Selected science teachers from across Nevada will participate in a video conference workshop Saturday to demonstrate and critique new hands-on science instruction kits for use in classrooms throughout the state in the coming year. The Nevada teachers will be joined by teachers from five adjoining states who are planning to introduce the science box program in their states.
Joined together by the Desert Research Institute's Distance Education Program from locations in Las Vegas, Reno, Elko and Winnemucca, the 37 teachers from elementary, middle and high schools will show off the "Science Box Traveling Kits" they've been working on all summer.
Dr. Susan Moore, DRI's distance education coordinator, said the teachers designed the special classroom teaching aids based on the instructional objectives outlined in the Nevada Science Content Standards. Moore said the Science box program produced 25 kits that were circulated to more than 160 classrooms throughout Nevada during the past school year.
The kits are packaged in airline roll-on bags and circulated on a first-come, first-serve basis to requesting teachers. Instructional topics included chemical reactions, heredity, earth history, ecology stewardship, among others, and had students handling earthworms and comparing common genetic traits to understand scientific principles.
The program is sponsored by grants from the Dwight D. Eisenhower and UCCSN Distance Education Program. In addition, teachers will be sponsored by the Nevada Bell, Bechtel Nevada, the Nevada Community Foundation/the Edwin F. Wiegand Fund and the Toyota USA Foundation.