Extra Credit

For Fort Worth science teachers, time for summer school

A group of Fort Worth teachers is participating in a yearlong professional development experience to learn more about the environment and sustainable education. The program began Friday with an environmental academy at Texas Christian University.

TCU’s Andrews Institute of Mathematics, Science & Technology Education has been awarded two Teacher Quality Enhancement Grants to host the academy, which runs through Aug. 1. Nineteen teachers from South Hills High School, Rosemont 6th Grade Center and Rosemont Middle School and 15 teachers from elementary schools are participating.

At the academy, science teachers will experience an integrated, hands-on approach to learning and teaching techniques in outdoor settings and how to apply them in the classroom. Activities will emphasize using inquiry and outdoor spaces for teaching science. Topics will include lessons on exotic species, insect collecting, guided field hikes and a biology scavenger hunt. The academy will also include an overnight experience at the district’s Outdoor Learning Center.

-Patrick M. Walker

At TCU, a chance to meet Charlie Wilson

You've seen the movie starring Tom Hanks. Now you'll get to see the real Charlie Wilson.

What: Charlie Wilson will be the featured speaker at the annual Jim Wright Symposium

When:  Noon Sept. 3

Where: Brown-Lupton University Union Ballroom

Other details: The event includes lunch and lecture on a limited basis by RSVP. Tickets include a showing of the documentary The True Story of Charlie Wilson on Sept. 2.

Information: www.pol.tcu.edu/events.htm

-Patrick M. Walker

Your A.M. roundup

TCU staffer touched many lives

Farewell to a UTA coach who changed lives

Arlington goes to West Coast for advice on gangs

Teacher pay raises approved in Grapevine-Colleyville

-Patrick M. Walker

Your A.M. roundup

TCU administrator dies from injuries 11 days after wreck

Schools teach kids music the hard way

School not being closed, Fort Worth superintendent promises

'The capability side of disability'

-Patrick M. Walker

Free hearing screenings at TCU

May is national Better Hearing and Speech Month. To recognize that, and to encourage people to incorporate hearing tests into their annual health checkups, TCU's Miller Speech and Hearing Clinic is offering free hearing screenings. They are available by appointment from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 20 at the clinic, 3305 W. Cantey. RSVP at 817-257-7620.

The 30-minute screenings, available to adults and children ages 4 and older, consist of a 15-minute preliminary evaluation to determine hearing loss and a 15-minute counseling session to explain test results. Screenings will be conducted by TCU graduate students supervised by American Speech Language Hearing Association-certified audiologists.

-Patrick M. Walker

Your A.M. roundup

Today on star-telegram.com:

Audit looming over Cleburne school board races

If it's May, it must be time to break out the finery (See an audio slide show here)

Madagascar's president to attend gruaduation at Abilene Christian University

Setback for immigrant college students in N. Carolina

-Patrick M. Walker

Your A.M. roundup

Happy Friday, everyone. Starting to feel more like spring, huh?

Today on star-telegram.com:

Jack Kerouac's manuscript goes on ... and on ... at UT exhibit, by R.A. Dyer

Gala kicks off public phase of TCU fundraiser, by Susan Tallant and John Austin

Arlington trustee candidates discuss issues, by Shirley Jinkins (At left, Judy Gray listens as the candidates speak during the forum, sponsored by the Arlington Council of PTAs, on Thursday.)

H-E-B trustees back incentive pay plan, by Terry Webster

$140,000 worth of items went missing at Grapevine-Colleyville schools last summer, by Katherine Cromer Brock

-Patrick M. Walker

Your A.M. roundup

Today on star-telegram.com:

At the University of North Texas,  John Austin reports, some soon-to-be master's degree graduates want school officials to resume the practice of putting academic hoods on graduate students during commencement exercises

Guests at a TCU dinner get a taste of what life is like for the disabled, by Melody McDonald

Shirley Jinkins introduces us to an Arlington high school student who has no room for improvement on the SAT

Todd L. Davis takes us around the world at a Keller school

And columnist Bob Ray Sanders weighs in on the lesson from TCU and the Brite Divinity School in the wake of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright events

-Patrick M. Walker

Many science teachers don't understand nature of science, TCU study finds

Many middle and high school science teachers lack understanding of evolutionary theory and the nature of science itself, according to research by Mark Bloom, instructor of biology, and Dr. Molly Weinburgh, associate professor of education at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.

This hinders the teachers’ ability to decide what is proper for a science curriculum and what is not.

“While students may wish to have controversial topics such as stem cell research, cloning, sex education and evolution taught in their classrooms, many teachers lack the confidence needed to address them. This lack of confidence could be attributed to a deficiency in their understanding of the philosophical nature of science,” says Mark Bloom.

-Patrick M. Walker

New TCU business dean has familiar face

Barry Shlachter reports that O. Homer Erekson, a Texas Christian University grad who once played trombone in the Horned Frog marching band, is returning to TCU 24 years later to serve as dean of the Neeley School of Business. Read the full story in tomorrow's Star-Telegram.

-Patrick M. Walker