LISD Academic Advocates

1. Call to order and Pledge. President E. Frey called the meeting to order at 7:03 pm and those present recited the Pledge of Allegiance.

2. Minutes & Correspondence. Minutes of the January 29,2003 meeting were approved as read. It was noted that the scheduled February 26 meeting was cancelled due to the ice storm and school closure. Also noted was receipt of a request for a donation from Cedar Park High School Project Graduation. A letter noting that their project does not fall within the guidelines for disbursements in our bylaws will be sent.

3. Treasurer's report & budget. There was no change in the treasurer's report.

4. Nominating committee report. R. Cowperthwaite reported that most of the slate had been filled in, but they were waiting for confirmation from a couple of people. A complete slate will be presented at the April 23 meeting.

5. Seek additional volunteers for Scholarship committee. A corporate member is especially needed. M. Bubnis offered to contact a counselor.

6. Speaker- Dan Lester, UT College of Natural Sciences - Science Education Reform
Dan Lester, PhD., of the McDonald Observatory, described the key elements of systemic science education reform including use of proven hands-on curriculum (validated kit based science), alignment with state and national standards and assessments and a focus on the inquiry method. The goal is keeping kids curious and providing a laboratory for learning critical thinking. Children learn how to conduct an organized investigation, manipulate variables as well as learning reasoning and procedural skills. It is not trivial pursuit learning of miscellaneous facts. The result is intellectual empowerment. An example: Scientists classify trees by their features. Ask the children to examine a number of trees and propose their own classification system. Have them compare the system they devised with other known systems and discuss the pros and cons of various systems. This effort has mostly moved forward at the elementary level with active work now beginning at the middle school level. Another major element of the process is community involvement in supporting this movement through mentoring, extracurricular enrichment, etc. With community support, systemic science education reform will have a good chance of success.

7. Announcements.
April 7 - Giddens Elementary. LISD School Board candidates forum 7 pm
April 23 - next meeting of Academic Advocates -
topic : Elementary Advanced Math and Middle School Differentiation pilot at LMS.

8. Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 8:28 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Erika Mittag
Secretary