This section contains information about the Science Content Area Committee. You will find in this section information by date on the work that the Science Committee has completed or is in the process of completing. You can find meeting minutes, forms, and various curriculum documents. The dates below are meeting dates. The K-12 Science Comittee meets approximately four times a year.
If you do not see minutes below, then they may have been moved to the new district wiki established during school year 2009-2010.
SCIENCE COMMITTEE MINUTES
1/12/09
submitted by
Shelly Simpson, chair
The meeting began with a discussion of the MLR , specifically the Engineering standard. The MS staff discussed how this standard was indeed addressed in grade 8. We discussed where to go next and set goals for each grade level, 6-8. They are as follows: ~Grade 6 will concentrate on revamping their Space Exploration unit and adding the Hydrosphere unit as well. They will continue to work toward common assessments, which will be given throughout the units. They are also working with curriculum mapping.
~ Grade 7 is creating a new discrete Plant Unit, as well as working on the curriculum mapping for each unit . They are also looking carefully to increase their expectations of the students.
~ Grade 8 is diligently completing the Curriculum Mapping as well as adjusting student rubrics. They are also recreating data of their lessons and labs, since they were lost during the computer upgrades.
Grades K-5 have all of their units in place. Presently , they are writing common assessments, which will correlate with the units. There will be release time this year in hopes of completing the assessments. The common assessments are as follows:
~ K- All set
~1- Balance and Motion is complete, Organisms is pending and Weather is still in need of an assessment.
~2- All three units have assessments ( two were approved today by the committee)
~3- All three are in need of completion. To date, habitat is almost to completion.
~4- All three assessments are needed
~5- Floating and Sinking is completed, Microworlds is almost to completion and Biomes is still in need of an assessment.
This will be our last Science Meeting as a whole committee for the school year. We will work in sub groups to complete the remaining tasks.
No one from the HIgh School attended this meeting.
SCIENCE COMMITTEE MEETING
MINUTES
2/4/08
CENTRAL OFFICE
In attendance: Kristin Coolidge, Penny Jessop, Beth Brooke, Pat Keene, Sarah Hanley, Karen Baker, Mark Koenig, Jeanne Lysobey, Mary Whitten, Shelly Simpson
Absent: Ryan Avery, Russ Anderson
CCC Update:
Howie presented the changes agreed upon by the CCC committee. We no longer have to have committee approval for new assessments. They are to be done within the grade level, with all members signing the assessment , for approval and then send to Howie. Shelly would like a heads up on who is doing what so there is not a duplication of work.
L-SILL Update:
We have recently purchased $1200 of books from Amazon for the K-5 teachers to accompany their science units. We are sending 7 people to the National Science Conference in Boston in March.
ASSESSMENTS:
We still do not have all of our assessments in place to date. Some of the present assessments are not current and need to be removed and or updated. Grade 1, K, and 3 are currently working on assessments collectively. We are hoping that the other assessments will be in place by the fall. Summer work and after hours work is available . Send your proposal to Howie and Shelly , if interested.
6-12 felt they needed to talk as a group , as recommended in the Academic Audit. They need to review the units currently taught for developmental appropriateness. through researched based efforts. It was agreed and approved by Howie that this work can and should be done prior to working on assessments. This is also a paid subcommittee.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:30 P.M.
Respectfully submitted,
Shelly Simpson,
Chair