FREE POSTERS INSIDE! INSIDE THIS ISSUE. Sun-Earth Day Poster. From the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

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1 The Earth Scietist Volume XXVII Issue 4 Witer 2011 $10.00* FREE POSTERS INSIDE! From the Natioal Aeroautics ad Space Admiistratio (NASA) Su-Earth Day Poster From Coast ad Ocea i Califoria Pacific Ocea Poster This photo was take Jue 23, 2008 i the Alaska Rage while workig o a flightseeig book. The Alaska Rage has some of the most severe alpie routes i North America, ad heavy sow accumulatios ca cause avalaches tumblig toward glaciers below. The geologic evets that have take place i ad aroud the Alaska Rage have resulted i a ladscape of uusual beauty. Cold temperatures at the peaks of the Alaska Rage keep the sow ad ice from meltig. Widchills as low as -59 F (-50 C) have bee recorded i the summer ad -118 F (-83 C) i the witer. This photo was take by Gary Gullett usig a Niko D300, 48mm, ISO200, 1/2000th, F10. To see more of Gary s photos, go to INSIDE THIS ISSUE From the Presidet...2 From the Executive Director...3 Editor s Corer Idex of TES Articles MESTA/NESTA Summer Field Coferece i Hawaii...6 Is There Such a Cocept as Geological Patiece?...8 Rocks ad Fossils May Stimulate Curiosity...11 What s Happeig i Earth ad Space Sciece Educatio Today? NESTA 2011 Membership Survey Results...14 Sciece Notebooks ad a Big Waste Problem...21 C-MORE ad Sciece Buzz: Where Studets ad Scietists Meet...27 Advertisig i The Earth Scietist...32 Mauscript Guidelies...33 Membership Iformatio...34 Key to Accompay Ocea Poster...35 *ISSN

2 Volume XXVII, Issue 4 Page 27 C-MORE ad Sciece Buzz: Where Studets ad Scietists Meet By Barbara Mayer ad Barbara C. Bruo Abstract The Ceter for Microbial Oceaography: Research ad Educatio (C-MORE) is a Natioal Sciece Foudatio-sposored Sciece ad Techology Ceter. Sciece Buzz is a olie platform that posts curret research results o ewsworthy sciece, ad ecourages olie coversatio amog scietists, studets ad the geeral public. Studets ca practice sciece-style thikig ad questioig as they read ad write commets i respose to Sciece Buzz posts. This article presets C-MORE s experiece i usig Sciece Buzz as a vehicle to commuicate cuttig-edge research results i plai laguage for teachers, studets ad the geeral public. Itroductio Put yourself i a sciece teacher s shoes...well, I guess you re already there! We kow the cotext of what our job is. Through various atioal ad state stadards, society is callig upo us to icrease the scietific literacy of our future citizes. Scietific literacy goes beyod simply learig scietific facts. It ivolves readig ad uderstadig articles about sciece, ad critically evaluatig the argumets preseted (Natioal Research Coucil, 1996). Implicit i sciece literacy are good thikig, readig ad writig skills (Sigletary, 2010). This article addresses the questio: How ca sciece teachers itegrate readig ad writig opportuities ito sciece courses? Figure 1. A mata trawl is hoisted above the ster deck of the RV Kilo Moaa durig C-MORE s SUPER expeditio to sample microplastic ad associated microbes i the North Pacific Ocea betwee Hawaii ad Califoria. Credit: C-MORE; ocea-plastic-trouble Now let s trade shoes ad put o the closed-toe, rubber-soled shipboard shoes of oceaographers workig at C-MORE, a Sciece ad Techology Ceter (STC) established i 2006 by the Natioal Sciece Foudatio. From the very begiig, as the E i C-MORE implies, educatio has bee a itegral part of the Ceter (Bruo et al., 2008). A key focus of C-MORE s outreach program is coveyig the critical importace of marie microbes ad the roles they play i marie ecosystems. This ca be challegig! Microbes are ot exactly the charismatic megafaua that ted to egage the public s attetio. C-MORE scietists geerally commuicate their research results through techical joural articles geared toward professioals. It may be years, before some of the most importat discoveries fid their way ito sciece textbooks Natioal Earth Sciece Teachers Associatio. All Rights Reserved.

