Teachers often have questions about interactive science notebooks, especially at the secondary level. Mary Morgan, a high school science teacher from Belton High School in Belton, Texas, shares her experiences (These ideas refer to traditional formats. Ms Morgan will share her thoughts on electronic notebooks in a future blog.)

Ms. Mentor: How are interactive science notebooks different from the traditional idea of notebooks as a collection of handouts, lab reports, and notes copied from the board and organized in a way determined by the teacher?

Mary Morgan

Ms. Morgan: The “interactivity” of interactive notebooks comes from the fact that students are working with the information in various ways as they fill in the notebook. Usually this starts with taking Cornell notes on a topic on the right side, whether during a direct teach session, from a video or the textbook, or during a web-quest. Then the students use the left side of the notebook to process the information from the notes. Working with, and often times, struggling with, the new information is a crucial piece for learning. The processing leads students to take ownership of the information. The processing methods vary, but processing always require the students to interact with the new information in some form leading to understanding and owning the information.

Ms. Mentor: Are interactive notebooks appropriate for high school? How do students respond to them?

Ms. Morgan: I have used INBs (Interactive Notebooks) for the last eight of the nine years I’ve been teaching. I have used them for inclusion (low level learners), on-level, and pre-AP Biology; on-level and Honors Anatomy; and physiology; zoology; and AP Biology. My students complain at first every year, but by the time the end-of-course (EOC) exams roll around in May, they thank me for doing the notebooks because they are organized and easy to study!

Ms. Mentor: Do you get any feedback from parents?

Ms. Morgan: The feedback from parents is usually similar to students at first. They usually have some trepidation as this is new for many parents as well. Some will ask why we are doing a middle school notebook or how we are covering all the information in a small space. Some parents also have concerns about how we grade the notebook. However, once I sit with the parents in a one-on-one conference, show them completed notebooks from prior years, explain how the notebook organizes the information and helps students study for unit tests, and creates an EOC review guide throughout the year, most parents are on-board with the INBs. By the end of the year, the parents I speak with comment about how great the INBs are and they wish other teachers would do them as well. I am planning a parent/guardian/trusted adult check-off sheet to encourage parents and guardians to be more hands on with their students’ work and study habits.

Ms. Mentor: Teachers have different ideas about the format of the notebook: composition books, spiral books, binders, pocket folders. Is there a “best” format to use?

Ms. Morgan: I use composition notebooks. They are a little pricier than spirals, but they hold together all year long and the pages being harder to remove. I make it quite clear to the students that no pages are to be ripped out ever! (I offer notebook paper to those who need it if someone at home is tempted to tear a page out. This has been an issue with some students in the past.) For students who can’t afford a notebook, I will quietly give them one I purchased.

Ms. Mentor: It seems that student ownership in the document would be essential. What opportunities do you provide for student input?

Ms. Morgan: I use a combination of personalization and consistent formatting. I have my students decorate the front of their notebooks using old magazine photos. (I tell them anything I deem inappropriate will be ripped off, so that usually solves that problem.) I encourage them to use a mix of science pictures and personal likes. We cover the fronts with clear contact paper. I then apply colored duct tape to the spine which helps the notebooks hold together better all year long and allows me to color code notebooks by class period.

I have students create a title page and a table of contents, and they number ALL of the pages. They also put an envelope in the inside back cover of each notebook to keep loose items (e.g., vocabulary cards, model pieces, cut-outs that haven’t been used yet). We also use colored masking tape to make tabs for each unit so students can quickly flip back and forth between old and new work. We also include flip-outs on the front and back covers which contain reference materials. These pages can be flipped out from the cover and viewed from any page in the notebook.

At the beginning of the school year, I show students tips and tricks for organizing the notebooks, but eventually most students develop their own organizing style for their notebook which is one type of ownership.

Ms. Mentor: The color coding is something I can appreciate, especially when I taught six sections! And the personalized cover would help students identify their notebook quickly. How do you handle having students add papers to the notebooks?

Ms. Morgan: I keep a supply bucket on each table with markers, tape, scissors, short rulers, and a separate bin for trash. I use dotted lines on everything to reduce cutting time, and we use mostly cellophane tape to put things in the notebook (Rarely we will glue with liquid glue, and we never use staples, glue sticks, or chewing gum!) All trash goes in the bin at the end of class; one of my table jobs is that “Number Ones” take out the trash.

Ms. Mentor: Getting to the “interactive part,” how do students organize their work during the class period?

