Ask third graders if they would rather handle a plastic tortoise or a textbook, and you can pretty well assume the book will come in second. That's the inspiration and motivation behind the Desert Research Institute's Science Box Traveling Kits Program which underwrites the design and development of hands-on teaching kits by Nevada K-12 science teachers each summer.
They're not all about tortoises, though. The science boxes, designed to fit and travel in standard airline roll-on bags, cover the range of topics required in the Nevada Science Standards, including Physical Science, Life Science, Earth Systems and Space Science, Environmental Science, Nature and History of Science, and Scientific Inquiry: Processes and Skills. The boxes are also designed for specific age groups.
John Gardner, DRI Science Box Coordinator, said 25 teachers from nine Nevada counties and one national teacher from Colorado were selected for the 2000-2001 professional development program through competitive applications. The applications included the teachers' proposal for a science box design and an explanation of how that box would meet the state's instructional standards. A team of Utah teachers looking to adopt the program also attended this year's workshops.
During the summer of 2000, the teachers held videoconference workshops connecting the teachers from sites in Elko, Las Vegas and Reno for instruction and critique in designing their boxes. The resulting science boxes contain scientific specimens and/or multicultural artifacts, background information, a description of the artifacts or specimens in the box, and sample lesson plans.
"Each year we produce a selection of 25 new and different science boxes to our inventory for a total of 50 boxes traveling around the state. Another set of 25 are retired and returned to the teachers who designed them, " Gardner said. "The demand for them has increased each year, keeping us hopping to get the boxes back out on the road. Advance reservations have become essential for the more popular topics."
The sponsors or DRI's Science Box Program are the Dwight D. Eisenhower Program, Bechtel Nevada, Center for Sustainable Technology, Eisenhower, EPSCoR, Nevada Bell, Nevada Community Foundation, Nevada Space Grant Consortium, and the Toyota Foundation.
The teachers, by district, participating in the Science Box Program for this school year are:
Carson City - Curtis Ferlisi and Sandi Steele, Mark Twain
Elementary School,
Laura Legant, Empire Elementary School;
Churchill County - Vicki Lane, Numa Elementary School,
Jeremie Sorensen, Lahontan Elementary School;
Clark County - Deborah Bigda and Helen Tjemsland, U. Newton Elementary School;
Amanda Blondeaux, Lowman Elementary School;
Mary Jane Bowman, Lummis Elementary School;
Cyndi Herron, Beatty Elementary School;
Carol Hunn, Rosemary Clark in Pahrump;
Jeffrey Kimber, Cambiero Elementary School;
Joyce King, May Elementary School;
Colleen Mayhew, Tomiyasu Elementary School;
Elizabeth Miller, New Horizon Academy;
Paula Munson, C.C. Ronnow Elementary School;
Misti Taton, Von Tobel Middle School;
Nancy Valdez and Becky Wittig, Sunrise Acres Elementary School;
Patricia Salerno, Detwiler Elementary;
Debra Scalzo, DRR Middle School;
Elko County - Kim Syverson Owyhee Combined Elko;
Washoe County - Tierra Darling, Lemmon Valley Elementary;
Luanne Pettengill, Lois Allen Elementary; Tami Price, Libby Booth Elementary
School;
Christine Morrow, University of Colorado, sponsored nationally by
the Toyota Foundation.