October 13, 2009
Greetings!
I am pleased to invite you and your students to attend the Sixteenth Annual Science Day at Saint Francis University. We hope that you can bring your science students to our campus on Tuesday, November 24, 2009. Again, there will be several events occurring during the day -- including a variety of professional presentations, a science bowl competition, and other interesting activities.
One attachment is a school registration form. We ask each school to bring at most 15 students and at least one teacher, though you are encouraged to bring another teacher or guidance counselor. Act 48 hours are available for the teachers. Please return the school registration form, or respond to this e-mail message as soon as possible if you plan to attend.
We have options for your students to complete their student registration forms. As usual, you can print the forms and have each student complete a copy and please ask them to be as neat as possible. Then you can scan and return them by e-mail (preferred), fax them, or mail them. Or, you can visit our new science day home page at www.francis.edu, under Centers, and under Science Outreach Center. I ask that you return the student registration forms as soon as possible, preferably by Monday, November 9, 2009. Remember if they are not in the science bowl, students should each choose up to 10 sessions they may be interested. I try to assign each of them to one of their top three and then to others so that all sessions have some students, students from each school attend as many of the different sessions as possible, students meet students from other schools, and they get to see some sessions that they typically would not be able to. If students are in the science bowl, I will assign them to one presentation during session 3 if there are seats available.
The registration fee of $10.00 per person, including teachers, is used to purchase gifts, awards, and lunch. You can mail a check or bring it to the event.
Registration begins at 8:30 A.M. in the JFK Center and the introduction session begins at 9:00 A.M. The science bowl and concurrent presentations will begin at 9:30 A.M. and continue through lunch. After lunch, an awards ceremony will conclude the day at about 2:00 P.M. A schedule for the day is attached.
For the science bowl, a maximum of 16 teams will participate again in a single elimination tournament. Each team consists of four, five, or six members, with four competing at any time. Please RSVP with your intentions for the Science Bowl as soon as possible. The first 16 schools to respond will be included in the competition. If you want to have two teams involved should there not be 16 schools interested, let me know that also.
Some students will again be able to try scuba diving in the swimming pool; however, interested students must complete the enclosed release forms carefully and we will notify you in advance if any of your students are chosen to participate. Each student must complete and return three pages, one with "Continue the ADVENTURE" at the top, a second with "Discover Scuba Diving Safe Diving Practices," and the third "Discover Scuba Diving Registration Form." To save all of us time, please only have students complete the forms if they have the Scuba session chosen in their top three choices of sessions and if they are able to answer NO to each question on the Medical Questionnaire (unless they also consult a physician).
As I mentioned in an earlier e-mail message, we would like you to invite your guidance counselor, another teacher, or your principal from your school to join you in attending. Our science departments received a National Science Foundation grant to increase the recruitment and retention of science students. The grant is called "STEMing the Flow: Connecting undergraduates with applied science" (recruiting and retaining science, technology, engineering, and math students). Some grant activities have already begun including undergraduate research (more than 26 Saint Francis University students conducted research on campus this summer!), a summer science reading program, and summer science camps for high school students. In an effort to further the goals of the grant, I am now asking for your help. For example, we will be inviting you to attend a session presented by grant administrator Dr. Edward Zovinka and Department Chair Dr. John Harris to learn more about opportunities for your students.
We also ask you to invite other teachers, your guidance counselor, or principal at your high school to science day this year. They can attend sessions during the day to learn more about opportunities for students in the sciences. Of course, they will receive the regular science day gifts and some special gifts provided by the grant. Please forward this message to another colleague at your school and invite them to attend with you and your students. If anyone else will attend with you, please indicate that on the school registration form.
Thank you for doing all that you do. This event could never happen without all the hard work you do. By the way, if any of you ever need a reference letter from outside your school, please let me know. We have built some lasting relationships through the years, and I would be more than happy to explain your involvement.
Pete
Peter R. Skoner, Ed.D.
Associate Provost
Saint Francis University
P.O. Box 600
313 Scotus Hall
Loretto, PA 15940
(814) 472-3085
pskoner@francis.edu