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Eisenhower Southwest Consortium for the Improvement of Mathematics and Science Teaching

Using Community Resources to Enhance Mathematics and Science EducationJonathan is very excited. His fifth-grade class is visiting the MartinezDecorative Tile Company where hismother works. Near the end of thetour, Mr. Martinez challenges thestudents to create a design for atiled wall the company has beenasked to complete. If he can use the design, he will treat theclass to a pizza party. Now it’sJonathan’s teacher who is excited.What a perfect opportunity to intro-duce tessellations to the class.

Taking students on field trips orusing other community resourcesin their classes is not a new ideafor teachers. Often, however, theseexperiences are thought to be frills or rewards that compete with instructional time in theclassroom. Curriculum reform inscience and mathematics calls for a new look at using community

resources. The national standardsin science and mathematics sug-gest that good programs requireaccess to the world beyond theclassroom so that students willsee the relevance and usefulnessof science and mathematics bothin and out of school. Changingthe educational experiences ofchildren by moving beyond theclassroom walls can diversify thearray of learning opportunitiesand connect school lessons withdaily life and real problems.

Away from the structure of theclassroom, many characteristicsof constructivism, a key idea in the current reforms, clearlyemerge. For example, imagine theinteractions that occur as a smallgroup of students experimentswith an interactive museumexhibit. They talk about what theysee and what they know, relating

Using Community Resources to Enhance

Mathematics and Science Education

P A G E 1

Environments for Learning Science:

Excerpts from the NationalScience Education Standards

P A G E 4

Learning From the WorldOutside the Classroom:

Activities for Elementary Students

P A G E 5

Using Mathematics in FossilReconstruction:An Activity for

Upper Level StudentsP A G E 6

The World Beyond the Classroom:

Excerpts from the NationalScience Education Standards

P A G E 7

Resources and OpportunitiesP A G E 8

C L A S S R O O M C O M P A S S

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Using Community Resources to Enhance Mathematics and Science Educationcontinued from page 1

what they are doing in the muse-um to what they have learned inand out of class. They experience,create, and solve problems togeth-er. Social discourse and directexperience help them construct an understanding of the phenome-non. The exhibit puts construc-tivism in action.

Teachers always face the task of pulling together the diverseunderstandings their studentsbring to the classroom. The use ofcommunity resources provides ashared memory for the class. Forexample, going on a field trip isonly part of the total experience.As students and teachers talkabout the trip and think about itafter it is over, they are buildingshared understanding. The eventbecomes part of the commonknowledge of the class and can be referred to in subsequentlessons. What was learned is,thus, reinforced and extended inlater discussions as the teacherrefers to field observations.

*The Directory of Science-RichResources, a listing of museums,zoos, science centers, and otherscience-oriented resource loca-tions in the Southwest can beordered from the SCIMAST project as long as copies remainavailable. Call 1-800-201-7435for information. The Directory isavailable on SEDL’s World WideWeb site: <http://www.sedl.org/>.

P R E PA R E D B Y

Sandra Finley

Marilyn Fowler

Mary Jo Powell

Barbara Salyer

S O U T H W E S T E D U C A T I O N A L D E V E L O P M E N T L A B O R A T O R Y

Directoryof

Science-RichResources

in the

Southwest

Teachers can effectively developinterdisciplinary units with theirstudents outside of the classroom.The world is not made up of dis-crete disciplines. Students workingon a city street, for example, couldbe doing social studies (e.g., mak-ing a survey of how a building isused today and how it has beenused over the years), language arts(e.g., writing a short story aboutthe building), mathematics (e.g.,devising ways to measure theheight of the building), and science(e.g., observing the materials usedin the building for signs of weath-ering). Subject matter barriers dissolve as children learn fromtheir environment.

Community resources that canenhance mathematics and sciencelearning include science centers to visit (museums, nature centers,interactive science centers, aquar-ia, gardens and zoos), places toexplore that are unique to the localschool (a nearby creek, pond, citystreet or business), people in the

community, or materials that can be borrowed or purchased.SCIMAST’s Directory of Science-Rich Resources* (called theDirectory in the remainder of thisarticle) can be used by teachersas a guide to science centers,sources of curriculum materials,and other kinds of science-richresources in the region.