Ms. Morgan: I have done the notebooks multiple ways, but I now have settled into the AVID set-up for the right and left pages. Based on the AVID structure, right pages are teacher input/direct teaching pages: Cornell notes, teacher demos, Fold
ables (used as notes), the driving question, hypothesis, and lab data . Right pages have odd numbers on them for page numbers, so I tell the students they are my pages because I’m odd. Student output goes on the left, evenly numbered pages. This is a place for the student to process the right page information with pictures, colors, writing, etc. Some students will create a Foldable with the right-page information so that would go on the left side. Analysis (graphs, tables, statistics) and conclusions/reasoning go on this page for labs. If students do one-pagers for review, that would go on the left side.

Ms. Mentor: Do you evaluate the student notebooks? That could be an overwhelming task.

Ms. Morgan: It took me a while to come up with a system. Whatever you do, don’t try to grade them all at once! You’ll be at school for hours and hours. I like to grade one or two pages on test days and can usually get through a class’s notebooks during the period. I also do short checks during class (warm-up time, independent work time) and have students provide feedback to each other on their notebooks.

Having students do peer feedback requires them to understand and critically think about the information being presented and teaches them how to assess work and documents without bias. I’ve also seen students self-assess after going through the peer review process a few times and so they begin to create better work from the start. I have to teach my students how this process works and monitor them, especially the first few times, to ensure that constructive criticism does not become simply criticism. I have found that oftentimes they are harder on each other and themselves than I am.

Ms. Mentor: Do you have any other suggestions for someone just starting with interactive notebooks?

Ms. Morgan: Do what works for you. Try something and if it doesn’t work after a couple of times, change it. Develop you own notebook vocabulary and your students will catch on. If you need every student on the same page, do it. If you are okay with students being on their own page, do it. For example, all of my students have to be on the page I tell them and I keep a class-wide table of contents on a big poster sheet of notebook paper. But don’t be bound by what works for someone else. Make the notebook work for your teaching style.

Anything you have done using other formats can [be adapted] to the notebook. For example, Foldables fit great in the notebook. Sometimes it requires a little different fold or a bit of extra trimming, but you can make it work. Old worksheets/notes can work by reducing the size on your copy machine and adding a dotted border for trimming. I also copy lots of things on half-pages because those fit great in the notebooks. I make notebook pages into pockets for brochures and other handouts. The sky is the limit with the notebooks!

Ms Mentor: I’ve put together a Resource Collection in the NSTA Learning Center on the topic of “Science Notebooks” with articles and websites that may be helpful.

Our oldest son will be a senior in high school next year. (Deep breath.) All Delaware public high school students must perform 60 hours of documented volunteer work for a non-profit group as a requirement for graduation. With a little nudging from me, our son chose Habitat for Humanity. New Castle County’s Habitat chapter runs a ReStore, where homeowners and contractors donate new or gently used home parts, like windows, flooring, sinks, tile, and furniture. The donated items are sold at very reasonable prices to other members of the community for use in their homes. The boy has found his niche, and wants to keep volunteering there as long as he can. They’re happy to have him, since he’s built like a lumberjack and can carry like one too. Having a way to keep cabinets, doors, and windows out of landfills is a great help to the environment and got me thinking about the many STEM elements in recycling programs of all kinds. This month we’ll take a tour around the world, and dip into geology, hydrology, technology, environmental science, chemistry, economics, global politics, and ethics.

Bottled water

Yes, bottled water has borne the brunt of criticism from environmentalists for years. If you don’t have a refillable aluminum, glass, or plastic jug on your desk by now, you’re doing it wrong. We all know how much energy it takes to make those ubiquitous thin plastic, half-liter bottles. (Approximately 3 to 5 million joules each, to be specific.) Beyond the cost of plastic production are the added factors of transportation, distribution and refrigeration at the point of sale. Bottled spring water comes from sources all over the world, including Fiji and the Alps. Getting that water to your refrigerator adds significantly to its costs.

In addition to the environmental impact of bottled water consumption, another issue is economic. Did you know that almost 55% of bottled water is glorified tap water, not spring water? It’s almost the same thing you can get from your own faucet at any time. What’s worse, is that a number of large bottled water companies are located in California, which is experiencing record drought conditions. Water privatization is an issue that should concern everyone. Approximately 10% of the world’s water is currently under private control and this percentage is expected to grow as municipalities look for ways to reduce the cost of maintaining aging infrastructure. Privatization removes this cost from the government’s balance sheet, but puts the water supply under the control of a corporation, which has the sole aim of making money for its shareholders. When more than 1 billion people in the world lack access to safe drinking water, this seems short sighted at best.

Tap water in the United States has an average cost of US$2 per 1000 gallons. When you consider that the average wholesale cost of bottled water in the United States is US$1.21 per gallon, you can see that choosing a bottle over a glass in your own kitchen makes very little sense. If the taste of your home’s water bothers you, consider buying a filter for the tap or a pitcher with a built-in filter. You’ll come out ahead on cost, and the environment will benefit too. The current recycling rate for water bottles is about 39%. The rest of the bottles end up in landfills or as trash in the environment. The water bottle industry has worked to reduce the amount of plastic in its bottles as a nod to environmental responsibility, but these measures have also reduced their costs.

