Educators in Alaska now have a new tool available to teach science with a specific focus on Alaska. The new science curriculum was put together by the University of Alaska’s Geophysical Institute on behalf of the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development. Kathy Berry Bertram is the Education Director for the Geophysical Institute. She admits that there are a lot of different resources out there intended to aid educators in teaching science.
The new Alaska science curriculum can be found on the new website at www.aksci.org. That site features over 300 lessons. So far 5 Alaska school districts have adopted the new 3-year curriculum map. The new science curriculum includes research, data, and information that is specific to Alaska.
Much of the new curriculum was actually created by educators in Alaska and the entire curriculum was tested on students before it was rolled out online. Bertram says efforts were undertaken to make the curriculum easy to use in rural Alaska, which has much slower internet speeds than the more populated areas of Alaska.
Through the new website, teachers are able to get access to nearly 30 University of Alaska Fairbanks scientists that can mentor teachers. Bertram says the new Alaska science curriculum can be a great resource for those who home-school their kids
The website once again is www.aksci.org.
thanks to Mike Mason in Dillingham for this story.
