Annual Report for Tina King
January 15, 2004 - January 15, 2005

Teacher Info Page | Annual Login Page

Field Experience

Were you in the field this season? No

Continued Collaboration with Research Team Members

Type of Interaction / Outcomes / Dates / Locations / Parcticipants: April 30- May 2, 2004: Dr. Sam Bowser came to Nashville, Tennessee, to help present a TEA Regional Workshop held on May 1, 2004, for 30 teachers from across Tennessee. The workshop's theme, a "Paleo-Modern Connection" helped bring the Antarctic TEA experience full circle. In doing so, we were able to connect Dr. Bowser's research in Antarctica to Tennessee. Dr. Bowser presented his research on modern-day foraminifera living in the cold shallow waters of Antarctica. Dr. Molly Miller from Vanderbilt University shared her Antarctic research by dealing with the ancient climate and environmental changes as recorded in Paleozoic and Mesozoic rocks of the TransAntarctic Mountains. The teachers took a field trip to a local outcropping to look at fossils and read the environment in the area before heading to Dr. Miller's lab to view modern and fossilized specimens. Dr. Bowser worked with teachers to show fossilized foraminifera under the microscopes in Dr. Miller's lab. Dr. Michael Gibson, a professor at the University of Tennessee at Martin, gave a brief history of the paleo-environment and seas where organisms were laid down during the Cretaceous period in West Tennessee. Dr. Gibson led a subsequent field trip for the parcticipants on June 4-6, 2004, to Coon Creek in West Tennessee. The teachers went into the field and in a lab setting to collect and process fossilized foraminifera to take back to their classrooms.

On May 1, 2004, Dr. Bowser also met with four of my students (fourth grade) who worked with him over the past year to research foraminifera. These fourth grade students were introduced to the 30 parcticipants at the beginning of the workshop. They showed a 16- minute video of themselves presenting foraminifera to the class in order to help teach the teachers about Dr. Bowser's research in Antarctica. These fourth graders were one of the highlights of the workshop.

Dr. Bowser is currently answering questions and sending emails and updates to my fifth grade students from Antarctica while he is in the field. He plans on conducting an investigation for one of the students while he is in Antarctica this season. Dr. Bowser has installed an underwater camera, which is focused on an Antarctic scallop covered with forams. The fifth grade student wanted to know if the Cibicides, one of the species of forams on the scallop, is a meat-eater like the foram, Astrammina rara. Dr. Bowser still answers endless questions for me on foraminifera, which has helped me gain more knowledge, as well as gain direction on where I need to go next.

My fifth grade students sent a flag again this year to fly over the Jamesway hut at the field camp in Antarctica (October-February). For the past three years, my students have designed and painted a flag to help the helicopter pilots judge the wind speed and direction of the wind as they land at Explorers Cove. The flag also serves as reminder to Dr. Bowser and the scientists that the students are following their research from home. The flag immediately connects my students to Dr. Bowser and his research. They feel that he is their scientist.