The Communitybeyond theClassroom WallsHector, Angela, and Melissa arearound a resonant pendulum atthe science museum. At this exhib-it, they can affect the swing of the heavy pendulum by attachingweak magnets and pulling on theattached cords. Angela tries it andthey notice that the swing of thependulum gets larger when shepulls on the cord. Melissa tries itbut her magnet falls off as soon asshe pulls the cord. Together, theytry to figure out what happened.

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Outreach. Many students do not live near a zoo, nature center,or museum for a field trip to bepractical, but numerous sites list-ed in the Directory offer outreachprograms. A visit to your class-room by Wildlife on Wheels (EllenTrout Zoo, Lufkin, Texas) orCreature Comforts (Little RockZoological Gardens, Little Rock,Arkansas) can be an engaginglearning event for students.

Their class at City School ismaking a vegetation map of thecity block. Shawna, Antoine, andJennifer are recording the treesand shrubs in front of the schoolbuilding and measuring their diam-eters when Antoine notices that little plants are growing out of thesidewalk cracks. They wonder iftheir map should include smallplants as well as large ones andgo to check with the group workingaround the corner.

Near the School. The lack of anearby science center need not bea limitation. Community resourcesinclude unconventional sites, suchas the tile factory or a hardwarestore, fabric store, farm, or ranch.While extended field trips can berewarding, short school yard tripscan be equally valuable. Theseallow children to discover answersfor themselves in a familiar context. Whether your school isurban, suburban, or rural, itreflects the habitat of its neighbor-hood—the hard-topped surfaces,the soils, grasses, and trees, theweather, and so on. The younginquirer can easily return to the school yard for further datagathering if a question is leftunanswered or new questionsarise. A class studying the sunand its shadows in a particularlocation, for example, can gatherdata at intervals throughout the day.

Science Centers. A learningactivity must have a purpose orreason so field trips should bethought of as part of the curricu-lum. As such, they should providesomething to think about as wellas something to do or some place to go. If possible, the teacher willwant to visit the science centerbefore the field trip to help herbalance the needs of the teachingunit with the resources of the site. She can then focus on thoseexhibits that demonstrate theconcepts she is teaching andmatch the students’ cognitive levels. Learning activities are prepared for use before, during,and after the field trip and includestudent orientation material, suchas a map, a list of exhibits to be visited (although they couldvisit others), and the educationalobjectives of the trip. This focusedapproach will advance studentlearning more effectively than anunfocused scavenger hunt or ageneric worksheet written withoutthe benefit of the teacher’s

preparatory visit. The Directoryoffers numerous examples ofinformal places that link to curricula. The LouisianaChildren’s Museum (New Orleans,Louisiana), for example, has an air hockey table adapted forexperimentation with angulargeometry, and the Texas StateAquarium (Corpus Christi, Texas)has a laboratory facility thatdemonstrates the physics of buoyancy and fluids.

Children generally find interac-tive exhibits engaging. Theseexhibits can be appealing andeffective tools for teaching scienceand mathematics and for generat-ing a positive attitude towardlearning these subjects. At theHarmon Science Center (Tulsa,Oklahoma), students walk, climb and slide through theUnderground Tulsa exhibit. At the Santa Fe Children’sMuseum (New Mexico), childrenuse homing pigeons to send messages from an outside site to the museum. continued on page 10

C L A S S R O O M C O M P A S S

Environments for Learning Science

Time, space, and materials arecritical components of an effectivescience learning environment thatpromotes sustained inquiry andunderstanding. Creating an ade-quate environment for scienceteaching is a shared responsibili-ty. Teachers lead the way in thedesign and use of resources, butschool administrators, students,parents, and community membersmust meet their responsibility to ensure that the resources areavailable to be used. Developing a schedule that allows time forscience investigations needs thecooperation of all in the school;acquiring materials requires theappropriation of funds; maintain-ing scientific equipment is theshared responsibility of studentsand adults alike; and designingappropriate use of the scientificinstitutions and resources in thelocal community requires the participation of the school andthose institutions and individuals.

