Western Region SET Conference Call

I attended the Western Region SET Liaison conference call today (Jan. 27th) and thought I would pass along some of the relevant highlights:

There is a new online project, called “Planting Science” for youth interested in botany/horticulture. Two modules are available to teachers/students from Feb. 15 – April 30 – “The Wonder of Seeds” and “The Power of Sunlight”, and while it is for classroom use, some of the information may be applicable to our 4-H work. The target audience is high school. 4-H is a partner in this effort, along with the Botanical Society of America.

There is a 4-H Robotics Curriculum in development that will be released this fall and will feature 3 modules with a variety of games and platforms (including LEGO NXT, VEX, TETRIX and the Jump-o-bot).
National 4-H is sending out a survey to State SET contacts and State 4-H Leaders to determine the needs of each state’s 4-H staff. These needs will be addressed at a conference in D.C. from Dec. 7 – 9, 2010. There are currently no funds to support travel, lodging, fees, etc. for attending the conference, but they are working on getting sponsorship.
The 2010 National 4-H Youth Science Day letters of intent are due by Thursday, Jan. 28^th. The 2010 theme will be related to water quality/climate change and will be held on Oct. 6, 2010.

We discussed a couple of PBS sites (and TV programs) with some great, downloadable science/engineering activities that I thought some of you may be interested in:

DIGITAL NATION
Tuesday, February 2, 2010, from 9 to 10:30 P.M. ET on PBS

FRONTLINE EXPLORES WHAT IT MEANS TO BE HUMAN IN A WORLD IMMERSED IN TECHNOLOGY

And if you want to learn more about using technology with our members, there is a series of free Media and Technology Webinars, presented by PBS Teachers and “Classroom 2.0”:

Hawaii 4-H Agents - News and Views