Browse this month’s most popular books, e-books, children’s trade books, and journal articles on NSTA’s website. Between now and August 14, 2015, save 10% on NSTA Press and NSTA Kids books or e-books by entering promo code SUMMER at checkout from the online Science Store.

Most Popular NSTA Press Books

Argument-Driven Inquiry in Life Science: Lab Investigations for Grades 6–8

Picture-Perfect Science Lessons, Expanded 2nd Edition: Using Children’s Books to Guide Inquiry, 3–6

Translating the NGSS for Classroom Instruction

Uncovering Student Ideas in Life Science, Volume 1: 25 New Formative Assessment Probes

The Power of Questioning: Guiding Student Investigations

Most Popular NSTA Press e-Books

Solar System (enhanced e-book)

Uncovering Student Ideas in Science, Volume 2: 25 More Formative Assessment Probes (e-book)

Earth Science Success, 2nd Edition: 55 Tablet-Ready, Notebook-Based Lessons (e-book)

 Argument-Driven Inquiry in Biology: Lab Investigations for Grades 9–12 (e-book)

The BSCS 5E Instructional Model: Creating Teachable Moments (e-book)

Most Popular NSTA Kids Books

Next Time You See a Firefly

How Does the Wind Blow? I Wonder Why

Next Time You See a Sunset

How Tall Was Milton? I Wonder Why

Up, Up in a Balloon: I Wonder Why

Most Popular Journal Articles

Dig Into Fossils! (elementary)

Thinking Big (high school)

The Next Generation Science Standards: Where Are We Now and What Have We Learned? (middle school)

Collaborative Concept Maps: A Voice for All Science Learners (middle school)

A Day in the Field (high school)

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

Follow NSTA

Young children’s imaginative play often includes creating family groups with toy animals or dolls, and role-playing with housekeeping and dress-up materials. They recreate the relationships they experience or know of from books and other media. As a “mother dog,” a child will tell the “puppies” to follow her. Children who behave out of character, such as sitting at a table instead of curling up on a blanket on the floor, get called out by other children–“Dogs don’t sit at tables!” Children who wear clothing not designed to go together may be told, “Doctors don’t wear hardhats!” Sometimes children’s lack of experience may be revealed in their play. I don’t hear “Girls can’t be doctors” these days but I have heard “Only boys can drive the truck,” in spite of the role models available today.

Just as we work to expand children’s understanding of when the Moon is visible (not only at night as portrayed in most media but in the daytime too), we can expand children’s understanding of gender roles in careers, friendships, and family. Just as we create a safe environment for children to voice their questions about science content, we maintain that safe environment for all questions.

Daymoon by Phil Davis on NASA site

Some resources for these discussions include:

• Bringing Boys and Girls Together: Supporting Preschoolers’ Positive Peer Relationships by Hillary Manaster and Maureen Jobe. Young Children. November 2012.

http://www.naeyc.org/yc/files/yc/file/201211/Manaster.pdf 

• Every Color on the Canvas: Using Art to Explore Preschoolers’ Understanding of Differences by Meagan K. Shedd and Rebecca L. Coyner. July 2015. Young Children. 70 (3): 84-87

• U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services, Administration for Families and Children. Partnering with LGBT families in Early Head Start and Head Start by Angie Godfrey. June 18, 2013.

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/blog/2013/06/partnering-with-lgbt-families-in-early-head-start-and-head-start

• Welcoming Schools, a resource for educators for tools to address bias-based name-calling and bullying, and to meet the needs of students whose family structures are not well represented or included in school environments.

http://www.welcomingschools.org/pages/who-can-marry-whom-inclusive-conversations-about-marriage/ 

Any conversations that encourage critical thinking and using evidence from observations help children build their understanding of the world. Read about moon misconceptions in children’s literature in “The Moon in Children’s Literature: How to avoid the pitfalls of introducing misconceptions when reading about the Moon,” by Kathy Cabe Trundle and Thomas H. Troland in the October 2005 issue of Science and Children.

When I ask students to write about a topic, most try to submit a collection of copy-and-paste paragraphs. I’m looking for strategies to help students create original writing.  —H., Georgia

Before the Internet, when students were assigned to write on a topic, they went to the library, found the topic in an encyclopedia, and copied enough words to meet the length criteria. Fast-forward to today’s world of online searching, Wikipedia, and electronic copy/paste and you have updated the situation.

In the old days, as students copied by hand, they at least had to look at the words. I recently watched a biology student completing a vocabulary activity on cells. With his laptop he copied and pasted a definition of nucleus—as the center of an atom composed of protons and neutrons!

Synthesizing information from several sources is a useful process. But it might not be an intuitive one for students. When I was teaching middle school, each student created a report on an endangered animal. Even though I told the students I wanted to see their own writing, I still had many copy-and-paste versions. It was clear that students needed some guidance and examples of how to gather and use information from several sources.

Although my colleagues at the high school level swore by index cards and outlines for preparing reports, I knew these would be hard for many seventh graders. My classes included special education students, so I asked the special education teacher if she had any suggestions for helping students organize information and use what they find.

My colleague introduced me to the idea of using a “matrix” to help break down the task and provide a graphic organizer for the information. We worked together to design a template, realizing that what was helpful for special needs students would be helpful for all.

It was a one-page document, with a table. The column headers were blank for students to identify the sources they used (the librarian helped explain how to document the sources). The row labels were for characteristics of the animal. We brainstormed these labels in class. Most classes came up with the same ones, but it gave students some input into the document. If they didn’t think of it, I suggested a row for “interesting facts.” (Here is an example of a Matrix–feel free to download and adapt!)

As students found information, they filled in a column for each source. They had questions: What if a source doesn’t have information for a box? (Put “N/A”—it shows the value of multiple sources.) I can’t fit everything into the box. (The size of the square means just a summary the facts–not a lot of writing.) It was another teachable moment when students realized that some sources had different information.

The effectiveness of this strategy became apparent when they started to write. This time, they looked at each row to summarize and elaborate on the topic. For students who weren’t sure how to start, I suggested opening with an interesting fact, writing one or two paragraphs for each row, and concluding with another interesting fact. It was an “aha” moment for students as they saw their original writing emerge. We did the writing in class, which took a few class periods. My colleague and I decided it was worth it when we saw the results.

One year, two students showed me how they took the matrix idea and used it to organize their own notes on arthropods. The column headings were classes of arthropods and the row labels were characteristics such as number of legs. I asked them to explain why this was more helpful than an outline or text paragraphs. They said that it was really easy to see how the classes of arthropods were similar and how they were different—quite an observation! I also used this strategy with high school students, and the use of matrix organizers morphed into my dissertation topic.

Both parts of the process—notetaking and writing—can be done electronically. The final document could be a written report, presentation slides, a foldable, or infographic.

I ran into a former student at a social event in our community. We reminisced about school, and he said that he still had his endangered animal report and read it to his kids!