We were so glad to gather all of our science PLC leaders together on January 2nd to be trained by Page Keeley and our teacher leaders. Remember that the district has purchased several volumes of the Page Keeley Understanding Student Ideas in Science books, and we have created spreadsheets aligning individual probes to your standards and elements. To access these spreadsheets, log-in to your CTLS course and click on "Course Resources." The log-in and password information are also listed there, but if you cannot gain access, please email Ellen Glantzberg (ellen.glantzberg@cobbk12.org) for assistance.

The early winter months bring our major district science events. We are still recruiting judges for the Cobb-Paulding District Science Fair on February 10th at Kennesaw Mountain High School. If you are available to judge, please register below:

To judge the elementary school fair, use this link: http://www.populy.io/register/OQvTbt

To judge the middle/high school fair, use this link: http://www.populy.io/register/eWXv0O

Join us virtually on Wednesday, January 10th from 4:30-5:00 pm to explore the practice of Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions. Log-in to the webinar using the following link: www.tinyurl.com/ExplanationsWebinar

Held at the Richard B. Russell Library at UGA, this two day workshop on January 23rd-24th (8:30-3:30) will help K-5 teachers discover how picture books can inspire elementary STEM learning. Teachers will:

• discover how picture books can inspire elementary STEM learning
• receive 3 Picture-Perfect books
• participate in model lessons that combine STEM and literacy

The cost for the workshop is $499. For questions, contact Kim Stilwell 703-312-9247 or kstilwell@nsta.org

Register at www.nsta.org/district/pps

The Chemistry Olympiad is an annual, international competition of chemical knowledge designed to recognize outstanding chemistry students and foster cross-cultural experiences. The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Kennesaw State University (KSU) and the Georgia Local Section (GLS) of the American Chemical Society (ACS) are sponsoring the first-tier of the Chemistry Olympiad program, which is a local competition.

A qualifying exam will be given on Saturday, March 17th 2018 at KSU from 10:30 am until 12:30 pm. The 13 students who score the highest on the qualifying exam will be invited to take the national exam on Saturday, April 21st 2018 at Kennesaw State University. This national exam will consist of a written portion and a laboratory portion. The National Committee will then evaluate the national exam results to select the 20 members of the U.S. Chemistry Olympiad Team. These students get to participate in a two-week study camp, and the best four students will be selected for the US team. The international competition will be held in Bratislava, Slovakia and Prague, Czech Republic the week of July 19-29 2018.

If you have interested students, please complete the online registration form by 5 pm on Monday 1/15/2018. https://kennesaw.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_4ZTwIUqOuSyQpkF

The Cobb-Paulding Regional Science Fair is on February 10th at Kennesaw Mountain High School. Students who win their local school science fair will need to register online.

Elementary School Division:

The top six projects from a local school fair advance to the regional fair and should visit http://www.ccsdscience.com/k-5.html to register.

Middle/High School Division:

The top ten projects from a local school fair advance to the regional fair and should visit http://www.ccsdscience.com/6-12.html for instructions on how to register for the fair and submit GSEF Forms (see the section "Registration Information for Projects Advancing to the Regional Fair")

This month we're spotlighting Vicky Doll, a 2nd grade teacher at Milford Elementary and one of our District Science PLC Teacher Leaders. Vicky is a science literacy star:

"My love of reading has spilled over into every subject that I teach. Science has been one of my favorite concepts to integrate into my Reading lessons, especially considering the minimal time allotted to teach this subject. Due to this circumstance, I started looking outside of our curriculum resources and into my classroom library. I have over 7,000 books in my classroom library, thanks mostly to visiting thrift stores and Scholastic book warehouse sales over the years. Integrating children’s literature into my Nonfiction Reading standards (RI2.5,6 &7) was fairly easy. Gail Gibbons is my favorite nonfiction author because of her amazing illustrations and extremely informational books that she writes on almost every topic that I need to cover. For our 3rd quarter 2nd grade standards, she has great books on the moon and stars. A great book for a whole group “read-aloud” that I found at our school’s book swap was “Sun and Moon” by Marcus Pfister. It’s a beautiful story about how the sun and the moon want to meet each other and how they go about solving that problem in a folktale format. The story is also written in prose, and woven throughout the story is the scientific concept of a full solar eclipse which is their solution on how the sun and moon can finally meet. Both literature (RL2.1-5) and science standards are covered in one book! In guided reading, I use the book “Mr. Putter and Tabby See the Stars” by Cynthia Rylant. Again, I can use the text for students to cover Reading Literature standards; the bonus is adding narrative about constellations that they find in the sky on a night they couldn’t sleep and went to a midnight stroll. I love exposing my students to learning about scientific topics no matter what kind of literature they are reading, fiction or nonfiction."

Do you want to be featured in an upcoming Cobb Science newsletter? Or do you know a colleague who should be? If so, email Christian (christian.cali@cobbk12.org) or Tracy (tracy.matthews@cobbk12.org).