Materials

Northwest Area Education Agency maintains a Science Materials Center in order to help schools improve student achievement by implementing research-based science instruction in grades kindergarten through eight. The center maintains a collection of FOSS (Full Option Science System) and STC (Science and Technology Concepts) kits that can be checked out by teachers trained in their use. The kits are scheduled on a fall, winter and spring time frame.

The Science Center provides training for teachers in the use of the kits each summer in conjunction with Sioux City Community Schools. It takes one day to train for each kit. The full four days of training consist of three days of kits training at each grade level kindergarten through five, and one day of training concerning the use of inquiry methods to teach science.

Teachers wishing to be trained can attend any or all of the days. One graduate or staff development credit can be earned by attending any two days and two credits can be earned by attending all four days. Teachers leave the training with a teacher manual for which their school is charged and which they will use when teaching with the kit.

The Science Center is designed to pay its own way. As such, the center charges schools for the use of kits. The prices are based upon a depreciation factor for the kit, the cost of refurbishment, the cost for any specimens and the cost of delivery. The Science Center also provides student manuals at print cost.

The Science Center kindergarten through 5th grade collection includes:

• Kindergarten: Trees ($44), Wood & Paper ($108), and Animals 2 x 2 ($97)
• First/Second Grade: Pebbles, Sand & Silt ($62); Solids & Liquids ($83); and Organisms ($219); Air & Weather ($87), Insects ($152), and Balance & Weighing ($90)
• Third/Fourth Grade: Measurement ($58), Structures of Life ($111), and Rocks & Minerals ($117); Human Body ($59), Magnetism & Electricity ($69), and Motion & Design ($107)
• Third/Fourth/Fifth Grade: Land & Water ($103)
• Fifth/Sixth Grade: Mixtures & Solutions ($89), Variables ($55), and Microworlds ($134)

The Science Center also owns one copy of each of the following STC-MS kits. These kits take approximately one semester to teach and are appropriate in grades six through eight:

• Catastrophic Events
• Earth in Space
• Human Body Systems
• Organisms-Macro to Micro
• Properties of Matter
• Electrical Energy and Circuit Design

Contact:

Jodi Still Herbold
Instructional Coach
800/352-9040 Ext. 6213
jherbold@nwaea.org

For specimen orders, contact:

Ann Derochie
Circulation Director
800/352-9040 Ext. 6065
aderochie@nwaea.org

Tor order FOSS kits, please contact Kim Noteboom, circulation coordinator at Northwest AEA.

For more information about FOSS kits, go to www.fossweb.com
For more information about the STC kits, go to www.nsrconline.org/curriculum_resources/units.html
For more information about STC-MS, go to www.stcms.si.edu/stcms.htm