DATE: September 15, 2010
TO: English 1311 Students
FROM: Gabriela Montelongo
RE: Science in School
Many schools, especially secondary education schools, are lacking teachers in the mathematics and science departments of their school districts. As a result schools are forced to stretch what few qualified teachers they have thin and use teachers who are have not specialized in the subjects to teach the classes. This leads to a lack of proper teaching on the instructor’s side and a lack of understanding from the students. The less teachers school districts have, who are enthusiastic and knowledgeable enough to excite a passion for math and science the less likely the students are to want to pursue a higher education in those subjects, leaving a larger gap for the generation of scientists and mathematicians to fill.
Science in School is a non-profit organization mobilized through their internet website, that centers its focus on helping to supply science related articles and events to public school systems, which are lacking in the correct instructors to teach the subject. The articles are explained simply enough to get the general concept through, so even if the instructor is not an expert on the subject the basics are still covered. Many of the articles come from European countries and so are in a different languages, Science in School has taken in to account for this and provides translations to an English equivalent article. Some of the links lead to PowerPoints, again which can be translated to English, that can have an entire class days worth of information that is easy to incorporate into instructor’s lesson plans.
The website is set up so that the articles are available to the public, but also has an account option for both students and teacher. The account is free and allows the account holders the option of saving specific articles they enjoy or found interesting and will send them e-mails to scientific event nearby that may interest them. The account holder also has the option of disabling the e-mails if they do not want to be bothered by them. In addition to opening up a litany of usable classroom information the website has direct contact with other science and math professors who are available for discussions, just one of the many categories the website is split up into. Navigation is easy enough, the upper section of the site is split up into three main subjects: categories, topic, and language. The categories section has links to activities, new developments in the subjects, projects, reviews, etc., mainly news in the science world. The topics section is focused more on specific scientific classifications like physics, biology, and chemistry etc. This is where the articles pertaining to specific classes are held. The language section is divided up in to 29 different languages, covering the natural tongue of most of the European continent, and the Americas. This section is best for teachers and students who just wish to brows the latest in the science world in their own language. The sides of the website lead to a general rundown of the purpose and cause of the website, as well as contact information. Science in Schools publishes magazines with the best articles of each month in each issue.
