[Observing] Workshop Plans

[Cathy Manduca]

Greetings Observing and Assessing Learning Workshop participants-

Our workshop is coming up quickly! This note has a variety of information 
that will help you prepare for the upcoming workshop: evaluation 
activities, essays, posters, logistics, website.  There are several 
deadlines embedded in the note:
- send your travel information to Patt Germann asap if you have not 
provided it via the registration pages
- evaluation activities or essays are due May 1
- we hope everyone will present a poster, titles and requests for internet 
access are due May 1, posters should be uploaded via the website by May 9


Evaluation Activities and Essays: Many thanks to those of you who have 
submitted your evaluation activity, we will have them live on the website 
shortly.  I am sure that all of you remember that the price of admission to 
this workshop is either an evaluation activity or an essay describing your 
work assessing and observing student learning.  At this point, I need to 
know which you intend to submit.  If you could provide that information to 
Patt Germann (pgermann at carleton.edu) by next Wed April 27 that would be 
most helpful.  As per the acceptance letter, we would like to have these 
materials by May 1.  Both evaluation activities and essays can be uploaded 
on the website 
<http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/assess05/index.html>.  Evaluation 
activities have a prescribed format so look at the website before you get 
too far along 
<http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/assess05/eval_submission.html>.  If 
you are feeling ambitious and would like to submit either more than one 
evaluation activity or both an activity and an essay you are welcome to do 
so.

Posters:  We will have three poster sessions during the workshop.  One on 
assessment tools and methods; one on observing student learning; and one on 
community or collaborative projects.  These sessions are the primary 
vehicle for sharing your work at the workshop.  We hope that every 
participant will submit a poster.  Many of you described more than one 
piece of work in your applications that you would like to share.  To the 
extent possible, we will accommodate multiple posters from participants. 
To make this all work, I need you to send the title of your poster(s) and 
the session which you think is most appropriate (assessment, observing, 
community/collaborative projects) to Patt German by May 1.  We will provide 
a place on the website where you can upload your poster so that it can 
become part of the website.

If you could please submit the posters by May 9, we will make them 
available to everyone so you can preview them before you arrive.  The full 
size posters for the session can be up to 36 tall X 48 wide.  The poster 
easels are not well suited to posters that are made of mulitiple sheets of 
paper.  If you would like to have a computer demonstration with your 
poster, please provide that information to Patt when you send in your 
title.  There is wireless internet access available but you need to bring 
your own computer.

Logistics:  Many thanks to all who have registered.  If you have not 
registered please do so as soon as possible.  If you registered but did not 
provide travel information, please send that information at your earliest 
convenience to Patt Germann.  Patt will arrange the ground transportation. 
This is slightly complicated so she needs some lead time to efficiently 
transport everyone to the Carleton campus.    She will be back in touch 
with you as those arrangements are made.

Website:  We are working on a collection of resources for our website. 
These will include links to on-line assessment tools/instruments; a 
bibliography of work on assessment in the geosciences; key papers related 
to assessment techniques and assessment more broadly; and,  links to your 
evaluation activities.  In addition, we would like to put together a page 
that highlights the work that you are doing.  You can see an example of 
what we are thinking of at 
<http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/visualization/researchers.html>. 
We will link you essays from this page.

 More information will be forthcoming as these resources become available. 
If you suggested references or tools in your application, we will get those 
into these lists.  If there are other resources (e.g. URLs, journal 
articles, books) you would like to suggest, please send them to Erin Klauk 
at erinklauk at mymail.msu.montana.edu

Listserv: this list observing at serc.carleton.edu is for our use before and 
after the workshop.  If you have items for discussion you would like to 
share with the group, you can post to the list.  Of course in this era of 
overwhelming e-mail traffic, I would encourage you to use it wisely.

All of the planning team joins me in saying that we are looking forward to 
the workshop.  Many thanks for all of your efforts in preparation.

Cathy Manduca, Dave Mogk, Priscilla Laws, Janice Gobert, Steve Reynolds

Dr. Cathryn A. Manduca
Director, Science Education Resource Center
Carleton College
Northfield, MN  55057
507 646-7096
cmanduca at carleton.edu
serc.carleton.edu