Looking for ways to incorporate science and writing? Want a good look at Earth systems that are normally non-accessible? Curious about how crowd-sourcing and science go together? Do you know how middle and high school level science courses affect college students’ choice of major? The November K–college journals from the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) have the answers you need. Written by science teachers for science teachers, these peer-reviewed journals are targeted to your teaching level and are packed with lesson plans, expert advice, and ideas for using whatever time/space you have available. Browse the November issues; they are online (see below), in members’ mailboxes, and ready to inspire teachers!

Science and Children

A major practice of science is the communication of ideas and the results of inquiry. The articles in this issue of S&C will help you integrate science and writing in ways that strengthen both.

Featured articles (please note, only those marked “free” are available to nonmembers without a fee):

Featured articles:

• Free – Editor’s Note: Specialized Writing
• Map It Then Write It
• Poetry Rocks!
• Programming Digital Stories and How-To Animations
• Free – Putting Ideas on Paper
• Science for Two Voices
• Free – Three-Dimensional Instruction: Using a New Type of Teaching in the Science Classroom
• Full Table of Contents

Science Scope

No matter where you live on this planet, you won’t have to go far to find evidence of the Earth’s systems at work. In this issue, however, we provide you with a number of ways that you can explore Earth systems at work in locations that might be outside the range of your typical field trip, such as glaciers, deep-sea platforms, and active volcanoes.

Featured articles (please note, only those marked “free” are available to nonmembers without a fee):

Featured articles:

• Free – Editor’s Roundtable: Teaching for a Dynamic Planet
• Exploring the Complexity of Ocean Acidification: An Ecosystem Comparison of Coastal pH Variability
• Modeling the Physical Properties of Glaciers
• The Ocean Platform Engineering Design Challenge: Flooded With Stem Content and Practices
• There’s a Glacier in Your Backyard: Modeling Glaciers Through Active Learning
• Free – Three-Dimensional Instruction: Using a New Type of Teaching in the Science Classroom
• Troubling Tides: Will Sea Turtles Survive the Rising Seas?
• Full Table of Contents

The Science Teacher

Citizen science harnesses the power of people by crowd-sourcing data collection and analysis. In our classes, it can create opportunities for students to participate in authentic research and the generation of new scientific knowledge. The opportunities are boundless. When students participate in citizen science projects, they go beyond canned labs where the outcome is known to discover the multidimensional nature of scientific research. Students provide essential data for important investigations, as described in this issue; they analyze data sets to discover patterns and construct explanations from evidence; they ask questions, generate and test hypotheses, and become involved in meaningful research. What better way to get students excited about science?

Featured articles (please note, only those marked “free” are available to nonmembers without a fee):

Featured articles:

• 21st-Century Citizen Science
• Free – Editor’s Corner: Citizen Science
• Free – Hummingbird Citizen Science
• No Blue Ribbon
• Start a Science Club
• Free – Three-Dimensional Instruction: Using a New Type of Teaching in the Science Classroom
• Full Table of Contents

Journal of College Science Teaching

Read about a unique project designed for an introductory-level physics course that links sustainability, arts, and scie
nce in an effort to engage students in the creative process in science. See the Research and Teaching column for a study that investigated why college-level students select science majors and how the science preparation they received in middle school and high school may have influenced their choices. Meet JCST‘s new Two-Year Community column editor, Apryl Nenortas, by reading her introduction and learning about her vision for the column.

Featured articles (please note, only those marked “free” are available to nonmembers without a fee):

Featured articles:

• Research and Teaching: Implementation of Interactive Engagement Teaching Methods in a Physical Oceanography Course
• Research and Teaching: Students’ Perceptions of Factors Influencing Their Desire to Major or Not Major in Science
• The Role of Gender in Grade Perception in Chemistry Courses
• Using Project- and Theme-Based Learning to Encourage Creativity in Science
• Free – Writing Toward a Scientific Identity: Shifting From Prescriptive to Reflective Writing in Undergraduate Biology
• Full Table of Contents

Get these journals in your mailbox as well as your inbox—become an NSTA member!

The mission of NSTA is to promote excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all.

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Each of the K-12 journals this month includes Three-Dimensional Instruction: Using a New Type of Teaching in the Science Classroom with suggestions on how to integrate Disciplinary Core Ideas, Science and Engineering Practices, and CroEarath ss-Cutting Concepts into our teaching. “None of the dimensions can be used in isolation; they work together so that students can build a deeper understanding as they grapple with making sense of a phenomenon or finding solutions to problems.” A must read!

Science Scope – Earth Science Activities

It’s not hard to get middle school students into the Earth Sciences, making connections with the topics and their own lives! Each featured article this month has a full-page description of how the lesson aligns with the NGSS middle school standards.