Teachers must be given theresources and authority to selectthe most appropriate materialsand to make decisions aboutwhen, where, and how to makethem accessible. Such decisionsbalance safety, proper use, andavailability with the need for students to participate actively indesigning experiments, selectingtools, and constructing apparatus,all of which are critical to thedevelopment of an understandingof inquiry.

The classroom is a limited environment. The school scienceprogram must extend beyond the walls of the school to the

National Science Education Standards, Teaching Standard D

resources of the community. Ournation’s communities have manyspecialists, including those intransportation, health-care deliv-ery, communications, computertechnologies, music, art, cooking,mechanics, and many other fields that have scientific aspects.Specialists often are available as resources for classes and for individual students. Manycommunities have access to science centers and museums, aswell as to the science communitiesin higher education, national laboratories, and industry; thesecan contribute greatly tothe understanding of science andencourage studentsto further theirinterests outside ofschool. In addition, the physical environ-ment in and aroundthe school can beused as a living lab-oratory for the study ofnatural phenomena.Whether the school islocated in a denselypopulated urbanarea, a sprawlingsuburb, a smalltown, or a rural area,the environment canand should be used asa resource for sciencestudy. Working with others in theirschool and with thecommunity, teachersbuild these resourcesinto their work with students.

Teachers of science design and manage learningenvironments that provide students with the time,space, and resources needed for learning science.

4

This excerpt is reprinted with permission from the National Science Education Standards.Copyright 1996 by the National Academy of Sciences. Courtesy of the National Academy Press,Washington, D. C.

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Your school yard and its surrounding neighborhood is a laboratory where teachers and elementary students can actively investigate mathematics and science.

Teachers whose classes are notnear such rich centers as muse-ums or botanical gardens mustuse the local community as asource for science and mathemat-ics learning. Short trips to theschool yard that become an inte-gral part of the class schedule canhelp students build an under-standing of the natural world andincrease their sophistication inobserving and interpreting theirsurroundings. In fact, 10- and 15-minute field trips may be idealfor many topics. Students whodevelop skills working in groups,forming questions, collecting data, and observing their schoolyard laboratory will find that these experiences enhance their visits to other places asopportunities arise.

School yard explorations canfocus on such topics as plants,trees, animals, the interdepen-dence of living things, physicaland chemical changes, sound,

A C T I V I T I E S F O R E L E M E N T A R Y S T U D E N T S

Learning From the World Outside the Classroom

weather and climate, and geology.For example, shadow activitiescan enhance the study of thesolar system and provide concreteexperiences of the sun’s influenceon our planet.

• Let younger children exploreshadows in the school yard.What is the largest shadow?What is the smallest? Put thechildren in a circle and havethem count the number ofshadows. Which way do all the shadows point?

• Use a thermometer with olderstudents to compare the tem-perature difference in full sunand shadow. What conclusionscan they draw from these mea-surements? What temperaturedifferences might be plotted onthe same location throughoutthe day? Throughout the weekor month?

The outdoors can reflect mathe-matics principles as well. Datagathered by student teams maypresent more solid examples than textbook representations.

• The size of a shadow is directlyproportional to the size of anobject. Therefore, if a 1-meterruler held perpendicular to theground throws a 66-centimetershadow and a tree shadow is 5.5 meters long, the tree’sheight can be calculated to be 8.33 meters (66:100=5.5:x). Trythese calculations at differenttimes of the day and at differenttimes of the year.

• Let the students discover theconstant π. Send teams of stu-dents outside to measure circu-lar objects: trees, flagpoles,trash cans, utility poles. Theymay want to use yarn or stringor a tape measure to wraparound the object for measure-ment of the circumference. Todetermine the diameter, usethree yardsticks or meter sticks.Place a stick on each side of the object, making sure the twosticks are parallel and at thesame height from the ground.Then use the third stick to mea-sure the distance between theextended portions of the twoparallel sticks—that is thediameter. The teams can postthe measurements for their various objects on a statisticaltable. They may also want tonote the radius for each of theobjects. Ask the students tolook at the data and see if theynotice any special relationshipsamong the various measure-ments. Ask each team to dividethe value for the circumferenceby the value of the diameterand post the results. The con-stant π, 3.14 or 3 1/7, willemerge from these results.