3 Page 28 The Earth Scietist I recet years, there has bee a growig awareess amog scietists ad educators that this simply is t good eough. Betts (2011) suggests that research results be accompaied by a plai Eglish traslatio for public cosumptio (also see AGhiY8fH_blog.html). So, util that happes, how ca scietists covey their research results i a timely fashio directly to the geeral public, icludig studets ad teachers? Here, we describe a olie platform that promotes scietific commuicatio ad literacy. C-MORE (ad other) scietists ca share their research results with the geeral public i real time. Studets ad teachers ca freely access research results o a variety of scietific topics, post commets, ask questios ad egage i olie discussios with the scietific commuity. Number of Reads as of August 15, 2011 Date Posted Title of Article Reads 6/13/2011 Ocea Expeditio Videos 772 5/18/2011 Malaspia: Aroud-the-World Ocea 492 Expeditio 5/2/2011 Pacific versus Atlatic: Discoverig Micro 565 Differeces 4/13/2011 Hutig the Wild Ocea Microbe 486 3/17/2011 Trackig a Carbo Budget 462 1/28/2011 Ocea + Plastic = Trouble /9/2010 BiG RAPA s Sea-It-Live: Hutig the 767 Tiiest Plakto 12/2/2010 BiG RAPA s Sea-It-Live: Discoveries from Miles at Sea 11/29/2010 BiG RAPA s Sea-It-Live: a Red Ocea /26/2010 BiG RAPA Statio 1: Surprisig 695 Chlorophyll ad Oxyge Levels 11/17/2010 Sea It Live! /12/2010 Ocea Microbes: Part of the Aswer /19/2010 Teacher is Oe of the Sea STARS 608 Sciece Buzz ad C-MORE World s Greatest Diosaur Huter, Aerogel (Space Jello!), ad Discoveries from 1000 Miles at Sea -- these are t typical titles from sciece textbook readigs. But they are, i fact, headlies from blog posts o Sciece Buzz. Sice 2004, the Sciece Museum of Miesota has bee operatig Sciece Buzz with a focus o ewsworthy sciece, cuttig-edge research, ad seasoal sciece. However, Sciece Buzz is ot just a source of sciece iformatio; it also stimulates ad solicits cotributios from its readers. The website reads: As log as a post falls uder our broad defiitio of curret sciece, we re comfortable with difficult questios ad a variety of opiios. Cotributors are cautioed to play ice by followig the Sciece Buzz Commuity Guidelies ( commuity_guidelies_0). Teachers, studets, ad the geeral public ca access Sciece Buzz from ay computer hooked up to the Iteret, as well as through kiosks i a umber of museums across the coutry (e.g., Califoria Sciece Ceter i Los Ageles, North Carolia Museum of Life ad Sciece, Durham, ad the Orego Museum of Sciece ad Idustry i Portlad). Table 1. Summary of C-MORE Sciece Buzz Posts ad Bursts writte by MicroScribe, ad Number of Reads as of August 15, 2011 Credit: C-MORE I the Fall of 2010, C-MORE bega to establish a Sciece Buzz presece. C-MORE ecourages its scietists to post their research directly o Sciece Buzz uder the pseudoym MicroScribe. Thirtee posts ad bursts (shorter posts) o C-MORE related research are curretly available. C-MORE also egages a retired sciece teacher (the lead author) to work with scietists to blog about their research: Here are the steps i my writig process. I begi by readig papers published i professioal jourals by C-MORE scietists. A example is the Colema ad Chisholm (2010) article o comparative populatio geomics. My goal is to traslate the sciece cotet for a teeage audiece while preservig the essece of the research. I work (usually via ) with the scietists. I develop a draft, icludig graphics ad liks. I go back ad forth with C-MORE Educatio Director Barbara Bruo ad the other scietists to sharpe accuracy. As soo as we fialize the product, I post it olie. My Sciece Buzz postig of Colema ad Chisholm (2010) appeared as Pacific versus Atlatic: Discoverig Micro Differeces ( pacific-versus-atlatic-discoverig-micro-differeces). Ay updates or correctios ca be made immediately. The umber of readers climbs over the hours ad days ahead. Barbara Mayer 2011 Natioal Earth Sciece Teachers Associatio. All Rights Reserved.

