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Notes from the Field
SOUTH DAKOTA
"I intended to mention in my last message the tremendous
successes we have had with our FOSS Eisenhower Summer Institutes
and the FOSS program during the past six years. The reception
by the students and teachers has been phenomenal. Students
beg to have science with FOSS. A third-grade teacher gave
her students a questionnaire and asked them which they preferred:
science, mathematics, or recess! She made a bar graph of the
responses, and a really tall bar represented science, a much
shorter bar recess. The shortest bar was mathematics. In May
during my follow-up visit to institute schools I met an Eagle
Butte Tribal School teacher who had participated in the summer
institute one year ago. She told me she always had hated science
and did not like to teach science, but since our FOSS Summer
Institute and using FOSS, she now loves science and teaching
science! In my 26 years at the university, I never found a
program that was so universally accepted by teachers and students.
It is wonderful for Native American students. Good job!"
Paul Otto
Professor Emeritus, Science Education University of South
Dakota
TEXAS
The Dallas Morning News included an article in its May 20,
2000, issue focusing on the use of FOSS in a Lisbon Elementary
School sixth-grade class. The Dallas school district adopted
FOSS ©2000 this past spring, becoming one of about a
dozen Texas school districts to select a hands-on science
program over textbooks. The Dallas school district had previously
used FOSS as a supplement to textbooks.
Pam Murray teaches the sixth-grade class and has been using
FOSS for the past four years. Her students were shown working
with the humdingers from the FOSS Models
and Designs Module (pdf). Their efforts in recreating
her humdinger hidden in a paper bag ranged from frustration
to the excitement of discovery. According to Dr. William Tate,
the school district's scholar in residence for math and science,
"Frustration is wonderful. Science is all about trying
to resolve a conflict." A comment from a student was,
"It's fun. We get to figure out what to do, and we have
no directions. We got to figure it out on our own."
Training for teachers unfamiliar with FOSS took place this
past summer. Lisbon teachers plan to educate parents about
FOSS during open houses this year. They have considered that
FOSS might be a "harder sell" for some teachers
and parents but think students will learn more science with
the hands-on approach. We'll certainly hear more from Dallas
and Lisbon Elementary School in future issues of the FOSS
Newsletter.
CALIFORNIA
First-grade students at Hillcrest School in Oakland, California,
participated in a science fair project involving the FOSS
Air and Weather
Module (pdf). The students took temperatures at different
times of day in a number of locations around the school and
looked for patterns. They made graphs of the temperature.
Teacher Barbara Buswell figured out a way to superimpose two
temperatures for one location so that both temps could be
seen at once. This created a sort of a maximum-minimum thermometer
for a selected time period. Watch for more details on this
project in future FOSS newsletters.
MINNESOTA
"We have been having a wonderful time with our mealworm
unit [FOSS Insects
Module (pdf)], but have run into a snag. As the pupa transform
into beetles, we have had several dry up and die on their
second day. This has only happened in the student vials, not
in our large class set. Should we be transferring the beetles
to larger containers, giving them more food or moisture, or
...? We are quite befuddled, and the teacher guide doesn't
give any specific direction (or at least I missed it). I would
appreciate hearing back from someone quickly. Thank you!!!"
Jeanne Sumnicht
Countryside Elementary
Edina, Minnesota
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The FOSS Response:
Hi Jeanne,
This isn't a problem that we have seen before. Usually the
problem is too much moisture in the vial so that the bran
gets moldy. The adults don't need much moisture--a bit of
carrot or apple or potato is all they need, just like the
mealworms.
Since you have identified a trend, I suggest that you have
the students transfer the adult beetles from their vials to
the class container as soon as they emerge from the pupa.
Let me know how that works.
Best of luck,
Linda De Lucchi
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NOTE: Can you help? Has anyone else had this particular mealworm
problem? If you did, have you solved it? We'd love to hear
from you. Contact FOSS at foss@berkeley.edu.
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