Has a member of your research team visited your classroom in the last year? Yes

Transfer

How are you sharing your research experience with your colleagues, district, community, etc? I have continued to make presentations to various organizations, clubs, schools, and conferences (local, state, and national). I have parcticipated in workshops for an "All Girl Science Day" for high school students held at the museum in Nashville for the last three years. To date, I have presented to about 7000 people. This doesn't include the hundreds of people that I email or encounter in the community, or while traveling throughout the year. I continue to share the TEA web site with each encounter. I mail activities and TEA information to teachers across the country. I am still getting emails from students from across the country. Recently, I received an email from a biology 2 student in Concord, NH. Her questions on why I think foraminifera are significant, and why I would like others to know about forams led me to write a response that I now give to teachers at presentations. Although this type of outreach is not accounted for in the numbers that I submit for TEA presentations, this type of one-on-one outreach is one of my favorite ways to bring teachers and students into the TEA experience. In doing so, I feel the personal connection will encourage teachers and students to bring polar experiences and activities into their lives. When I went to Barrow, Alaska, this past April, I established a pen-pal relationship between my class and a fourth grade class in Barrow. I also visited several scientists while I was in Fairbanks and Barrow. In doing so, it connected me to the Arctic and gave me a better understanding to bring back to the classroom. I parcticipated in a "Bridging the Poles" workshop this summer, which gave me the opportunity to meet with scientists, educators, and the media to explore ways to bring the Polar Regions to the forefront. I feel that my involvement with both Polar Regions will be shared with my colleagues, district, and community for a long time to come because it has become such a major part of me. I feel that the Polar Regions will pull students and others into science research, which is needed to improve science education by building connections and a truer sense of understanding. My TEA Associates and I made a presentation to the Board of Education this past September, so that we could show them how we have transferred this Antarctic experience to the classroom. I went to Washington DC on May 24, 2004 to speak at NSF/ TEA Advisory Board Meeting about the transfer experience on behalf of the Antarctic teachers. My field experience in Antarctica gave me my passion for making the Polar Regions into a life-long learning and transfer experience. My mentoring and transfer has been my greatest source for learning. It has been an honor to collaborate with my TEA Associates and other TEAs, educators, university professors, and scientists. The transfer workshops, the TEA Regional Workshops, the presentations, the collaboration with scientists, and the TEA mentoring conference phone calls have been a great source in facilitating my growth and learning in order to transfer to others.

When I think of TEA, I don't think of it as being a three-year commitment, but rather as one of the greatest learning experiences of my life. For this reason, I am committed to continue bringing the study of foraminifera and the Polar regions into today's classrooms long after my TEA contract expires. It's not about the number of people that I present to each year, but rather about making people aware of foraminifera and the research that goes on in the Polar Regions. I would like students, as well as the general public to understand the value of bringing science research into their lives. My goal as a teacher is to help students and teachers see the connections between the sciences. This experience, as I tried to connect foraminifera to geology, biology and chemistry, gave me a greater appreciation for how science can easily connect learning. When I first began this project, I had no idea how I would be able to connect foraminifera to fourth grade students in Tennessee. As the project progressed, the more I learned, and the easier it became to make connections between Dr. Bowser's Antarctic project and Tennessee, even on the level of ten year old students. My students made me proud to be their teacher. Antarctica motivated my students to learn and by having this connection with a real, live, and personable scientist, science became real to my students. Who would have ever thought that fourth graders would understand and be excited to learn about something as complex as "foraminifera"? I plan to work diligently to help others connect the Antarctic and the Arctic. My parcticipation through this TEA experience with Dr. Sam Bowser's project has given me the dedication to continue bringing my experience and learning to others. I will always be grateful to NSF and the TEA program for encouraging my growth and learning, so without a doubt, this opportunity will continue to be transferred and shared with others for many years to come.

TEA Collaborative Learning Group

Name: Tina King

Active? Yes

Contact Hours: 326

Name: Bob King

Active? Yes

Contact Hours: 150+

Name: Sue Smartt

Active? Yes

Contact Hours: 88

Name: Terry McDonald

Active? Yes

Contact Hours: 88

Have you submitted your TEA Collaborative Learning Group Annual Report? Yes

Associates Network

Number of Associates in local network: 3

Type of Interaction / Outcomes / Dates / Locations / Parcticipants: TEA Associates: Bob King, computer, math, and physics teacher, White House High Sue Smartt, media specialist, W.A. Wright Elementary Terry McDonald, 7th/ 8th grade math teacher, Carroll Oakland Elementary

Bob King, Computer, Math, Physics teacher, White House High School (This year: 150 + hours/ To date: 650+ hours)