4 Volume XXVII, Issue 4 Page 29 Sciece Buzz i the Classroom Sciece Buzz provides a opportuity for studets to develop the readig, writig ad thikig skills that costitute scietific literacy. A hallmark of scietific thikig is skepticism. Whe scietists atted semiars or read professioal articles where research results are aouced, they ted to assume a questioig midset. While beig respectful of their colleagues, they ask: Was there a cotrol? Was the sample size large eough? How would the results have bee differet if...? As studets read Sciece Buzz blog posts, teachers ca help studets develop a respectful, questioig attitude. Sciece Buzz selectios could be used before, durig or after more classic classroom activities or assigmets. For example, a teacher could assig a relevat post for all studets to read to itroduce a ew uit. Alterately, each studet could select a post based o idividual iterest as a extesio activity. Perhaps studets could work as parters i their readig, utilizig a proactive, iteractive ad reflective process (Gillis ad MacDougall, 2007). After readig ad discussio, the ext step would be for studets, idividually or with a parter, to compose a short commet i respose to the Sciece Buzz blog. These rough drafts should be submitted to the teacher for approval before beig posted olie as commets o Sciece Buzz. Sciece Buzz supports educators eeds i various ways: attractive, egagig appearace -- Colorful, clear graphics; sappy headlies; short, light writig style...who would t wat to read Sciece Buzz?! The website is ot a olie textbook; it s writte i a iformal style for a youg, Web-savvy audiece. user-friedly eviromet -- As a olie discussio commuity, Sciece Buzz ca provide a trasitio learig experiece for shy studets, who may be reluctat to eter ito classroom discussio (Brusell ad Horejsi, 2010). midful of sciece stadards -- Each Sciece Buzz blog post lists appropriate Sciece Topic Areas, the phrase for Miesota s sciece stadards as of log-term presece -- Scietific ivestigatios frequetly utilize blogs for short-term reportig of field experieces ad results. Sciece Buzz, however, has maitaied a cotiual Web presece sice quality sciece cotet -- As a NSF-supported etity, Sciece Buzz features emergig sciece from respected research istitutios. iclusive -- Sciece Buzz utilizes JAWS scree reader to assist idividuals who are blid or have low visio. Figure 2. Pacific HOT ad Atlatic BATS Statios: Samples were collected at each locatio; sigificat differeces betwee the statios were discovered i both the amout of phosphorus ad the bacterial geomes relatig to phosphorus utilizatio. (credit: NASA modified by S. Chisholm; org/blog/pacific-versus-atlaticdiscoverig-micro-differeces) Sciece Buzz ca be a major arrow i the quiver wor by sciece teachers. Let the olie discussios begi! Refereces Betts, A A proposal for commuicatig sciece. Bulleti of the America Meteorology Society (i press) /BAMS-D Bruo, B. C., K. Achilles, K. Weersig, G. Walker ad P. Kemp Professioal developmet at the Ceter for Microbial Oceaography: Research ad Educatio (C-MORE). The Earth Scietist XXVII(2):7-10. Brusell, E. ad M. Horejsi Sciece 2.0: Create a classroom blog! The Sciece Teacher 77(2): Natioal Earth Sciece Teachers Associatio. All Rights Reserved.

5 Page 30 The Earth Scietist Colema, M.L. ad S.W. Chisholm Ecosystem-specific selectio pressures revealed through comparative populatio geomics. Gillis, V. ad G. MacDougall Readig to lear sciece as a active process. The Sciece Teacher 74(5): Natioal Research Coucil Natioal sciece educatio stadards. Washigto, DC: Sigletary, J Cotet readig i sciece class. The Sciece Teacher 77(1): Additioal Olie Refereces C-MORE: cmore.soest.hawaii.edu/iformatio.htm Sciece Buzz (geeral website): Sciece Buzz (reports by C-MORE s MicroScribe): Sciece Buzz (Pacific versus Atlatic: Discoverig Micro Differeces): pacific-versus-atlatic-discoverig-micro-differeces Should techical sciece jourals have plai laguage traslatio?: AGhiY8fH_blog.html Ackowledgmets B. Mayer ad B. Bruo s participatio i Sciece Buzz is supported by C-MORE (NSF-OIA #EF ) ad the Hawaii Iovatio Iitiative, which is fuded by the State of Hawaii ad the America Reivestmet ad Recovery Act. The Sciece Buzz platform is supported by NSF-DRL # About the Authors Barbara Mayer (bamayer@gmail.com) has over 20 years of classroom sciece teachig ad experiece i curriculum developmet. I additio to her work with C-MORE, Mayer has writte for Hawaii s Bishop Museum, Uiversity of Hawaii s Curriculum Research ad Developmet Group, Coservatio Coucil for Hawaii, NPS, USFWS ad NOAA. Barbara C. Bruo (barb@hawaii.edu) is o the faculty of the Uiversity of Hawaii s School of Ocea ad Earth Sciece ad Techology ad serves as C-MORE s Director of Educatio. Bruo is also the Pricipal Ivestigator of Ocea FEST, a ocea-themed commuity educatio program fuded by the Natioal Sciece Foudatio. Why should I ope ad read the NESTA ENews s? NESTA s mothly ENews provides brief summaries of stories ad projects that have a direct lik to the Earth Scieces ad or the teachig of Earth Scieces. May of these short articles provide liks to more iformatio or complete websites that those iterested ca follow. The ENews also cotais iformatio regardig teacher opportuities for research, professioal developmet, ad eve grats. The reader will also fid a caledar with items that have time critical iformatio or may be occurrig later that moth or the ext moth. The ENews will also be addig state related liks each moth. The goal is to provide liks to two states Earth Sciece sites each moth. For example, i the Jue 2011 issue we focused o Earth Sciece resources i Alabama ad Colorado Natioal Earth Sciece Teachers Associatio. All Rights Reserved.