For more ideas on using resourcesoutside the classroom, see Ten-Minute Field Trips by Helen RossRussell (1990). These have beenused with permission of theNational Science TeachersAssociation, 1840 Wilson Blvd.,Arlington, VA 22201. Cost: $16.95+ $4.95 s/h (1-800-722-6782).

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This activity from a SCIMAST professional development event sent the participants on a mathematical exploration in a local natural science museum.

A display at the TexasMemorial Museum on theUniversity of Texas at Austincampus presents several wingbones of a pterosaur believed tobe the largest flying animal thatever existed—Quetzalcoatlusnorthropi (Qn). The museum’sreconstruction of the animal’swing incorporates fragments, anintact humerus and several bonepieces that were found in the BigBend National Park in Texas in1971. How would scientists predict the pterosaur’s probablewingspan from these pieces?

Data from similar pterosaursfound throughout the world were

A N A C T I V I T Y F O R U P P E R L E V E L S T U D E N T S

Using Mathematics in Fossil Reconstruction

available from museum sources.These provided a glimpse of thecreatures’ proportionality andhelped the students construct atable that compares wingspan and humerus lengths.

Taking the two variables provid-ed, length of humerus and totalwingspan, students were able toestimate the total wingspread ofQuetzalcoatlus northropi. The dataplotted on graph paper provided ascatter plot used by the students todetermine the line of best fit. Thislinear regression provided a bestestimate from the Qn humeruslength. (To determine the entirewingspan, students had to factor

in the pectoralgirdle—estimatedat .5 meteracross—that separated theanimal’s wings.)Other studentsworked with thedata to determine a best ratio,

and a few usedgraphing calcula-tors instead of (or in addition to) the manual plotting.

After determin-ing their predic-tions, the stu-dents went to theTexas MemorialMuseum for anup-close view of

the wing fragments and theopportunity to measure thereconstructed left wing. Whilethe students’ predictions didnot exactly match the recon-structed animal (because theline of regression only providesa “best possible fit”), the muse-um’s reconstruction was withinthe graphed possibilities.

Lingering questions: Whywas the estimate not exactlythe same as the museum’sreconstruction? What does the“best possible fit” mean? Wouldit be reasonable to use thepterosaur data to estimate thewingspan of a bird or a bat? Ifwe measure our own humerus,and use the pterosaur correla-tion table, how wide would ahuman’s wingspan be? Is this a realistic estimate? Why or why not?

Pterosaur Humerus Total Length Wingspan

Quetzalcoatlus northropi 54 cm. ???Quetzalcoatlus sp (small) 24 cm. 600 cm.

Ornithodesmus 20 cm. 500 cm.

Pteranodon 32 cm. 750 cm.27 cm. 570 cm.22 cm. 430 cm.15 cm. 300 cm.

Santanadactylus 17 cm. 370 cm.

Nyctosaurus 15 cm. 310 cm.13 cm. 270 cm.9 cm. 240 cm.

Pterodactylus antiquus 4.4 cm. 68 cm.3.6 cm. 55 cm.3.2 cm. 53 cm.2.9 cm. 50 cm.1.5 cm. 24 cm.

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District and school leaders mustallocate financial support to pro-vide opportunities for students toinvestigate the world outside theclassroom. This may mean budget-ing for trips to nearby points ofinterest, such as a river, archaeo-logical site, or nature preserve; itcould include contracting withlocal science centers, museums,zoos, and horticultural centers forvisits and programs. Relationshipsshould be developed with localbusinesses and industry to allowstudents and teachers access topeople and the institutions, andstudents must be given access toscientists and other professionalsin higher education and the med-ical establishment to gain access totheir expertise and the laboratorysettings in which they work.Communication technology hasmade it possible for anyone to

Good science programs require access to the world beyond the classroom.

