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How does cartoonist Richard Thompson do such a splendid job of channeling the thoughts of preschoolers with their questions about the order of the world? In the world of Cul de Sac, Blisshaven Preschool reminds me of Every School where the goals of...
By Peggy Ashbrook
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As mentioned in NSTA Reports, the new year has been designated Year of Science 2009 The website has many suggestions for YoS events and ideas for building interest in science....
By Mary Bigelow
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Remembering a snow from 1/3 of a lifetime ago
Finding a covering of the season’s first snow on their car, my 3-year-old neighbor helpfully suggested, “Use that tool, that small brush,” to her father. Was she recalling last winter? It is possible that she had seen the snow brush/scraper in ...
By Peggy Ashbrook
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I have always loved science – earth and space sciences especially. Although I’ve had a variety of jobs, since I began home schooling, I’ve discovered I absolutely love teaching. I’m thinking about getting my bachelor’s degre...
By MsMentorAdmin
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I’ve worked with several schools that are framing their curriculum and units of instruction around big ideas, key understandings, generative topics, or themes (the terminology depends on which model is being used). The rationale for using an ov...
By Mary Bigelow
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In this Year of Science, this early childhood science teacher is excited to have a President who says, “When it comes to science, elevating science once again, and having lectures in the White House where people are talking about traveling to th...
By Peggy Ashbrook
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Dinosaurs—a reason to draw and write
Dinosaurs! This high-interest subject is a focus for questions relating to how animals live in many different environmental niches. What evidence do we have for what we think we know about dinosaurs?...
By Peggy Ashbrook
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With the theme of “record keeping,” we might have expected the cover photo to show children writing in a notebook or typing on a computer. Instead, the editor chose a photo of a child looking through binoculars with an “Oh Wow!̶...
By Mary Bigelow
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Vote and participate in your NSTA
Voting may not be a scientific way of answering a question but it’s the way members of the National Science Teachers Association choose among the dedicated professionals who are interested in serving on the Board of Directors. The more we participa...
By Peggy Ashbrook
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We have a new principal. She doesn’t seem to understand what it’s like to be a science teacher. For example, she wants to schedule non-science classes in the labs during our planning periods. One of my colleagues wants to give her a list of w...
By MsMentorAdmin
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It used to be that a unit on the polar regions focused on historical explorations or cute stories about polar bears and penguins. But with the Internet, students can get involved themselves in real-time explorations and studies, such as the ones fea...
By Mary Bigelow
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Does it seem to you that the pigeons and seagulls that roost and circle the grocery parking lot are more active in winter? I wonder if they are really more active or just more noticeable as there is less action on the street with fewer people walking...
By Peggy Ashbrook
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My school wants to encourage more parental involvement. Any suggestions? —Madeleine, Lafayette, Louisiana ...
By MsMentorAdmin
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Hello out there! Ann Cutler begins blogging for JCST
Most of the time, the inside of my head feels twenty five years old. In the same way that human height seems to reach an apex at about that time, I believe our minds develop a sort of default value for our imagined age. From behind my eyes, I don’t...
By AnnC
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I was in an elementary school where scientists from a nearby university visited the schools periodically to work with the students on a variety of activities and to describe their own research. The students were impressed with meeting “realR...
By Mary Bigelow
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Request for resources for guiding teachers to become more inquiry based in their teaching
The NSTA Elementary Science List had an interesting query last week: Steve Geresy asked if anyone has any great books on Early Learning Inquiry that have concrete examples for teachers to guide them through the process of becoming more inquiry based ...
By Peggy Ashbrook
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Next year there will be an opening in the middle school science department. Although I love teaching high school chemistry (my current assignment), I’m tempted by the opportunity to try something different. What should I consider to help me dec...
By MsMentorAdmin
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I was facilitating a workshop once, and I overhead these statements from two science teachers: My students are so busy, they don’t have time to think and We have so much fun, the students don’t know that they’re learning....
By Mary Bigelow
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Give children tools for exploring a concept and they almost always show me a new way to teach it. In a session of flashlight and mirror exploration, Walter began building by putting a flashlight on top of a single-eyepiece, single-mirror periscope....
By Peggy Ashbrook
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Overcoming socioeconomic hurdles
Do you have any advice for working with students in a low-income school? This is my first year in this school, teaching 9th grade environmental science. Classroom management is not an issue and I have a good rapport with the students, but I haven’t...