Bob has continued to learn along with me by assisting in many presentations and workshops (locally, statewide, and nationally). We have attended several conferences and workshops together, including presentations and visits with scientists in Alaska. He was also an integral part of the TEA Regional Workshop in Nashville and the subsequent field trip to West Tennessee. Since he is married to me, he has daily interactions with me regarding TEA activities, Antarctica, foraminifera research, and communications with scientists and other teachers. He recently traveled at his own expense to the Arctic with me over spring break (April 2004), and then to the Alaska Math and Science Conference in Fairbanks (October 2004). We met with scientists, professors, and students during both visits. During the April trip, we visited the permafrost tunnel and the Tsunami Center, attended a talk by Dr. Neal Brown on his aurora research, and visited scientists who worked with the Large Animal Research Station, the frozen ground squirrels, seabirds, and foraminifera. We also visited scientists in Barrow to learn more about their research with Bowhead and Beluga whales. We visited two high school classes in Barrow. One teacher, Leslie Pierce, invited me to observe her biology class doing a hands-on lesson. Tim Buckley, a TEA, invited us to go out with his students to collect data at transects on the lake, (Alison project set up by Dr. Martin Jeffries). We went out for a day with one of the native Inupiats, who gave us a tour of Barrow, talked to us about his upcoming trip as a member of a whaling crew, and took us to view the aurora at 2 a.m. in the morning. We walked on the frozen Arctic Ocean and mushed our own dog sled team. In October, we made two 75-minute presentations at the Alaska Math and Science Conference in Fairbanks to teach about foraminifera using an activity from the Lynn Margulis kit, "Living Sands". Although this activity focuses on the two types of sand: biogenic and abiogenic sands, it has proven to be a great introduction into foraminifera. We are interested in this activity because it teaches a lesson that relates to the Tennessee Gateway Biology exam, as well as teaches about foraminifera. We also taught a three-hour lab at the University of Alaska Fairbanks for Dr. Doug Schamel's "Teaching Science in the Elementary Grades". This class was made up of 25 pre-service teachers training to be elementary teachers. Bob and I also presented this lesson at the TEA Regional Workshop, as well as two presentations at the Tennessee Science Teachers Conference in November 2004. We converted this sand activity into a math lesson to teach ratios, percentages, and standard deviations. We taught this to a low-level Algebra I class and to an AP Biology class. I will also be teaching this math lesson to my fifth grade math class. We try to connect math to science as often as possible, so students will see the math/science connection.

Bob has co-written several activities with me. The inquiry-based ice activity has been published on-line on the TEA activity page. We are still pre-testing a math activity for tracking dinosaurs that Bob developed with two scientists at a workshop in the Wyoming Badlands. I added input, edited, and helped present this activity at the Tennessee Science Teachers Conference. We also demonstrated this activity to a group of teachers in Wyoming this past summer when we took a workshop on the life of the Jurassic Dinosaurs. This activity teaches middle school/ high school students how to measure dinosaur tracks and convert to scale to determine whether the dinosaur was walking, running, or trotting. We will do this activity with my fifth grade students and with Bob's Trigonometry class. We have parcticipated on several dinosaur digs out west over the past few years, which has enabled Bob to help bring a geological dig to our fourth grade (now fifth grade) students at West Elementary. Our goal is to connect science. Since we both have an interest in geology, we are working to connect geology to biology, which goes right along with the study of foraminifera (Antarctic research project).

We will be presenting "Inquiry-based science lessons" at the upcoming workshop for an "All Girls' Science Day" sponsored by the museum in Nashville. One of the activities we will pretest with these high school students is an inquiry-based activity that we developed, "CSI Sundance", which will be added to the fifth grade geological dig this year. I have already gotten "lab coats" donated from Vanderbilt Medical Center and a medical supplier to put the students into the proper frame of mind for working in a lab. Bob and I collected belemnites and gryphea fossils to help students investigate the "crime scene"/ paleo-environment of the Sundance area of Wyoming. Our study of foraminifera has encouraged us to begin to learn more about the fossilized foraminifera and their paleo-environment in order to relate the paleo to the modern day foraminifera. In doing so, it has helped us gain a better understanding of the paleo world in other parts of the country. Bob edits and critiques all of my work (papers, activities, and Power Points). He taught me how to convert my Antarctic slides to Power Point presentations. He has also taught me how to make Power Points to put together information/ photos for students and teachers to study foraminifera on-line. All of this takes time, and Bob has offered input, suggestions, ideas, and advice, which have been quite helpful. It has been nice to learn together. It makes me a better teacher to have someone to share ideas and to act as a sounding board. I love to present with him because he adds things that I may miss, as well as gives feedback to improve my presentations. I regard him as one of my greatest teachers and my partner in learning.