The World Beyond the ClassroomNational Science Education Standards, Program Standard D

The above excerpt is reprinted with permission from the National ScienceEducation Standards. Copyright 1996 by the National Academy of Sciences.Courtesy of the National Academy Press,Washington, D. C.

access readily people throughoutthe world. This communicationtechnology should be easily accessible to students.

Much of this standard isacknowledged as critical, even ifunavailable, for students in sec-ondary schools. It must be empha-sized, however, that this standardapplies to the entire science pro-gram and all students in all grades.In addition, this standard demandsquality resources that often arelacking and seem unattainable insome schools or districts. Missingresources must not be an excusefor not teaching science. Manyteachers and schools "make do" orimprovise under difficult circum-stances (e.g., crowded classrooms,time borrowed from other subjects,and materials purchased with personal funds). A science programbased on the National ScienceEducation Standards is a programconstantly moving toward replacing such improvisation with necessary resources.

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C L A S S R O O M C O M P A S S

Resources and OpportunitiesTen-Minute Field Trips by Helen Ross RussellNational Science TeachersAssociation$16.95 + $4.25 s/h1-800-722-6782

This collection of activities, ideas,and examples urges teachers toexplore the environments aroundtheir schools, whether urban,suburban, or rural. In addition to more than 200 short, close-to-home field trips, the author pro-vides introductions that supportan understanding of what mightbe seen during the students’explorations. The book is dividedinto topic sections—Plants,Animals, Interdependence ofLiving Things, Physical Science,Earth Science, and Ecology—and includes a special cross-referenced list of field trips forhard-topped school grounds. The preface, “Saying ‘I Don’tKnow,’” sets the tone for teacherswho will join their students indiscovering the world outsidetheir classrooms.

Exploratorium Teacher InstitutesThe Exploratorium is an interactivescience museum founded in 1969by Frank Oppenheimer, notedphysicist and educator. The center, located in the heart of SanFrancisco, presents hundreds ofinteractive exhibits and a variety ofprograms for children and adults.Every summer the Exploratoriumoffers 300 science teachers, grades6–12, the opportunity to take partin a summer experience called theTeacher Institute. These intensive,two-, three-, and four-week programs provide a mix of content-based discussions, classroomexperiments, and teaching strate-gies based on the Exploratorium’sexhibits. Applications for admission to the summer 1997Institutes are being accepted untilApril 1997. For those teachersaccepted, tuition will be borne by the Exploratorium. For moreinformation, take a look at theExploratorium Web page<www.exploratorium.edu>or contact Exploratorium Teacher Institute, 3601 Lyon St., San Francisco, CA 94123. Phone: 415-561-0313

You can use materials createdby these institutes if you get copiesof the four-volume ExploratoriumScience Snackbook Series, a collection of more than 100teacher-created versions of

Exploratorium exhibits. The booksprovide instructions for classroom-based constructions (balancing aball on a stream of air, building alight-scatter box) that illustratesuch concepts as magnetism, polarization, and refraction.

• The Cheshire Cat and Other Eye-Popping Experiments on How We See the World

• The Cool Hot Rod and OtherElectrifying Experiments on Energy and Matter

• The Magic Wand and Other BrightExperiments on Light and Color

• The Spinning Blackboard and Other Dynamic Experiments on Force and Motion

Published by John Wiley and Sons,the books are available for $10.95each plus shipping from theExploratorium Mail Order Dept.,3601 Lyon Street, San Francisco,CA 94123 (415-561-0393) or from the publisher.

Also of interest to classroomteachers is The ExploratoriumGuide to Scale and Structure;Activities for the ElementaryClassroom. The activities are start-ing points for exploring the physicsand mathematics of structure aswell as the effects of scale on structure. The book sells for $29.50and is available from Heinemannpublishers, 361 Hanover Street,Portsmouth, NH 03801-3912 (1-800-541-2086).It can also be ordered from theExploratorium Mail OrderDepartment.

