TXESS Revolution

The NSF-sponsored Earth Science Literacy document has been released. I was a member of a 30-person writing team, including the organizing committee, who used community input from more than 300 scientists and educators to develop Earth Science Literacy Principles, a set of 9 Big Ideas and associated supporting concepts. The Earth Science Literacy document includes Big Idea 5: Earth is the water planet, as well as other Big Ideas with supporting concepts about water (hydrosphere). We have been using the draft Big Ideas and supporting concepts in the development of our legacy cycles. Note that these supporting concepts have been modified after a year of rigorous review so we'll need to address these changes as we continue our Water Exploration curriculum development.

Hope May is going well for everyone.

You might want to check out this story sent to us by Dr. Jamie Austin at UTIG.

Here's the lead-in:
A robotic submarine is undergoing final preparations to dive to the deepest-known part of the oceans. If successful, Nereus will be the first autonomous vehicle to visit the 11,000m (36,089ft) Challenger Deep in the Pacific Ocean. Only two other vehicles have ever visited the spot before, both of them human operated. The $5m submarine will make the attempt in late May or early June after a series of increasingly deep dives. Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8035499.stm

It was wonderful to have you all in Austin last month. Hope you enjoyed learning as much as we enjoyed teaching. Remember the summer institute, application deadline is March 26. See the application on the home page, or email any of us.

Hi All -- Representative Marc Veasey from Forth Worth has introduced a bill that will weaken the 4x4 requirement by creating 3 paths to recommended and advanced degrees: A Science/Math path that is 4x4, a Career and Technology path which requires 3 years of science, and a Humanities path which seems to require no science or math! Students, who always choose the path of least resistance, will vote with their feet, and the 4th year of science will probably not be implemented in many schools and districts. So, let's work to stop this train.

The path for this bill is: house committee, house vote, senate committee, senate vote, law, state board of education, implementation. Below are the contact information links for the SBOE, Texas House, Texas Senate, House Education committee, and Senate Education committee. Also, the text of the bill is attached.

WRITE!

link to your SBOE officer: http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/sboe/members.html

From the NYTimes, here is an interactive map of sand samples from around the world. Click on the camera icons to see the sand pictures. You may find ways to use this with your kids (compare and contrast, consider sources, etc.)

Also note that the link related article tells you about the geologist who collected all of these, and many many more.

Eleanour

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/01/05/science/06sandmap.html?ref...

Support for Earth Science in Texas Public High Schools needed.

The State Board of Education (SBOE) will be voting on revised and new science TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills), including those for the new Earth and Space Science course for Texas public high schools, on Jan 21-23 and for a final time in March. Letters in support of the proposed TEKS for the new Earth and Space Science course as currently written would be very useful. The concern is that the SBOE might decide to modify parts to reflect nonscientific views.

You can view them at:

Hi All
This came out in the NY Times this week--a very interesting article on some new ideas about the early Earth. Our next PDA focuses on Extreme Environments. We used to think early Earth would qualify, but maybe it was not so extreme after all!

The calendar, with events through Feb 2009, is on the main www.txessrevolution.org website. Click and look.

All of you revolutionaries in our first group are coming back for PDA 3 on Oct 2-4, and for PDA 4, on Feb 19-21.

We are also starting a second cohort who will begin this fall, so Oct 23-25. Tell your friends!