Sue Smartt: Media Specialist, W.A. Wright Elementary, (This year: 88 hours/ To date: 139 hours) Terry McDonald: 7th/8th grade Math Teacher, (This year: 88 hours/ To date 138 hours)

Since Sue is a full-time media specialist, we decided to take advantage of her teaching assignment to connect science to literature. We also felt that connecting science to literature was an important step in connecting learning through the integration of disciplines, especially with the importance reading plays in learning. This has been presented to our Board of Education (Sept. 2004) and the TEA Advisory Board (May 24, 2004), as well as to teachers at the NSTA conference in April 2004 and the TSTA (Tennessee Science Conference) in November 2004. This activity was highly successful in integrating science, reading, math, and technology. The theme, "Life beneath the Antarctic Ice" worked well with a fourth grade reading class, an eighth grade math class, and a high school computer class. It took many, many hours to collate resources to be used among all three levels of students. Sue was invaluable in helping to find quality resources and in collating the bibliography to use with our students. I met with her separately on several occasions to review the results of students previewing books at her school, as well as to pull together a list of books for the librarian at West Elementary to order for students at my school. Our focus was on K-5, although our Web site search was geared more for fourth grade and higher. Sue put together an activity that worked well with Helen Cowcher's Big Book, Antarctica, which was effective in teaching library skills to first grade students. Our meetings focused on putting together books, resources, web sites, and activities to go along with the "Life beneath the Ice" learning projects. This information has been given to the Teacher Resource Center for our school district, as well through presentations at local, state, and national conferences. The video tape that showed my fourth grade students presenting their research on "Life beneath the Antarctic Ice" (penguins, Weddell seals, krill, starfish, orca whales, and foraminifera) was shown with their research projects at the Wilson County Fair this past August. The students' projects were done over a two to three month period. This video has been given to the Wilson County Teacher Center and our school library.

My TEA Associates and I met once a week for two hours after school from January to May 2004 at West Elementary to pull together ideas and resources. This collaboration also helped us to plan, develop, organize, and polish the activity for upcoming presentations. It took many hours to preview books and web sites that related to our topic at the different grade levels. When we met, we added ideas, suggestions, or comments to make the project come together. It was helpful to go back into the classroom or library to see if the ideas were effective, and if it helped the students gather appropriate and up-to-date resources for their research.

Terry McDonald's eighth grade math students and Bob King's high school computer students researched penguins, Weddell seals, orca whales, and starfish using the suggested resources (mainly Web sites). The students worked together in small groups to find information pertaining to the speed and depth of their selected marine animal. Both groups of students collated their data on graphs and gave presentations to their classes. Terry's students designed graphs on poster board, while Bob's students made computer-generated graphs. This activity encouraged students to work together to find information using technology, put it together in a graph format, and present their findings to the class. It allowed for creativity by enabling the students to come up with specially designed graphs to show their data. While Sue worked with students and teachers at her school to find valuable resources, my fourth grade reading students used many of the recommended books and Web sites to find information on the same marine animals as Terry and Bob's students. The main difference being that one group of fourth grade students chose to add foraminifera as their project. The fourth grade students researched characteristics, habitat and distribution, diet, locomotion, life cycle, and predators and prey. The results of the students' efforts were compiled into bound booklets for each organism. The booklets contained drawings, T-charts, and Venn diagrams, along with their typed text. The students used technology to find resources on the web. They also learned how to cut and paste, change the font and size, and to save their work to a 3.5 floppy disk and the hard drive. In all three classes, the teachers noticed excitement among the students, as they were actively involved in their own learning. This project gave the students and the teachers the opportunity to see the talents and potential within each student.

Presentations and Real Audio Sessions

Presentation Date, Title, Number of Attendees, Etc. January 23, 2004: Second grade students and teachers (68)

February 7, 2004: "All Girls' Science Day" hands-on workshop for high school level (8a.m. - 1p.m.) Adventure Science Center, Nashville, TN (TWISTER: Tennessee Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Research. (20 girls): "Living Sands" (an Intro to foraminifera and Polar Research)

April 1, 2004 Share-a-thon: NSTA- Atlanta, GA: PAEMST: Presidential Awardee Share-a-thon Poster Session (95) TEA Antarctica/ Foraminifera/ Connecting Science to Literature (4th grade students research on Forams).