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Classroom Compass is a publication of the Eisenhower SouthwestConsortium for the Improvement ofMathematics and Science Teaching(SCIMAST) project, sponsored by theU. S. Department of Education undergrant number R168R50027–95. Thecontent herein does not necessarilyreflect the views of the department orany other agency of the U.S. govern-ment. Classroom Compass is distrib-uted free of charge to public and pri-vate schools in Arkansas, Louisiana,New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas tosupport improved teaching of mathe-matics and science. The EisenhowerSCIMAST project is located in theSouthwest Educational DevelopmentLaboratory (SEDL) at 211 EastSeventh Street, Austin, Texas 78701;(512) 476-6861/800-201-7435.SEDL is an Equal EmploymentOpportunity/Affirmative ActionEmployer and is committed to affording equal employment opportu-nities to all individuals in all employ-ment matters. Associate editors:Sharon Adams and Mary Jo Powell.Thanks to Sandra Finley for her workon this issue and to David Froehlichof the University of Texas VertebratePaleontology Laboratory for his guidance in the development of thePterosaur activity. Publication design:Jane Thurmond, Tree Studio.

The Eisenhower SCIMAST project supports science andmathematics education in fivestates with a combination of train-ing, technical assistance, network-ing, and information resources.Eisenhower SCIMAST is fundedby the U.S. Department ofEducation’s National EisenhowerProgram to serve educators in Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas.Eisenhower SCIMAST works inpartnership with the EisenhowerNational Clearinghouse, a nationalresource center dedicated toincreasing the availability and the quality of information aboutinstructional resources for scienceand mathematics educators. Aspart of that effort, EisenhowerSCIMAST has a resource/demonstration center open to visitors Monday through Friday,8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. The centerhouses a multimedia collection ofscience and mathematics instruc-tional materials for grades K–12. It is located on the fourth floor of the Southwest EducationalDevelopment Laboratory, 211 East Seventh Street, Austin, Texas 78701. The center also has a toll-free number, 1-800-201-7435, that providescallers in the five-state regioninformation on multimedia andprint instructional materials,assessment tools, and successfulstrategies for mathematics andscience instruction.

Eisenhower SCIMAST Staff:Wesley A. Hoover, director

Glenda Clark, senior training associate

Jackie Palmer, senior training associate

Barbara Salyer, senior training associate

Maria Torres, senior training associate

Mary Jo Powell, technical writing associate

Sharon Adams, information associate

Jack Lumbley, evaluation associate

Kathy Schmidt, evaluation associate

Lori Snider, administrative assistant

Veronica Mendoza, administrative secretary

Dawn McArdle, administrative secretary

Eisenhower SouthwestConsortium for theImprovement ofMathematics andScience Teaching

S C I M A S T

Hands-On UniverseFor the past four and a half yearsthis program, with the support ofthe National Science Foundationand the Department of Energy, hasenabled high school students torequest their own observations from professional observatories. The students download images totheir classroom computers and usepowerful HOU software to visualizeand analyze their data. Until recent-ly the project has forwarded allrequests to the LeuschnerObservatory at the University ofCalifornia Berkeley astronomydepartment. New collaborationsbetween observatories in Hawaii,Illinois, California, Washington,Sweden, and Australia will providea network of automated telescopesthat can respond based on suchconditions as geography, weatherconditions, scheduling, and equipment characteristics.

Exciting results can occur whenstudents are given access to thispowerful equipment, as witnessedwhen two high school studentsrequested observations of theWhirlpool Galaxy as part of theirlesson on spiral galaxies. Theirobservation captured the first lightof SN1994I, a supernova. Theirnames will appear as co-authors ona photometry paper about SN1994I.