Rare earth elements

A number of modern technologies depend on the 17 rare earth elements. The vast majority of rare earth element production is currently in China. China possesses approximately 50% of global rare earth element reserves. Because China has relatively large quantities of these elements while also having the advantages of lax environmental controls and cheap labor, it dominates the market. Rare earth elements became an issue of national security in 2010 when China allegedly placed an embargo on exports of these materials to Japan in response to an offshore border dispute. Japan is the largest market for rare earth elements, as much of the consumer products that use them are made there.

Many of the products that depend on rare earth elements are recent inventions. Some of the most well-known products are cell phones, solar cells, electric cars, and wind turbines. Rare earth elements became necessary in the mid-1960s when color televisions needed brighter red pixels. A particular valency state of europium produces red light by phosphorescence. This also makes europium useful in compact fluorescent light bulbs.

Perhaps the most important use of rare earth elements is in permanent magnets. Permanent magnets do not become nonmagnetic once the magnetic field is removed. These permanent rare earth magnets are very powerful and some can retain their magnetic properties at high temperatures, making them invaluable to industries like aerospace and defense, health care, clean energy and electronics. If you’ve ever undergone magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), you’ve had the warning about wearing clothes without metal fasteners. The magnets are so powerful that they can pull on any iron-containing object in the body. On occasion, this attraction can cause the iron-oxide pigment in tattoos to heat up and cause first-degree burns. (To be honest, I thought this was a myth and I’m quite surprised. The things you learn!) Please note that this effect is rare and no good reason to skip an MRI.

One of the biggest problems with rare earth element mining and refining is the waste products. A principal byproduct of rare earth element production is radioactive thorium. A number of the other waste products from rare earth mining are similarly toxic. Baotou, in Inner Mongolia, China, is widely contaminated with these toxic waste products. Two-thirds of the 97% of rare earth elements that come out of China are produced in Baotou. China’s market dominance allows the government of China to dictate the price of rare earth materials, but this economic power has come at a price. The ground in Baotou is saturated with toxic waste, and a huge tailings pond dominates the landscape. The farmers have moved away. The factory workers that remain experience various health issues.

These environmental concerns and supply issues have led to important research on rare earth element recycling. Current recycling methods are expensive and have their own undesirable byproducts. But innovative research in Japan uses salmon sperm to recover rare earth elements in an aqueous process that is more environmentally friendly. Because of the particular market constraints on these vital elements, it’s important to develop a viable recycling method.

Recycling in the future

The United States has made significant improvements in recycling rates in the last 20 years. But the overall recycling rate in the United States is still less than 40%. There is no federal recycling legislation in the United States, but 47 of the 50 states have disposal bans to keep at least some items out of landfills. Recycling has also increased in importance globally. It may surprise you to know that about 70% of the world’s electronics wastes are exported to China. Recycled materials supply 40% of the world’s raw material needs, but the energy and CO₂ savings vary by material. Austria has the best overall recycling rate, recovering 60% of total recyclable materials. Brazil has the next best rate, at 50% of all waste. Greece has the lowest overall recycling rate, at 10%.

Aluminum (or aluminium, depending on where you learned to spell) is one of the most common recycled materials. More than a third of global aluminum production today comes from recycled materials. This is important because recycled aluminum uses as little as 5% of the energy and emits only 5% of the greenhouse gases of primary aluminum production.

Glass is another common recycling target. Glass can be recycled forever. Recycling a glass jar saves energy because recycled glass melts at a lower temperature than the original components. Switzerland recycles 91% of all manufactured glass. This is currently the best recycling rate for a single commodity.

Recycling is becoming a high-tech industry. RFID tags on household recycling bins and the collection trucks can provide information about neighborhood participation rates, allowing cities to tailor incentive programs to low participation areas. RFID tags on the regular waste bins paired with scales on the collection trucks would also let municipalities accurately charge households for the cost of waste disposal. Most bottled water is consumed on the go, so strategic placement of recycling bins in dense urban areas could increase participation rates. Another area of technology with important future implications is solid waste gasification for energy recovery. Currently only 2% of the energy in solid waste is recovered.

Produced by the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), science writer Becky Stewart contributes monthly to the Science and STEM Classroom e-newsletter, a forum for ideas and resources that middle and high school teachers need to support science, technology, engineering, and math curricula. If you enjoy these blog posts, follow Becky Stewart on Twitter (@ramenbecky). Fans of the old version of The STEM Classroom e-newsletter can find the archives here.

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