Every teacher is a literacy teacher. Each discipline, including science, has a language and strategies for communicating both verbal and nonverbal information. As the TST journal editor notes: “…it turns out that reading and writing comprise over half of the work of practicing scientists and engineers.” Reflecting this reality, Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information is one of the Scientific and Engineering Practices in the NGSS. The two secondary journals this month focus on communication and literacy in science, while the elementary journal has ideas for studying (and communicating about) energy and matter.

Science Scope: Science and Language Arts

This month’s Guest Editorial Our Science Story: When inquiry meets the Common Core describes how a middle school uses science journaling as a means of integrating science and literacy. Using Disciplinary Literacy Strategies to Enhance Student Learning illustrates strategies such as concept maps and summarization. Science Haiku Art provides examples of a non-traditional way for students to communicate their learning. And if vocabulary is a challenge for students, take a look at Tried and True: The many faces of word walls in middle school science classrooms.

Here are some additional SciLinks that provide content information and suggestions for additional activities and investigations related to this month’s featured articles:

• Reading and Writing Alignment Across Content Areas [SciLinks: Characteristics of Living Things]
• Teaching Graph Literacy Across the Curriculum [SciLinks: Graphing]
• The Who, What, When, Where, and How of Waves [SciLinks: Waves, Wavelength, Reflection and Refraction]
• Comic Relief: Using Comics and Illustrated Trade Books to Support Science Learning in First-Year English Language Learners [SciLinks: Rocks, Earth’s Structure]

The Science Teacher: Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information

TST’s Career of the Month describes the work of a Science Writer. 

Here are some additional SciLinks with weblinks for content information and suggestions for additional activities and investigations related to this month’s featured articles:

• Sinking In and Beyond an Equation [SciLinks: Buoyancy, Density, Density of Water, Graphing Data]
• Confronting Ambiguity in Science [SciLinks: Water Quality, Watersheds]
• Doing the Data Walk [SciLinks: Velocity, Motion]
• Modeling Molecular Machinery [SciLinks: Proteins, DNA Structure and Function, Protein Synthesis]

This month’s Science & Children focuses on Energy and Matter, two concepts that can be challenging for younger students.

The article Science 101: How Should We Label Different Kinds of Energy? has a good refresher on the topic. And here are some additional SciLinks with weblinks for content information and suggestions for additional activities and investigations related to this month’s featured articles:

• Looking Through the Energy Lens [SciLinks: Energy, Energy Transformations]
• Go With the Flow [SciLinks: Ecosystems, Energy Pyramid, Food Chains, Food Webs]
• Physical Education Meets Physical Science [SciLinks: Forces and Motion, Simple Machines]
• How Does My Brain Pay Attention [SciLinks Human Brain]
• Inquiry-Based Science and the Next Generation Science Standards: A Magnetic Attraction [SciLinks: Magnets, Magnetic Materials]
• Teaching Through Trade Books: Understanding Matter and Energy [SciLinks: States of Matter, Describing Matter, Energy Transformations]
• The Early Years: Where does the “warm” go? [SciLinks: Heat and Temperature]

One of the many benefits of being an NSTA member is having access to all of the journals (including past issues) online. Regardless of the grade level you teach, the journals have ideas for authentic activities and investigations that can be used, adapted, or extended for different levels of student interest and experience. Most of the activities are aligned with the NGSS.

Calling all middle school teachers! If you’ll be attending the NSTA National Conference on Science Education in Chicago, then please join me at the Meet Me in the Middle Day on Friday, March 13 from 10:00 am-4:00 p.m. This “conference within a conference” is brought to you by the National Middle Level Science Teachers Association and the NSTA Committee on Middle Level Science Teaching who have partnered up to bring you a day full of fun and learning.

Those of us who teach in the middle know that it is education’s best kept secret–it’s hard not to have fun when surrounded by energetic kids who are starting to be able to grasp abstract concepts. We also know how challenging it can be at times to find lesson that are perfectly aligned to the age level we teach. Meet Me in the Middle Day (MMITM Day) will feature a dozen sessions geared towards meeting the middle school science teacher’s unique needs. This Who’s Who in Science Education will feature Page Keeley, Christine Royce, Ken Roy, Michael Bowen, Dick Moyer, and many more. You’ll also have an opportunity to learn how to make foldables from Dinah Zike’s organization and learn about engineering practices in middle school chemistry from the American Chemistry Society. We’ve carefully selected some fabulous presentations for you, including:

• Formative Assessment
• Merging Literacy and Science
• Science Safety
• Data Literacy
• Building Better Partnerships with Your Administrator
• Foldables
• Everyday Engineering
• Engineering Practices
• Science on a Shoestring
• NGSS and You
• NSTA Learning Center

Be sure to also check out the Round Table discussions that will run from 10:15-10:45 a.m. and 11:00-11:30 a.m. Round Table discussions offer you a chance to sit down and interact with table leaders on a variety of topics.

We’ll end the day with a bang as nearly 100 presenters eagerly to share their ideas during the Middle Level Share-a-Thon from 2:00-4:00 p.m. in Vista S406a. We’ll have lots of yummy treats and dozens of door prizes that include a microscope, educational software, NSTA books, NSTA memberships, and an iPad. Author Nicolas Nicastro (author of Circumference) will also be on hand for the event.

This day-long celebration of middle school science is brought to you with generous support from Carolina Biological, It’s About Time, Lab-Aids, and PASCO.

For additional details about the event, please go to nmlsta.org. Be sure to plan on attending from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Friday, March 13 in McCormick Place (Convention Center) at Vista S406a. I look forward to seeing you there!

Patty McGinnis (pattymcginnis1@gmail.com); NSTA Middle Level Science Teaching Division Director

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

Follow NSTA