• Troubling Tides: Will Sea Turtles Survive the Rising Seas?–This 3-part activity helps students learn the concepts of critical habitat and the effects of changing sea level through modeling and data analysis.
• There’s a Glacier in Your Backyard: Modeling Glaciers Through Active Learning and Modeling the Physical Properties of Glaciers both have students make and use physical models of glaciers to explore how glaciers move, erode, and deposit materials.  
• The Ocean Platform Engineering Design Challenge: Flooded With Stem Content and Practices — Students explore forces that affect objects in the oceans as they design and build a structure that can withstand these forces and draw conclusions about design constraints.
• Astrobiobound: Tying Science and Engineering Design Together — In this 5E lesson, students take on the role of scientists to decide what evidence would support the presence of life on other planets and what engineering design would be necessary to get the evidence. 
• Exploring the Complexity of Ocean Acidification: An Ecosystem Comparison of Coastal pH Variability — Students analyze data to explore the variability of pH levels in coastal marine ecosystems in this 5E lesson, which includes See-Think-Wonder in the Engage step.
• Tried and True: Volcano! Investigating Plate Tectonics, Geologic Time, and the Rock Cycle — Here’s how to go beyond the baking soda/vinegar to a more in-depth understanding of the processes. 
• Teacher’s Toolkit: Scaffolding Students Toward Argumentation — This article has four levels for guiding students to an understanding of argumentation.

The November issue of The Science Teacher has a Safety Acknowledgment Form for Earth Science.

Here are some SciLinks with content information and suggestions for additional activities and investigations related to this month’s featured articles: Acid Water, Astrobiology, Geologic Time, Glaciers, Hot Spots/Volcanoes, Life on Other Planets, Ocean Currents, Ocean Waves, Polar Climates, Polar Marine Ecosystems, Plate Tectonics, Properties of Ocean Water, Reptiles, Rock Cycle, Space Exploration, Volcanic Eruptions, Volcanic Features.

Continue for The Science Teacher and Science and Children.

The Science Teacher — Citizen Science

“Citizen science harnesses the power of people [including students] by crowdsourcing data collection and analysis.”  21st-Century Citizen Science provides a rationale for this type of global awareness and interactions, as students engage in authentic research. (Career of the Month: Citizen Scientist (and Research Chemist) describes how a chemist became a butterfly advocate.)

• Hummingbird Citizen Science — Students collect, organize, and analyze data on hummingbird feeding and other behaviors, contributing the local data to a large-scale project. There are suggestions on how this type of project can be integrated with general biology and connect to the NGSS.
• Start a Science Club — Establish a science club that engages students through partnerships with local organizations and a service-learning
  component.
• Sewing Up Science — Students explore electronic circuitry and create new products with e-textiles. 
• No Blue Ribbon – The authors provide 5 critiques of traditional science fairs and 2 suggestions for alternatives that engage students in citizen science and engineering design. 
• The Green Room: Keeping Soils Fertile — Increase students’ awareness of the science behind the “Green Revolution.”

Here are some SciLinks with content information and suggestions for additional activities and investigations related to this month’s featured articles: Characteristics of Birds, Compost, Electronic Circuits, Pollination, Science Fair, Soil Conservation, Sustainable Agriculture.

Science and Children — Writing in Science

“Science and engineering include specialized ways of talking and writing,” and learning how to communicate the findings of investigations and the results of design projects is essential. As the article in this issue demonstrate, it’s never to early to get children thinking and communicating as scientists or engineers.

• Putting Ideas on Paper — Using the Claim-Evidence-Reasoning framework, students make predictions, explore and observe, create data charts, and write scientific explanations.
• Poetry Rocks! and Science for Two Voices — Students use poetry to process and share their observations.
• Map It Then Write It — Here are several examples of graphic organizers to help students organize their thoughts during the writing process. These are also appropriate for older students!
• Programming Digital Stories and How-To Animations and Engineering Encounters: Sailing Into the Digital Era — Students use engineering design to develop their own digital stories and e-books, including storyboards and testing/revision.
• Teaching Through Trade Books: That Was Then, This Is Now — With these two 5E lessons suggested trade books, students compare and contrast how engineering design has changed over the years, using toys and whale watching as the context.
• The Early Years: Documenting Discoveries — Students engage in long-term observations and data collection while caring for living things in the classroom.
• Formative Assessment Probes: Constructing Cl-Ev-R Explanations to Formative Assessment Probes —
• Engineering Encounters: Sailing Into the Digital Era —
• Methods and Strategies: Deep Assessment — Assessing student writing focuses on science content, inquiry, and vocabulary. The article describes these and provides a sample rubric.

Here are some SciLinks with content information and suggestions for additional activities and investigations related to this month’s featured articles: Composting, Invertebrates, Light and Color, Rocks, Sound, States of Matter, Whales, Worms.