The San Diego Union-Tribune – Deborah Sullivan Brennan
“In a muggy classroom at Mission Bay High School this week a group of third-grade teachers built weather vanes out of paper cups and plastic straws, and planned lessons around the theme that weather is predictable and observable. It was an easy conclusion to draw on the hot summer day. And it’s exactly the kind of connection that educators want their students to make under the state’s new science standards, which stress first-hand observation and inquiry. “It’s allowing students to find understanding through real world experiences,” said Kim Arvidson, a third-grade teacher at Empresa Elementary in Oceanside, and one of about 450 teachers from Southern California who attended the conference on California’s Next Generation Science Standards.”(more)