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SAVE the DATE - MSTA's Annual Conference

Tess Gerritsen is Coming to MSTA as the 2009 Conference Key Note Speaker!

MSTA's Annual Fall Conference - 2009 - Taking the Mystery Out of Science and Literacy

• Where: Gardiner Area High School, 40 W Hill Rd., Gardiner, ME 04345. (Map) (Web site)
• When: October 9, 2009.
• Registration: $65 Early Bird registration before Sept. 15. $75 registration until Oct. 3. $85 Late registration after Oct. 3.
• To REGISTER, go to the Calendars and Events Menu and click 'MSTA Events,' or just click here.
• Questions? Email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , and we'll be happy to help.

The award winning and New York Times Bestselling Science Mystery author is coming to the Maine Science Teachers Association’s annual conference Friday October 9, 2009 at Gardiner High School.  

Ms. Gerritsen is a graduate from Stanford University where she studied Anthropology. Tess then went on to medical school at the University of California San Francisco, where she was awarded her M.D. She is also a Maine resident.

Ms. Gerritsen began writing fiction in 1987 while out on maternity leave from her work as a physician. In 1996 she wrote her first medical thriller, Harvest, which also marked her debut on the New York Times bestselling list.  Her books include Gravity, The Surgeon, Vanish, The Bone Garden, and soon to be released The Keepsake as well as many others. Ms. Gerritsen is an internationally recognized author and has won both the Nero Wolfe Award for Vanish and the Rita Award for The Surgeon.

To celebrate this event MSTA will host a “MSTA Community Summer Read with Tess Gerritsen” during the months of July, August, and September. MSTA will host a discussion forum each month at http://www.mainescienceteachers.org/forums/ . Each month a forum participant will be chosen at random to receive a free copy of the following month’s read. A free hardcovered and signed copy of The Keepsake will be given away at the October MSTA conference.

In July the book read and forum discussion will start with Ms. Gerritsen’s medical thriller Gravity. This will be followed with The Bone Garden in August and The Surgeon in September.  Keep an eye on the forum section to see when the discussions begin and to see when Tess joins us! This Community Summer Read is open to anyone interested in reading and discussing any or all of these chosen books. You do not need to be a MSTA member to participate in these community summer read forum discussions.

For information on Gravity visit http://tessgerritsen.com/books_gravity.html.

More information on conference registration for presenting, exhibiting, and attending coming soon! Please follow this website, http://www.mainescienceteachers.org/, for upcoming details.  

Click the "Next" arrow for information on the Mike Klentschy event and information on soon to be posted podcasts.

New Links to Solar System and Space Science Resources! 

  The National Center for Earth and Space Science Education is a non-profit organization. They oversee national science education programs like the Voyage National Program, which is permanently installing replicas across the nation of the Scale Model Solar System we installed on the National Mall in Washington, DC (see http://voyagesolarsystem.org.) They also oversee the MESSENGER Educator Fellowship program for NASA's MESSENGER mission to Mercury, with a national corps of master science educators training 3,000 teachers annually in solar system content.

  Recently the Dr. Jeff Goldstein launched “Blog on the Universe” which is "dedicated to helping teachers of science and math make science an adventure.” Every week it provides teachable moments for the classroom and home.  It's a free resource for teachers.  The site includes Resource Pages on the nature of the universe, human exploration, the nature of science, and resource lists for teachers, parents, and community leaders.

The blog can be found at the URL: http://blogontheuniverse.org 

  For information about Dr. Goldstein see the Blog's "About Dr. Jeff" page: http://blogontheuniverse.org/about-drjeff/ <http://blogontheuniverse.org/about-drjeff/>.