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A Call for Teacher-Authors
Submit your work for publication in America's only independent science,
math and hands-on technology magazine! Our articles are built on the same
good classroom practice that you are familiar with.
Over our
twenty-year history, readers have relied upon Connect
as a valuable support for problem solving skills, hands-on learning and
interdisciplinary approaches.
We seek authors who are excited about modern science, math and technology
learning, including ways that students approach investigations and problem
solving. If you have an idea for an article that will fit the themes below,
please contact us. We would also like to discuss other topics that are
favorites of yours.
Writers' Guidelines
We evaluate your article based upon these criteria:
- How appropriate is the article for science, math and/or interdisciplinary
instruction?
- Does the article come out of your experience with students? Is it
written in the first person and with a conversational tone?
- Does your article include how students responded, what kinds of questions
they asked, and what really interested them?
- Is the material easy to understand and use in the classroom?
- How was assessment carried out and did it include student self-assessment?
- Are there accompanying photos, illustrations, student work or quotes
which enhance or clarify the article?
Connect is eager to address opportunities for multi-disciplinary
learning, including writing, art, history, geography and other realms
of the curricula. We also welcome articles that address equity issues.
About the Text:
Articles may be up to 1400 words in length. We prefer receiving materials
electronically or on disk; we can accommodate most formats. We will accept
mailed or faxed articles as well (see contact info below). Each manuscript
must be accompanied by full names, telephone numbers, postal and e-mail
addresses for all authors. We require a short author's bio; two or three
sentences are plenty and allow us to give you proper credit. We ask writers
to include a few carefully chosen references which might include children's
or young adult literature.
About the Illustrations:
We can use black & white or color photographs or slides, digital images,
original student work and photocopies of diagrams, drawings, worksheets,
etc. Digital images should be saved using the highest resolution possible,
either mailed on disk or e-mailed to us as attachments. While we prefer
to use originals, photocopies of student work are often acceptable. We
can provide you with standardized photo release forms. All materials except
photocopies will be returned.
Authors of full-length Connect articles receive a one year's
free subscription. Synergy Learning International, Inc. holds copyright
on all original materials published in Connect and retains
the right to include materials on our web-site.
For more information contact:
Heather Taylor, Editor.
Synergy Learning
PO Box 60
Brattleboro, VT 05302
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For express shipments:
20 Technology Dr. #7a,
Brattleboro, VT 05301 |
e-mail: submissions@synergylearning.org
Fax: 802-254-5233
Call us with proposals, ideas, or questions: 800-769-6199.
Connect - Themes for
2008 and 2009
September/October, 2008 Numbers and Operations
Numbers can be thought
of in many ways, e.g., whole numbers, fractions, decimals, percents.
We begin developing number sense early and continue throughout much of
school. Studying numbers and operations—ways of representing
numbers, relationships among numbers, and number systems—is the bulk
of elementary mathematics. How do you best help your students to understand
meanings of operations and how they relate to one another? How do you
support skill development? What study topics are particularly well-suited
to integrating numbers and operations with other topics of study?
Articles due by May 27th, 2008
November/December, 2008 Bridging Achievement Gaps
Race, economics, gender, geography, class size, native language, full-year
or academic calendar: all have been cited as precipitating factors in
the gaps that exist between the levels of student achievement. Is there
anything teachers can do to ameliorate these differences in science,
math, and technology? What do teaching and learning look like in classrooms
where several groups are successfully accommodated at once? What support
exists for further study and strategizing? Does differentiated learning
have a role to play? What achievement gaps have you noted in your classroom,
and how have you addressed them?
Articles due by July 28th, 2008
January/February, 2009 Before and After School
Many families take advantage of early morning, afternoon, and vacation
programs for children. Teachers in school settings are more frequently
participating in these programs and maximizing learning by working with
students in science, math, and technology investigations that can afford
to be more open-ended and informal. Still other teachers share space
with programs and can observe students in these other settings and involved
in other tasks. What learning is possible in more relaxed settings? What
are the benefits of offering such experiences for the school as a whole?
What are the challenges?
Articles due by August 25th, 2008.
March/April, 2009 Beyond the Scientific Method
In
schools, the scientific method has been simplified into the phrase, “Ask,
test, tell.” One observes something, asks a question or hypothesizes
its cause, experiments to collect data, and analyzes and communicates
findings. Most of us have learned that this is Science . However,
many scientists working in important arenas make valid and valued contributions
to society, but their work does not even come close to fitting into that
pattern. Wildlife biologists, for instance, may rely on observation and
documentation as the bulk of their work. How do we portray these alternate
yet equal routes to science? How do inquiry and problem solving expand
students' experiences beyond the scientific method?
Articles due
by October 6, 2008.
May/June 2009 Things in Motion: Newton 's
Laws
1. A physical body will remain at rest, or continue to move at a
constant velocity, unless a net force acts upon it.
2. The net force on a body is equal to its mass multiplied by its
acceleration.
3. To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
The above is paraphrased from Newton 's Philosophiae Naturalis Principia
Mathematica , published in 1687. While these have been investigated
by scholars at the highest level of education, they are also fundamental
laws of physics that are evident in the simplest of experiments that
even young children can execute. How have you worked with such abstract
yet apparent laws in your classroom? What are the ways in which you
have seen the light bulb blink on above your students' heads?
Articles due by November 3, 2008
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