April 3, 2004: NSTA- Atlanta, GA: "Science to Literature Connection" with TEA Associates (12) "Animals beneath the Antarctic Ice" with Kolene Krysl (11)

April13, 2004: Barrow, Alaska: Leslie Pierce's biology class (9) 4th grade pen-pals (21)

May 1, 2004: TEA Regional Workshop: "Paleo-Modern Connection": 30 parcticipants with Antarctic scientists Dr. Sam Bowser (Wadsworth Center and my P.I.) and Dr. Molly Miller (Vanderbilt University) and professor of geology at the University of Tennessee at Martin, Dr, Michael Gibson, and Arlyn Bruccoli (TEA project manager) (34)

May 24, 2004: TEA Advisory Board Meeting/ NSF staff, Washington DC (25)

June 4-6: Coon Creek field trip, West Tennessee (field trip extension from TEA Regional Workshop) (15)

June 23, 2004: "Bridging the Poles" Workshop, Washington DC: 3 minutes presentation: Antarctic transfer (60)

September 30, 2004: Board of Education Meeting, Wilson County Schools, Antarctic transfer with TEA Associates (55)

October 6, 2004: White House High School: Two presentations on "Living Sands….Connecting Math to Science" Algebra 1 90- minute class- (16 students) and AP biology 90-minute class- (18 students).

October 14, 2004: Two 75-minute presentations on "Living Sands….Connecting Math to Science" with TEA Associate, Bob King, at the Alaska Math and Science Conference in Fairbanks (40)

October 15, 2004: Three-hour lab for Dr. Doug Schamel's "Science for the Elementary Teacher" at the University of Alaska Fairbanks with TEA Associate, Bob King (25 pre-service teachers and 3 professors) (28)

November 18, 2004: Earth Science workshop at the Tennessee Science Teachers Conference (TSTA) (26)

November 19, 2004: TSTA: Science to Literature Connection with TEA Associates (9)

November 19, 2004: TSTA: "Living Sands" with TEA Associates (18)

November 20, 2004: TSTA: "Living Sands" (21) with TEA Associate, Bob King Total presentations for 2004: 601 people

Have you presented to your local board of education this year? Yes

Activities Development

Title: Science to Literature Connection

Description:
This activity involved connecting science to literature, math, research, reading, and technology. It was pretested with fourth grade reading research projects, an eighth grade math class, and a high school computer class.

Has this activity been submitted to the TEA Web Site? No

Title: CSI Sundance

Description:
This CSI investigation takes the students into an investigation to use fossil evidence to learn about the paleo-environment.

Has this activity been submitted to the TEA Web Site? No

Title: Tracking Dinosaurs

Description:
This math activity teaches conversions to scale to connect math to science

Has this activity been submitted to the TEA Web Site? No

Other Classroom Connections: My reading students are still using an activity I wrote when I returned from Antarctica, which has questions that lead students on a "virtual field trip" through my TEA web site and research experience. Several teachers have used this with their students. My TEA Associate, Bob King, also uses this activity each year to help his computer students navigate between TEA web pages and related Internet sites. My TEA Associate, Bob King, and I have developed an activity called "Tracking Dinosaurs" to teach math (measurement and converting to scale). We also added a math activity to the "Living Sands" lesson to connect math to science (ratios/percentages/ standard deviation). We have developed a soil ecology aquarium and a new activity called "CSI Sundance" to bring an environmental study to students. I am still getting questions from students and the general public from my web site. I have received emails this year from students in Washington State, Concord, NH, and Massachusetts. The questions are coming from science classes in the middle and high schools. The questions have a more concentrated focus on the research of foraminifera. I have continued to network and exchange ideas with teachers, professors, and scientists from across the country. Teacher networking is invaluable. It always promotes new ideas and enthusiasm for today's students.

NSTA, Atlanta 2004: I made three presentations: 1.) Science to Literature Connection with TEA Associates, (2.) Animals beneath the Antarctic Ice with TEA Kolene Krysl from Nebraska and TEA Associate Bob King, (3.) Presidential Awardee Poster Share-a-thon with information about Polar Research, foraminifera, Dr, Sam Bowser's project, and my fourth grade students research on foraminifera. My TEA Associates, Bob King, Terry McDonald, and I helped to host the TEA booth and helped with the SWAT team for other TEA presentations during this conference.

