Today is National Bird Day, and the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) has some great resources you can use to celebrate! Enjoy these free chapters from NSTA Press—they will ease you into the new year and help you look forward to spring.

Birds, Bugs, and Butterflies: Science Lessons for Your Outdoor Classroom | From the book Outdoor Science: A Practical Guide and geared toward elementary/middle school science teachers. Among the wild animals that may travel through a school yard, birds, bugs, and butterflies are the most common—and they are the focus of most of the lessons in this chapter. It offers a variety of activities to allow you to “tame” the wildlife to help you teach. Instructions for each lesson are presented first to help you make the most of each handout.

Classifying Birds in the United States | From the book Scientific Argumentation in Biology: 30 Classroom Activities and geared toward middle/high school science teachers. The purpose of the activity in this chapter is to help students understand (1) what counts as a species in the field of biology, (2) some of the various definitions for species that can be used by biologists, and (3) the challenges associated with biological classification. This activity also helps students learn how to engage in practices such as constructing explanations, arguing from evidence, and communicating information. This activity is also designed to give students an opportunity to learn how to write in science and develop their speaking and listening skills, which are important goals for literacy in science.

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

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Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson recently said: “I am enchanted that, of late, science as a topic and scientists as characters have peaked the interests of storytellers.” As the host of the hit documentary series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, Tyson is not shy about commenting and reviewing science-related media programming.

Neither is Jacob Clark Blickenstaff, PhD, who has helped NSTA members sort the good science from the bad in movies and other visual media for almost six years. Each month in NSTA Reports and on the NSTA website, he provides expert commentary in his Blicks on Flicks column, pointing out where the physics is stretched, the chemistry fudged, or the biology twisted on behalf of the story—without losing sight of the fact that movies are meant to entertain.

In just 15 minutes, NSTA members can enjoy thoughtful and entertaining reviews from a science educator—and a movie fan. Blickenstaff also knows that substituting movie magic for actual science can help highlight truth—and engage students on their level. He makes a point to help turn “bad science” in movies into teachable science for middle level and high school educators.

• Interstellar (2014) – Still in theaters, Blickenstaff points out how science teachers could use this film to talk about some of the more counterintuitive consequences of general relativity, to discuss nitrogen cycling, or even to partner with a literature teacher to explore 20th-century poet Dylan Thomas.

• Gravity (2013) – No doubt one of the most thrilling rides in space from the safety of the movie house, the movie inspired Blickenstaff to interview George “Pinky” Nelson, one of only six people who has flown the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) worn by George Clooney in the movie.

• Frozen (2013) –Who doesn’t like “frozen fractals all around?” Perhaps not in a snowball fight. Although Blickenstaff can’t give a thumbs up to all the crystallization in this animated blockbuster, he knows that the lesson in geometry—and earworms—could have inspire budding mathematicians in the classroom.

• Skyfall (2012) – One of the all-time biggest blockbuster franchises gets a couple punches from Blickenstaff on the plausibility of surviving (and thriving the 007 way) through epic free falls and depleted uranium shrapnel. But never has a better movie overestimated “the lethality of a lizard.”

• The Avengers (2012) –Blickenstaff proves that Marvel superheroes can delve into complex math and physics—as well as alien invasions. Not only does he discuss the math behind the real concept of the movie’s core plot device (a tesseract or four-dimensional cube), but also connects the realities of gamma radiation with the 1961 Nobel Prize.

Next time you show your class a movie, choose one with specific science implications and relevance. What’s next? Perhaps Blickenstaff will take on one of the two current movies characterizing the amazing life stories of theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking and WWII mathematician Alan Turing.

More Time?

Don’t miss the addicting power of the web videos in Blick’s Picks, a collection of science-related shorts. Watch drone footage from Chernobyl, analyze momentum during a tennis trick, or simply watch real stories from real scientists.

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Laura Berry of Cogberry Creative is our guest blogger for this series. Laura is a communications professional for the education community.

Unless teachers and parents resist the urge to help as soon as we first see that a child has a problem, we might miss seeing how the child can solve it, possibly developing new skills in the process. (Of course, we use our knowledge of the individual child and the situation to judge when to step in.) A Framework for K-12 Science Education describes the practice of “Asking Questions and Defining Problems” in engineering: A basic practice of engineers is to ask questions to clarify the problem, determine criteria for a successful solution, and identify constraints.

Engineering learning in preschool can be part of emergent curriculum, encouraged whenever we see children using materials to create solutions to the problems they encounter in their play. Engineering design processes do not have to be taught through teacher-designed problems presented to children to solve. In solving an engineering problem, children (and adults) use the practices (described in the Framework) of defining problems, developing and using models, planning and carrying out investigations, analyzing and interpreting data, using mathematics and computational thinking, designing solutions, engaging in argument from evidence, and obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information. Milano cautions that “…engineering design core ideas are not designed to necessarily be sequential. Elementary students should be encouraged to use the phases fluidly, in order to avoid the misinterpretation that engineering design is a formulaic, rigid process” (pg 13). Appendix I of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) also states that the component ideas of engineering design “…do not always follow in order…At any stage, a problem-solver can redefine the problem or generate new solutions to replace an idea that just isn’t working out.” Young children are famous for not always following in order and they can engineer solutions to problems they encounter. 

In the photos we see a three-year-old using engineering practices at a developmentally appropriate level to solve the problem of retrieving a ball that rolled outside a playground fence. He did not verbalize the question but by his actions he was asking, “How can I get the ball?” He began the investigation and clarified the problem when he reached with his arm to grab the ball and found his arm was too short (measurement). He determined he needed a tool that could reach farther than his arm. A constraint was that he only had the playground materials available to him. Using a bat, he tried again to reach the ball, succeeded but still had to try repeatedly to push the ball in various strokes before it slid towards him, close enough to reach under the fence. He was demonstrating an understanding of engineering design as described in the NGSS K-2-ETS1 Engineering Design. 

I hope that I can apply the same determination and creativeness to problem solving in the new year!

Milano, Mariel. 2013. The Next Generation Science Standards and Engineering for Young Learners: Beyond Bridges and Egg Drops. pg 10 Science and Children October 2013

National Research Council. 2012. A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

Next Generation Science Standard K-2-ETS-1 Engineering Design. Students who demonstrate understanding can: Ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool.