will We Be Prepared?, and Science
the CTS process, tools, and strategies, and get + Technology = Achievement. Check the NSTA
their own copies of the CTS book signed. NSTA website http://www.nsta.org and the MSTA fall
also organized a national symposium to newsletter for more details and information
introduce people to the book. Congratulations about special functions at the convention for
Page! Maine teachers!
 NSTA District II Report
By Dave White

It’s hard to believe that the 04-05 school year is
almost over. On the other hand, the fall
conference in Gardiner seems like a very long
time ago. I want to thank MSTA for the
opportunity to provide you with this brief NSTA
District II update.
On April 14th, many of your colleagues from the
New England states came together at Middlesex
Community College in MA to review and give
feedback on a draft of the new Science
Framework for the National Assessment of
Educational Progress (NAEP). With the
National Science Education Standards and the
AAAS Benchmarks as primary resources, the
new NAEP Framework will represent an
interface of the two national standards
documents for the purpose of nation wide
assessment. District II (Maine, New Hampshire,
Vermont) were well represented at this important
meeting. The new framework will be
completed by the fall, 2005 with the next
administration of the NAEP Science Assessment
scheduled for 2009.
The 2005 NSTA/CAGS National Congress on
Science Education will be held on August 3rd
through August 6th at the Millennium Hotel in
Minneapolis, MN. For more information go to
http://www.nsta.org/ncse2005
Finally, hold the dates of October 20th through
October 22nd for the NSTA Regional Convention
in Hartford, CT.
http://www.nsta.org/conventiondetail&Meeting_
Code=2005HAR
Over the next several months, the affiliate
chapters from our three District II states will
explore opportunities to bring teachers from
northern New England together for
collaboration, networking, and fun in Hartford.
Have a wonderful and well deserved summer
break!

White House Honors America’s Outstanding Science and Mathematics Teachers

The White House recently rolled out the red

carpet to honor the recipients of the 2004
Presidential Awards for Excellence in
Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST).
Considered the nation’s highest honor for
science and math educators, this year’s awards
went to 95 elementary teachers. Awardees
received a $10,000 gift from the National
Science Foundation and an all expense-paid trip
to Washington D.C. for a week-long celebration
of events and professional development
activities.

“This award recognizes the contributions that

teachers make to America’s legacy of progress
by encouraging young people to study and
understand math and science,” wrote President
George W. Bush in a letter to all awardees.
“With a strong foundation in these critical
subjects, today’s students will be able to better
compete and succeed in the 21st century
workforce.”
Maine’s 2004 Outstanding K-6 Science Teacher
is Bob Chaplin of the Conners Emerson School
in Bar Harbor. Knowing kids thrive in an out-
door environment, Chaplin and his community
built an outdoor laboratory. "My kids love the
outdoor lab and being able to work outside.
Each of my students has a plot of open land
behind our building. I assign them each a couple
of things to monitor in their plot, such as
seasonal changes, length of a shadow cast, and
the tilt of the earth," he said. "They must use the
scientific method to do touch, sight, smell,
sound, and once a month they record the data,
put it into a spreadsheet, graph it, make
predictions and draw conclusions." Having them
able to connect their thoughts together with
something in their hands, Chaplin says, makes it
a lot easier for them to take a problem and solve
it.
 The Outstanding K-6 mathematics teacher in
Maine for 2004 is Mrs. Elva Lovejoy of the
Mary Hurd School in North Berwick. Mrs.
Lovejoy likes to incorporate hands-on activities
into every lesson. "I like to do activities with the
kids where they have a lot of interaction," she
said. "When students can explain something to
another peer, it not only helps the struggling
student but also helps to solidify their
understanding. This interaction gives students
another way to look at something. Sharing
strategies is crucial."

Bob Chaplin – Maine’s

Outstanding K-6 Science Teacher
for 2004

Bob states, "As long as students know what is

expected of them, they will rise to meet any
challenge. I keep the bar high for all my
students. I want everybody to be working to
their fullest potential at all times, and they never
disappoint me. Everyone has a different style,
and everyone has gifts."

Elva Lovejoy – Maine’s

Outstanding K-6 Mathematics
Teacher for 2004

Elva remarks, "As educators we must instill the

love of learning in children from a young age,
because it will truly affect how they view school
and who they will become in the future."
 Asian Tsunami Seen from Space
by Patrick L. Barry

made a computer simulation of the Asian

When JPL research scientist Michael Garay first
heard the news that a tsunami had struck
southern Asia, he felt the same shock and
sadness over the tremendous loss of human life
that most people certainly felt. Later, though, he
began to wonder: were these waves big enough
to see from space?
So he decided to check. At JPL, Garay analyzes
data from MISR-the Multi-angle Imaging
SpectroRadiometer instrument aboard NASA's
Terra satellite. He scoured MISR images from
the day of the tsunami, looking for signs of the
waves near the coasts of India, Sri Lanka,
Indonesia, and Thailand.
Looking at an image of the southern tip of Sri
Lanka taken by one of MISR's angled cameras;
he spotted the distinct shape of waves made
visible by the glint of reflected sunlight. They
look a bit like normal waves, except for their
scale: These waves were more than a kilometer
wide!
Most satellites have cameras that point straight
down. From that angle, waves are hard to see.
But MISR is unique in having nine cameras,
each viewing Earth at a different angle. "We
could see the waves because MISR's forward-
looking camera caught the reflected sunlight just
right," Garay explains.
tsunami.
"Because the Indian Ocean doesn't have a
tsunami warning system, hardly any scientific
measurements of the tsunami's propagation
exist, making it hard for Dr. Titov to check his
simulations against reality," Garay explains.
"Our images provide some important data points
to help make his simulations more accurate. By
predicting where a tsunami will hit hardest,
those simulations may someday help authorities
issue more effective warnings next time a
tsunami strikes."
Find out more about MISR and see the latest
images at www-misr.jpl.nasa.gov/. Kids can
read their own version of the MISR tsunami
story at
spaceplace.nasa.gov/en/kids/misr_tsunami .
This article was provided by the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, California Institute of Technology,
under a contract with the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration.

In another set of images, MISR's cameras caught

the white foam of tsunami waves breaking off
the coast of India. By looking at various angles
as the Terra satellite passed over the area,
MISR's cameras snapped seven shots of the
breaking waves, each about a minute apart. This
gave scientists a unique time-lapse view of the
motion of the waves, providing valuable data
such as the location, speed, and direction of the
breaking waves.
This December 26, 2004, MISR image of the
Realizing the importance of the find, Garay southern tip of Sri Lanka was taken several
contacted Vasily Titov at the National Oceanic hours after the first tsunami wave hit the island.
and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific It was taken with MISR's 46° forward-looking
Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle, camera.
Washington. Titov is a tsunami expert who had
A larger version of this image can be http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/news_images/misr_t
downloaded from sunami.jpg
Seeing in the Dark with Spitzer
by Patrick Barry and Tony Phillips

Have you ever gotten up in the middle of the

night, walked to the bathroom and, in the
darkness, tripped over your dog? A tip from the
world of high-tech espionage: next time use
night-vision goggles.

Night vision goggles detect heat in the form of

infrared radiation-a "color" normally invisible to
the human eye. Wearing a pair you can see
sleeping dogs, or anything that's warm, in
complete darkness.

This same trick works in the darkness of space.

Much of the exciting action in the cosmos is too
dark for ordinary telescopes to see. For example,
stars are born in the heart of dark interstellar
clouds. While the stars themselves are bright,
their birth-clouds are dense, practically
impenetrable. The workings of star birth are
thus hidden.

That's why NASA launched the Spitzer Space

Telescope into orbit in 2003. Like a giant set of
infrared goggles, Spitzer allows scientists to
peer into the darkness of space and see, for
example, stars and planets being born. Dogs or
dog stars: infrared radiation reveals both.

There is one problem, though, for astronomers.

"Infrared telescopes on the ground can't see very
well," explains Michelle Thaller, an astronomer
at the California Institute of Technology. "Earth's
atmosphere blocks most infrared light from
above. It was important to put Spitzer into space
where it can get a clear view of the cosmos."

The clear view provided by Spitzer recently

allowed scientists to make a remarkable
discovery: They found planets coalescing out of
a disk of gas and dust that was circling-not a
star-but a "failed star" not much bigger than a
planet! Planets orbiting a giant planet?

The celestial body at the center of this planetary

system, called OTS 44, is only about 15 times
the mass of Jupiter. Technically, it's considered a
"brown dwarf," a kind of star that doesn't have
enough mass to trigger nuclear fusion and shine.

Scientists had seen planetary systems forming

around brown dwarfs before, but never around
one so small and planet-like.

Spitzer promises to continue making

extraordinary discoveries like this one. Think of
it as being like a Hubble Space Telescope for
looking at invisible, infrared light. Like Hubble,
Spitzer offers a view of the cosmos that's leaps
and bounds beyond anything that came before.
Spitzer was designed to operate for at least two
and a half years, but probably will last for five
years or more.

For more about Spitzer and to see the latest

images, go to
http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/spitzer. Kids and
grown-ups will enjoy browsing common sights
in infrared and visible light at the interactive
infrared photo album on The Space Place,
http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/en/kids/sirtf1/sirtf_act
ion.shtml.

This article was provided by the Jet Propulsion

Laboratory, California Institute of Technology,
under a contract with the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration.
 NASA Rocketry Workshop for Pre-service and High School Teachers
The Maine Space Grant Consortium is pleased
to announce an opportunity for Pre-service
teachers and high school teachers in Maine, to
participate in a High Power Rocketry Workshop
conducted at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in
Florida!
Date: August 8-14, 2005
Where: NASA Kennedy Space Center, Florida
Eligibility: Pre-service teachers who expect to
teach at the 7th grade level and above and high
school teachers from Maine
Participants Costs included if selected for award
(at no cost to participants): Airfare, hotel,
transportation between the hotel and Kennedy
Space Center, and workshop materials
Safety in the Maine Science Classroom
The laws and regulations that control what can
and cannot be done in Maine science classrooms
are not in one easy place. The Maine Science
Teachers Association (MSTA) along with Tom
Keller at he Department of Education is working
to find and organize the information in a useful
format for the science teachers in Maine.
Currently, Tom is making contact with the
various departments at the state level to acquire
the current regulations. This summer the
information will be translated and organized into
a user friendly format. The information will be
available on the MSTA website as a teacher
reference and possibly in print form.
Application deadline: June 1, 2005 - send to
Jana Hall at the Maine Space Grant Consortium
For more information on the workshop and to
download an application form, please go to our
website at
http://www.msgc.org/education_educ.asp or
contact Jana Hall (below) for more information
Jana Hall, Controller and
Coordinator of Education Activities
Maine Space Grant Consortium
87 Winthrop St., Suite 200
Augusta, ME 04330
207-622-4688 - voice
207-622-4548 - fax
jhall@msgc.org
www.msgc.org
Your help is needed. We are looking for a small
group of people who are willing to put in some
time to organize this information during the
summer. The workload will depend on how
many people are willing to volunteer some time.
We would probably work in the Augusta area
with the date(s) and times to depend on who is
doing the work. The goal is to have it completed
by August 1st.
If you are interested in helping with this project
this summer, please contact Mary Whitten at
mwhitten@sad11.k12.me.us or at 778-4983
(home). Make sure to provide me with your
name and contact information.
 Challenger Learning Center of Maine Spring and Summer Programs.
Editor’s Note: This article was submitted at the
end of April. Because we were delayed in
publishing the Newsletter, some of the activities
noted have already taken place. We decided to
print the article as submitted so that you will be
aware of the many sessions and activities
offered by the Center.
The Challenger Center is looking for a few
teachers who would like to be on the Education
Committee. The work involves helping make
sure the CLC curriculum fits best into the Maine
Learning Results. We would especially like
some input from teachers in Southern Maine. We
meet once a month and it can be done by
conference phone. Call Robin Kennedy at 990-
2900.
May 5th is national Space Day. It is jointly
sponsored by NASA and Lockheed Martin
Corporation. The Challenger Center Flight
Directors are off to Bailyville for a fun day of
space activities. The Center will have missions
going on and all the students will have the
opportunity to send their names into space with
the Student Signatures in Space. Program. The
space shuttle will carry them up to space on the
next mission. More information about Space
Day can be found online at www.spaceday.org
or call Robin Kennedy at 207-990-2900.
May 12th the center will join the girls at the
Expanding Your Horizons Conference in Orono
at the University of Maine. They will learn all
about how astronaut use and reuse water in
space.
As NASA prepares for the Return To Flight of
space shuttle on May 15th, the Challenger Center
offers Missions as well. The following dates are
open to families to experience working on a
crew to “Rendezvous with a Comet”, May 14th
at 1:00 pm, June 30 at 6:00 pm, July 28 at 6:00
pm and August 11 at 6:00 pm. Call the Center
for pricing.
A special Teacher Mission is being offered by
MSTA on July 27th from 2:00 pm –5:00 pm and
a dinner to follow. (More information later.)
If you are going to the Middle Level Institute,
you will have another opportunity to fly a
mission. Look for sign up information at
registration.
Come see our display and have your class
participate in activities at the Southern Maine
Children’s Water Festival on May 20th. Contact
Lynne Richard Environmental Education
Coordinator – 774-5961 ext 3324 for more
information.
The summer is a great time to visit the NASA
Educational Resources Center, here at the
Challenger Learning Center on 30 Venture Way,
Bangor, Maine. Check out our website for more
details www.clcofme.org We have terrific free
materials. So bring your blank video tapes and
cd’s to make copies. Just call before you come.
We have monthly Mission Training sessions for
teachers. So “Book your mission early. “
 Auburn Land Lab Dine & Discuss

MSTA’s First Dine and Discuss was held on

March 15th at the Auburn Land Lab. Jim
Chandler and Cameron Parker hosted a small
group of interested educators and gave them a
tour of the facilities. Over dinner they shared
how the Land Lab evolved and how the Auburn
School District supports the student and teacher
activities at their site. For more information on
the Auburn Land Lab please go to their website
http://landlab.auburnschl.edu. As a result of
the first Dine and Discuss, Anita Smith from
China Middle School offered to host the next
session.

China School Forest Dine & Discuss

The Dine and Discuss at the China School

Forest will be held on June 2, 2005. To sign up,
please contact Anita Smith at the China Middle
School by May 31, 2005. There will be a $5.00
fee to help pay for dinner. You can call Anita at
(207) 445-2065 or email her at
asmith@china.k12.me.us

Lake Studies Dine & Discuss

including pH, conductivity, oxygen, and

temperature on either East Pond or Great Pond
in Belgrade. Other activities will include GPS
navigation, plankton tows, secchi disk analysis,
and a look at sediment cores.

The lake study dine and discuss will take place

July 27, 3:00 P.M. to 5:30 P.M., rain or shine
(the laboratory boat is covered). Participation is
limited to eight persons. The cost, $6.00, covers
Up to eight MSTA members are invited to spend
food.
an afternoon with Dr. Whitney King, professor
of chemistry at Colby College, studying lake
For more information or to register, contact Jim
water chemistry. Participants will have the
Cook at jcook@msad54.k12.me.us or call 872-
opportunity to study a water column profile
5814.

Dine and Discuss at Challenger Center in Bangor

A special Teacher Mission is being offered by found

MSTA on July 27th from 2:00 pm –5:00 pm and online
a dinner to follow. More information the at
Challenger Center Dine and Discuss can be
www.spaceday.org or call Robin Kennedy at 207-990-2900.
 Concept Cartoons In A K-8 Pre-Service Classroom
Andrea B. Freed, Ph.D.
University of Maine at Farmington
Department of Early Childhood and Elementary Education
In the fall semester of 2004, I introduced
Concept Cartoons, (Naylor and Keogh, 2000) to
my Teaching Science To Children: K-8 students.
By provoking discussion among students,
Concept Cartoons are designed to stimulate
scientific thinking. The cartoon-style drawings
show different characters arguing about
common, everyday situations. Students are
challenged to answer the question, “What do
you think?” and there is not necessarily a single
“right answer”. Naylor and Keogh (1999)
believe that the process of answering the
question is helpful for learners of all ages to
realize that scientific problems may not have a
single correct answer. Even some of the simple
situations that are depicted in the Concept
Cartoons may have a number of possible
complicating factors when they are examined
more closely. “This helps to reinforce a view of
science as tentative. Beliefs are justified by
available evidence but can be modified if
additional evidence emerges.” The visual
representations of scientific ideas, presented in
dialogue form, offer alternative viewpoints
about a situation. Although the most
scientifically acceptable viewpoint is one of the
alternatives, complicating factors may lead
students to conclude that it depends upon certain
factors.
Naylor and Keogh provide a list of reasons that
teachers and teacher educators use the Concept
Cartoons in a variety of ways and in a wide
range of settings. The most common reasons
include:
• making learners’ ideas explicit
• challenging and developing the learners’
ideas
• illustrating alternative viewpoints
• providing a stimulus for discussion
• helping learners to ask their own
questions
• providing starting points for
investigation
• promoting involvement and enhancing
motivation
• applying scientific ideas in everyday
situations
• as a means of differentiation
• promoting language and literacy
learning
• as extension or consolidation activities
• as a summary of a topic or revision
• outside lesson time (homework, science
club activity
• promoting public access to science
(parent’s open day)
Concept Cartoons can be a powerful way to
uncover possible student misconceptions while
stimulating discussion at the beginning of unit,
or to assess student understanding during the
unit before concluding their study of a topic.
I introduced Concept Cartoons to the pre-service
teachers in my elementary science methods class
by showing them the cartoon about magnets
(Naylor and Keogh (2000), Ch 11 Forces and
Motion, pg 121). The possible answers provided
included:
• The big magnet is the strongest because
it can store most magnetism
• The horseshoe magnet is the strongest
because it attracts at both ends
• You can’t tell which is the strongest
magnet without testing them
• The circular magnet is the strongest
because it attract in every direction
Students were provided with a variety of
magnets, measuring devices and metallic items.
They were encouraged to choose what they
wanted to use to design an experiment and were
asked to consider: Who do you think has the
best answer? How would you design an
experiment to prove/disprove your hypothesis?
What variables will you consider? What will
you measure? How will you record your data?
Based on conclusions, which character do you
think was right? Students were also asked to
consider the independent and dependent
variables, control, multiple variables,
investigative question, hypothesis, and how
many trials they would do. Each group of 4
students designed their own experiment and
tried to determine which of the possible answers
best fit with their outcomes. The results of our
own classroom experience were varied. These
results informed me of students’ understanding
and provided a starting point for our subsequent
study of magnetism.
Keogh and Naylor have also written Starting
Points for Science (1997), which focuses on
primary grade levels. The two books, Starting
Points for Science and Concept Cartoons in
Science Education, offer opportunities for
primary through adult learners as they support
Fall Semester 2005 – Earth System Science – AMS online course
The American Meteorological Society (AMS),
Education Division, is again offering its online
course, "Water in the Earth System". The 12-
week Fall 2005 semester runs from Sept. 5th to
Dec. 3rd. Successful completion of the course
and participation in the three general meetings
will result in 3 graduate credits at no cost to
participants. The Sat. morning meetings are
expected to be on 9/3, 10/8, and 12/3 in the
Gardiner area. Course credits, text, and materials
are supported by grants from
theNOAA,U.S.Navy, NSF and SUNY at
Brockport (NY). Weekly contact and mentoring
is provided by a Local Implementation Team
(LIT) member.
AMS Education is particularly seeking grades 5-
12 teachers who have not participated in an
AMS course. Additional information and
application are available at:
scientific thinking and discussion among
students. I will continue to use Concept
Cartoons with my pre-service teachers and hope
that they will then utilize them as a unique
approach to teaching, learning and assessment in
science.
Keogh, B. & Naylor, S. (2000). Concept
Cartoons in Science Education. Cheshire, UK:
Millgate House Publishers.
Naylor, S. & Keogh, B. (2002) Starting Points
For Science. Cheshire, UK: Millgate House
Publishers.
Website: http://www.conceptcartoons.com
The site offers examples of Concept Cartoons in
science as well as ideas for helping students
evaluate existing cartoons and generate their
own.
http://www.ametsoc.org/amsedu/wes/home.html
On the WES course home page, click on the
flashing link "Welcome to WES" in the upper
right corner. On the WES Overview page, click
on "Apply to the Program", then "Download the
Application", and print the 2 page form.
Please send the completed and supervisor signed
application to:
Lucky Greenleaf, 1047 E. Waldo
Rd., Belfast,ME 04915
Apply early and have course confirmation
before the summer break for your certification
or professional development needs.
For questions or specific information, email:
luckyg@midmaine.