TSTA, 2004: I made four presentations: 1.) Earth Science Workshop (highly qualified status) with Dr. Don Byerly (9 to 4 p.m.) I distributed polar resources and helped with the presentations. 2.) Science to Literature Connection with TEA Associates, 3.) Living Sands with TEA Associates, 4.) Conducted the Tennessee Earth Science Teachers annual meeting and distributed polar resources. I feel that Earth Science and the Polar Regions have made a profound effect on my life, so whenever possible, I try to connect the two.

As president of the statewide association for Tennessee Earth Science Teachers, I will continue to pull the study of foraminifera and the Polar Regions into the study of Earth Science through teacher workshops and presentations. One of my goals is to constantly make connections between the sciences and other disciplines. In April 2005, I am helping implement a project to bring together a group of highly active and dedicated teachers from three major science associations in Tennessee under the guidance of university professors: The Tennessee Earth Science Teachers (TEST), the Tennessee Educators for Aquatic Marine Sciences (TEAMS), and the Tennessee Environmental Education Agency (TEEA). We will meet at Reelfoot Lake in West Tennessee to make plans to network these three groups and subject content to help teachers and students make connections between Earth Science, biology, and environmental science.

Fox 17 Teacher of the Week: I talked about the research experience in Antarctica and foraminifera (Oct. 2004)

ECW gear monitoring for Southeast region

Connecting teachers with TEA Robin Ellwood while she is in the field (I told teachers about the TEA site and the ARMADA and ARCUS/TREC programs during my presentations).

TEA Mentoring Phone Conferences every other month have been most beneficial. This allows TEAs to work in small groups to discuss ideas, and to make suggestions to encourage ways to mentor each other and our TEA Associates. I have been invited and accepted to parcticipate in the "Connecting Arctic/ Antarctic Researchers and Educators (CARE) network facilitated by ARCUS/TEA.

Have you submitted all press-related materials concerning your TEA experience to the TEA Archives? N/A

Have you submitted 20 digital images to the TEA Archive with electronic captions? N/A

Have you submitted 6-8 photos to the TEA Archive? N/A

Release Days

Number of Release Days Covered by School/District for TEA Program/Activities: 6

Dates: Aoril 1, April 2, May 24, May 25, November 18, and November 19

Reasons for Release: NSTA Conference (Atlanta), TSTA Conference (Nashville, TN), and two days to go to Washington DC to speak to the TEA Advisory Board/NSF staff at NSF.

Approximate Daily Rate of Substitute and Number of Substitute Days: 6 @ $60 = $360

TEA Meetings Covered by School/District/Corporation

Names of Meetings: Registration, TSTA and Alaska science conferences (also food, lodging)

Dates: Nov.18-20, 2004 and Oct. 12-17, 2004

Approximate Cost of Travel Expenses Covered: $720.24

Permanent Materials and Equipment Provided by Institution/Corporation/District for the TEA Program

Other Grants

Other Shared Costs
The Wilson County School District provided copies of handouts and activities for teachers at conferences and workshops. They have also provided extra supplies and materials to pre-test new activities in my classroom, or to take to conferences for presentations. Wilson County Schools and West Elementary have provided me the loan of a LCD projector to make presentations over the last two years.

All Girls' Science Day workshop: TWISTER (TN Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Research) at the Adventure Science Center, Nashville, TN on Feb. 12, 2005. (Science teaching: Inquiry-based Science Lessons)

Presentations and Workshops: 2005 NSTA (Dallas) and 2005 NSTA Regional/TSTA (Nashville)

Upcoming parcticipation in the new polar science discussion network, Connecting Arctic/Antarctic Researchers and Educators (CARE) network facilitated by ARCUS/TEA beginning inDecember 2004. I will continue to support and transfer research and education in the Polar Regions with teachers, students, the general public, professors, and scientists. I firmly believe in the Bridging the Poles concept to connect educators and scientists in both Polar Regions. As a teacher, I feel that it is imperative to help students and teachers make connections to science and learning, and networking is an important step to bridge these goals.