Local Resources
Several community science resources in Hawaii provide excellent programs to enhance science learning for students. One such resource is the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum, located in Oahu. It offers educational programs to help teachers incorporate aviation and engineering concepts into lesson plans.
Another example of a community science resource for elementary school teachers is the Bishop Museum in Oahu. This museum provides various programs to enhance science learning, including field trips, classroom visits, and virtual lessons. Lastly, the Hawaii Nature Center, located in Maui and Oahu, offers field trips, classroom visits, and virtual lessons focusing on environmental education.
Educational Programs
There are examples of educational programs present in the mentioned resources:
- The Hawaiian Sky Tonight program in the Bishop Museum’s planetarium enables students to see the night sky and explore which stars are present above Hawaii (“Education for Review – Bishop Museum”). While the program is NGSS-driven, the exact integrated NGSS codes were not specified.
- The second-grade program Cycles of Nature in the Hawaii Nature Center shows plants’ growth and development cycles, enabling students to describe and understand how natural rhythms work (“Cycles in Nature”). Three codes are integrated into it: LS2.A, LS4.D, and ESS2-C: T, which indicate that the program teaches an understanding of biodiversity, ecosystem relations, and the role of water in nature.
- During the sixth-grade program Barnstorming in the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum, students will explore Newton’s Third Law and Bernoulli’s Law to understand the movement, especially during the flight (“Barnstorming Educational Program”). Two NGSS codes are integrated: MS-PS2-1 and MA-PS2-2, which are related to Newton’s Third Law and the ability to sum all forces applied to an object.
Additional Online Resources
Lastly, three science teaching resources can be specified, among others, that are helpful for additional support: Khan Academy, OpenSciEd, and PBS Learning. All of them are online learning databases with programs aligned to NGSS standards, and three examples, one from each program, are discussed in the Appendix table.
Works Cited
Barnstorming Educational Program. 2020. Web.
“Cycles in Nature.” Hawaii Nature Center, 2018. Web.
“Education for Review – Bishop Museum.” Bishop Museum. Web.
Appendix
Table 1 – Additional Resources and Their Alignment with Standards