heads up!

heads up was the topic for today's collaborative meeting.
Karin Grisham from New Boston ISD was the presenter, and will be for the next couple (I think) of meetings. It is my understanding that we will delve deeper into the heads up curricula during these meetings.

The curricula is on six dvds and 7 cds. The project was funded by a grant that ended this summer. I have no idea exactly what this means as far as updates to the program.

There are six modules targeted at middle school health and science. Below are the module titles;
Genes, Health and You
Diabetes/Cardiovascular Disease
Nutrition/Physical Activity
The Nervous System
Advanced Genetics
The Immune System and Infectious Diseases

At first glance the topics aren't linked to any of the 6h or 8th grade TEKS. Perhaps, future training and exploration will prove me wrong. Most of the topics could be linked to 7th grade without much stretching at all.

The multi-media (Kirk; videos!) portion is o.k. It has good information, interviews with science professionals, and some good demonstration video (ex. dissection of an eye). Some of the videos are up to 30 minutes in length. Preview them first. Some will put you to sleep almost as fast as they would put the kids to sleep (not that this is always a bad thing.) Some of them are really pretty good. I watched an interview with a strength training coach for the Houston Texans (all of this was produced in Houston) that was impressive. He mentions that he had wanted to play pro ball, but that didn't work for him and he was fortunate to land a job in the area he was in without the "proper" coursework / connections.

The lessons / activities / labs / whatever you want to call them that we worked through seemed pretty good. I saw a handful that I will do pretty much "straight off the disk." I really enjoyed the "your beating heart" "lab". Ms. Hollenshead offered the addition of a bit of carbon monoxide to kill the heart as the lab progressed. (o.k., she didn't mention killing only oxygen deprivation I took the extra step to the kill level). Mr. Glossup and I discussed an engage of a bit of music; your cheatin' heart. In the music vein; Curtis Grimes is Ms. Hollenshead's nephew, and she says to check him out.

Heather Morgan from Miller Grove ISD talked about science journals. She had some nice ideas with a powerpoint. I was listening instead of writing, but Heather said she would get Lacy (Clarice) the file and Lacy said she would post it on pbworks. Of course Lacy and Karen said that they would post files from last month's training there too. And... nothing yet, except the excel file with everyone's picture. Anyhoo... I liked the idea and format. I'll have to press Lacy or Heather one as I would like to use this format if Coach ordered the comp books.

quote of the day!
silence is golden,
duct tape is silver.


Texas HOT jobs http://www.texashotjobs.org/
looks to be pretty slick, especially for those of you that like to share "science jobs in life" gives a snapshot of a science job with salary, projected outlook, path to that career, and much more.

online stopwatches / timers http://www.online-stopwatch.com/