Our staff along with almost 100 teachers just returned from an amazing hands-on learning experience on a cruise to Alaska.
Great teachers will go to extreme measures to get kids excited about learning, but how do you get teachers excited about teaching? You put them on a cruise ship in the middle of southeast Alaska for Science at Sea.
The cruise immerses the teachers in the environment, culture and the science of Alaska.
It’s a seven-day program where teachers across the country meet with the best naturalists in Alaska to learn about ecosystems, wildlife and how we effect the world we live in. The teacher take that experience back to the classroom.
The best teachers take time during their summer break to learn and prepare for the next school year. What has your teacher been up to this summer?
In July, my team of naturalists and I will lead a group of about 120 science enthusiasts on an educational cruise to Alaska. Our Science at Sea 2009 cruise was sold out and this year we’ve added more space and taken our custom shore excursions to a whole new level.
I wanted to offer free registration for our second Science at Sea trip to a Facebook fan who could tell us why they wanted to join us on the coolest field trip ever this summer.
Contestants had to submit a video giving us a creative look at why they should win the free registration. After much deliberation, five pots of coffee, and two breaks to go out into the parking lot and blow something up, the judges have decided to announce three winners…
We are packing our bags and setting sail for Alaska and Science at Sea this July. And we want you to join us for FREE.
Enter the Coolest Field Trip Ever Contest to win registration to Science at Sea 2011. This covers the cost of all our customized shore excursions in each port, ground transportation, six onboard seminars with our naturalists, Steve Spangler’s pre-cruise kick-off workshop in Seattle on July 16 and a few surprises that are part of the Spangler experience. You will be responsible for booking your own cabin on Holland America and airfare.
The deadline to post your video on our Facebook page is February 16, 2011. The winner will be announced on our Facebook page on February 25, 2011.
It’s Easy to Enter…
Open your calendar and clear the dates of July 16-24, 2011.
Buy a few sweaters.
Make a 1-2 minute video telling us why you should win a free registration to Science at Sea 2011.
You read it correctly – we are taking the Steve Spangler Science experience to the high seas for one week in 2011 with Holland America Cruise lines for Science at Sea 2011.
This is our second field trip to Alaska. In 2009, we set sail led by an award-winning group of naturalists and traveled from Anchorage along the inside passage to Vancouver, BC, Canada. It was an unforgettable trip…to read what our fellow passengers had to say about the excursion, visit the Science at Sea 2009 page.
Who should take the Science at Sea cruise? Teachers, parents, families, adventure-lovers - anyone who wants to experience Alaska with a naturalist on private shore excursions. It’s a true Alaskan adventure. This experience will be unique and customized to Science at Sea participants and won’t be available anywhere else.
As part of the Science at Sea experience, I talked about the many benefit of teachers who blog as part of their classroom experience. At one end of the spectrum you have teachers who are using their school sponsored blogs as a way to effectively communicate with parents or to share classroom assignments with students. On the other end you have very teachers who have found ways to use their blog as a catalyst to get their students (and parents) engaged in the learning process outside of classroom time.
Lisa Heaton uses her blog (www.lisaheaton.com) during her integrated unit on rocketry and literature as her 5th grade GT students read Rocket Boys by Homer Hickham. Lisa found that her students write almost twice as much when they are blogging versus using conventional writing practices. By their very nature, blogs are an interactive forum that encourage students to become engaged in the thoughts and ideas presented by other students in their class. Instead of students merely “pushing” ideas to a teacher to grade, blog posts become a great way for students to agree, disagree
