Newsletter (ISSN 2230-4045) Welcome to the April 2014 edition of the Mahara Newsletter. We have lots of stories to share with you this time, and they come from around the world: Australia, UAE, Ethopia, France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Slovenia, Spain, the UK, and the USA. So settle into your chair and make yourself comfortable. The next newsletter will be published on 1 July 2014, and you can send articles to newsletter@mahara.org. The Mahara Newsletter is published under the Creative Commons BY-SA license 3.0. Pace University celebrates completion of a 3-year ePortfolio grant. Mahara E-Portfolio Pilot Project Proposal at George Brown College - Mahara. Earth Science Enigmas: Impacts, Extinctions, and other Mysteries - Plymouth Portfolio. I am MaryAnn McGarry, Associate Professor of Science Education at Plymouth State University, in Plymouth, N.H.
As I discuss in the short video above, I have created this site to share teaching materials and strategies related to the topic of impacts and extinctions, particularly information about a new theory that a comet air burst occurred 13,000 years ago- causing the extinction of the megafauna, the end of the Clovis culture, the onset of the Younger Dryas cooling period, and the formation of the Carolina Bays-a number of elliptical depressions in the earth. Along with all of the teacher resources that accompany the main lesson, this site includes my story and interest in developing this project. My main goal was to explore a controversial hypothesis that potentially explains four enigmas to show students the nature of science- how scientists can disagree and debate, and thus how science evolves.
I also wanted to emphasize the value of scientists working collaboratively.