By MsMentorAdmin
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I was in a school once where the teachers did a “winter” unit on penguins with activities that included trade books, puzzles, writing activities, and the showing of several popular films. But there was not a lot of science involved, and o...
By Mary Bigelow
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I would like to curl up in a cave until this sore throat and runny nose goes away. And I would like to know exactly how to prevent the spread of cold viruses—me and every other early childhood teacher! Here are some resources on cold germs: A ...
By Peggy Ashbrook
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A classic activity to show that air is matter and takes up space is to tuck a piece of tissue into a small clear jar, up end the jar and lower it into a larger container of water....
By Peggy Ashbrook
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I’m mentoring a new science teacher. I’ve never done this before, so I’m asking teachers, “What’s the best advice your mentor ever gave you?” -Frank, Clarksville, Tennessee...
By MsMentorAdmin
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Invertebrates in the classroom
Children often do not think of invertebrates as animals. If we can train ourselves to talk about insects and other invertebrates not as “bugs” but as “small animals” we’ll help children make that connection....
By Peggy Ashbrook
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Playing with magnets and learning about the property of materials
Playing with magnets is a useful science activity in early childhood classrooms because it fosters conversation, exploration of materials, and learning to make predictions....
By Peggy Ashbrook
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It’s one thing to get students to recite definitions for the states of matter. But what do they really understand? For instance, the word “gas” is confusing. My students had to stop and think whether the word was referring to a state of...
By Mary Bigelow
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Setup day for NSTA staff here in Cincinnati and all is going smoothly. We’re looking forward to thousands of attendees engaging in outstanding professional development and returning to their classrooms full of ideas and energy! Not-to-miss eve...
By Howard Wahlberg
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One of the many rich workshops I attended at the NSTA Portland Area Conference was the Family Science Day Session presented by the Foundation for Family Science. The specific goals of Family Science include: To get parents more involved in their chil...
By Peggy Ashbrook
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With the emphasis on literacy since the onset of No Child Left Behind, there seems to be two schools of thought. One emphasizes instruction in reading and math to the point that instruction in science, social studies, and the arts, especially in the ...
By Mary Bigelow
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I am a new teacher, and my supervisor asked me to write a letter recommending a student for an award. I don’t think he is qualified. What should I do? Nancy, No City Please...
By MsMentorAdmin
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Visiting the city of Portland, Oregon and the waterfalls of the Columbia River Gorge invigorated my thinking about taking classes outside....
By Peggy Ashbrook
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At the NSTA conference in Portland
It was exciting to be in the midst of so many people who care about teaching and learning science, and a pleasure to anticipate being on the receiving end of lesson planning. I’m looking forward to using what other educators thought was import...
By Peggy Ashbrook
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Collaboration in science teaching
Collaboration is key for many scientific endeavors, and an opportunity for growth for teachers. Here’s how two preschool teachers, both with a science outlook but from opposite coasts, came to present a workshop together. A writer of The ...
By Peggy Ashbrook
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Diverse reading matter converges around "preconceptions"
My reading matter for the trip to the NSTA Portland conference is How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School, Expanded Edition, (National Academy Press, 2000) and a fantasy novel, Dragonsbane by by Barbara Hambly (Del Rey, 1987)....
By Peggy Ashbrook
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WOW, the universe is REALLY big
More than 60 educators crowded into room C124 at the Convention Center this afternoon to ponder the imponderable: the size and scale of the universe?...
By ManagingEditorSC
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Have you ever thought about writing for an NSTA journal?...
By ManagingEditorSC
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Overly political, endlessly complicated…and standing-room only, featured speaker Dr. Philip Mote had a receptive audience for his climate change talk. Coauthor (with 100+ participating scientists) of the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate...
By ManagingEditorSC
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Need a pick me up after a full day of NSTA conference sessions? Head to Cacao, a chocolate shop with the feel of an asian tea house. A shot of “drinking chocolate”–think a liquid chocolate bar, not a powdered mix—only costs...
By ManagingEditorSC
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Portland has a lot to offer, but if you only have time for one thing, make it Powell’s. The largest independent bookstore in the world fills a city block and features used gems tucked among the enormous selection–including a science and ...
By ManagingEditorSC