For more information about thisproject, write: Hands-On Universe,MS 50-232 Lawrence Berkeley Lab One Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA94720 or email houstaff@hou.lbl.gov. The Web page addressis: <hou.lbl.gov/newpages/houtitle.html>

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Bringing theCommunity into YourClassroomMaterials through the Mail.By necessity, most learning activities occur in the classroom.Organizations listed in theDirectory can provide materialsthat enrich the curriculum andprovide unique experiences forchildren. These inexpensive or free materials may be overlookedsince they are not produced byeducational publishing companies.Diaries in the Dirt, a programavailable from the OklahomaArchaeological Survey, includes aset of artifacts for sand box explo-rations. Techniques, Technology,and Trade, a curriculum availablefrom the Arkansas Ag in theClassroom State Leader, integratesscience and economics. Numerousnational organizations have alsodeveloped curriculum materials;guidance materials from profes-sional organizations are useful ties to the workplace.

Electronic Connections. Manyentries in the Directory have activ-ities and programs that involve theInternet or e-mail communicationand can be valuable additions forclasses that have Internet access.Marsville, a project sponsored byPhillips Laboratory (Albuquerque,New Mexico), is a simulation forelementary classes. Students create prototypes of a colony onMars and communicate by e-mailwith other participating schoolsabout colony operations. In theGLOBE Program, students takeenvironmental measurements andpost their data on the Internet.WeatherNet, listed under NationalWeather Service in the Directory,is an Internet resource thatincludes weather data and links tothe home pages of more than 300weather-related organizations.

Sharon likes mathematics, butshe did not even know what a civilengineer did until Ms. Davies andMr. Garcia came to her class. Nowshe thinks she would like to beone. The activity they did with theclass about bridges intrigued her.After the class, she asks Ms.Davies about her bridge activityand then asks about colleges and jobs for girls in this field.

Guests. Guest speakers from thecommunity can provide new infor-mation and experiences to stu-dents and link the school to theworld outside. The teacher shouldspend time with the guest beforethe visit so they can discuss theage level of students and kinds of activities and informationappropriate for this age group; the needs of the guest during thevisit and his or her general com-fort level with children; the topic of the presentation and the students’general knowledge about thistopic; and what the teacher can dobefore to make the visit a success.Staff of state agencies can serve as classroom partners or asknowledgeable resource people.For example, staff from a conser-vation agency might be able to aidschools in setting up an outdoorclassroom or civil engineers fromthe highway department may beable to show plans for a bridgeproject. Many potential speakersare overlooked, however, becausethey work in less technical fields.Valuable links to the communityas well as connections betweenschool subjects and the workplacemay be created by inviting a cafe-teria worker who could talk aboutusing proportions in increasingthe size of recipes. A mechanic orthe owner of a feed store are otherpossibilities. Guests who can comeback to the classroom numeroustimes may enhance the learningexperience for the students.

ConclusionThe richness of the region’sresources is apparent from thenumber and diversity of entriesfound in the Directory of Science-Rich Resources. Imagination andcreativity in using communityresources can help students connect school science and math-ematics with applications in thecommunity, as well as helpingstudents better learn basic con-cepts. Children learn science andmathematics from many sources,in a range of different ways, andfor a variety of purposes. Takingstudents to a science museum or out onto the school grounds,exposing them to innovative materials, or inviting guests who can give unique insights are a few ways to increase theirlearning experiences.

References:Knapp, C. E. (1996). Just beyond theclassroom: Community adventures forinterdisciplinary learning. (ED 388485)Available from ERIC Clearinghouse onRural Education and Small Schools,P. O. Box 1348, Charleston, WV25325-1348 ($12 includes shippingand handling).

Maarschalk, J. (1988). Scientific literacy and informal science teaching.Journal of Research in ScienceTeaching, 25, 135-146.

National Council of Teachers ofMathematics (1989). Curriculum and evaluation standards for schoolmathematics. Reston, VA: Author.

National Research Council (1996).National science education standards.Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.

Rennie, L. J., & McClafferty, T. (1995).Using visits to interactive science andtechnology centers, museums, aquar-ia, and zoos to promote learning inscience. Journal of Science TeacherEducation, 6, 175-185.

Semper, R. J. (1990, November). Science museums as environments for learning. Physics Today, 2-8.

Using Community Resources to Enhance Mathematics and Science Educationcontinued from page 3