Recently, NSTA and the Children’s Book Council (CBC) announced the winners for the annual list of Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K–12 (books published in 2013).  Previous year’s lists and winners also include books that are still in print and add an opportunity to create a rich reading experience for your students.
So this month’s Continue the Conversation asks the question “what is your favorite children’s or chapter trade book that you have students read or that you share with your class?” and I will go one step further in asking what aspects about the book you like and how do you use it?
In considering all of the year’s winners from the OSTB list as well as other books that I have utilized, I’m not sure I can choose just one, so will share a few of my favorites with you.
A book I just shared with the fifth grade class at our laboratory school on campus was Meredith Hooper’s The Drop in My Drink which tells the story about water on our planet.  The students had just finished a unit on the water cycle and watersheds taught by one of our biology faculty members and I had been asked to add a literature connection to this in the form of a guest read aloud.  This book was also featured in a previous month’s Science and Children’s Teaching Through Trade Books column titled Water Wherever and provides an activity for grades 4-6 on the water cycle.
Another recent book that I have read is a recent OSTB winner as well – Deadly –How Do You Catch an Invisible Killer.  The book is reviewed in the NSTA Recommends section of the website. This chapter book for older students focuses on the process by which a young lady who secures a job as an assistant to a Department of Health inspector helps to track down the outbreak of Typhoid.  Great for examining the process of science, importance of research, and the content associated with diseases.
Biographical books that I am absolutely enamored with include:  Odd Boy Out, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, Snowflake Bentley, Lives of Scientists, and Come See the Earth Turn.
Regardless of whether the book is read for content or pleasure, there are many opportunities to incorporate science into reading selections.  Often the manner in which the excitement of the content is shared is through a good book – so as the winter month’s approach and the opportunity to curl up with a good book presents itself —what would you recommend?  What is your favorite children’s book or young adult chapter book and how do you connect it to science?

I had such a good time at the NAEYC 2013 annual conference—personally enjoyable and professionally productive! The handouts at the Early Childhood Science Interest Forum table at the IF Café were picked up by conference goers eager to connect to resources. The ECSIF is a dedicated—and open—group. There was good discussion and sharing of resources at the ECSIF annual meeting, including the wonderful news that NSTA is in the process of developing a position statement on science teaching in early childhood! Early childhood researchers and practioners were involved in writing the draft and the NSTA Early Childhood Science Position Paper will be available on the NSTA website for review within the next couple of weeks.

NSTA was at the conference supporting early science learning with a display of resources and free copies of the elementary (and preK) journal, Science and Children. Editor Linda Froschauer is an active member of the ECSIF and presented two sessions on science in early childhood:

• “Defining science learning and teaching” with Ingrid Chalufour, Cindy Hoisington and Karen Worth.
• “Science inquiry and practices: Fun experiences with hands-on materials to awaken the scientist in children” with me!

The handouts for these sessions are up loaded on the NAEYC conference schedule. (Go to the NAEYC Annual Conference and Expo page, and click on “Search session” to go to the Precis Abstract Management searchable conference program. Search for the session you attended (or missed), then click on the title of the session. A new window will open with a full description of the session, and attached files, if any, listed at the very bottom. Click on the title of the handout file to download it.)

 My conference experience began with a session on the topic of play, and I saw many possibilities for how the open-ended exploration of materials in play might extend into a science investigation into the properties of matter or understanding balance. And many opportunities for imaginative play, developing mathematical concepts, and rich use of language. Seeing possibilities for integrating the curriculum was not the best part of this session. The most powerful part was the experience of playing with a set of materials for an uninterrupted 15 minutes or so, and reflecting on it, showing us teachers what children get out of this kind of activity—to learn about self and the world through self-created experiences.
As the presenters said, “It is in the doing that we understand.”

Read about recess in the Play, Policy, & Practice Interest Forum’s Fall, 2013 newsletter CONNECTIONS online.
Read an excerpt of the book From Play to Practice: Connecting Teachers’ Play to Children’s Learning by Marcia L. Nell and Walter F. Drew, with Deborah E. Bush.  Read more about developmental outcomes directly associated with quality play experiences in authors’ responses to questions about play.
And read about play in the NAEYC position statement on Developmentally Appropriate Practice: “Play is an important vehicle for developing self-regulation as well as promoting language, cognition, and social competence (pg 14).
The session “How a Head Start coaching community of practice created a professional development system using CLASS and the Project Approach” provided beautiful examples of Mid-America Head Start  teachers and their directors and coaches creating a positive climate with regard for student perspectives. Developing the projects—“Bugs on Our Playground,” “Our Elevator,” and “Things in Our Homes”—and using the CLassroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS), created a culture of learning and change. Educators involved in this community of practice noted that “We are seeing children in a different light—noticing their competence and accomplishments as thinkers.”
“A constructivist approach to integrating STEM education” presented by Susan Wood and Kheng Ly-Hoang of the Children’s Center at CalTech showed many ways teachers can promote scientific ways of thinking so children are able to make connections, think critically, problem solve, observe, estimate, test their ideas and collect data. The slides of children and teachers at work gave me new ideas for science learning.

There were many enticing sessions that I missed due to so many choices:

• “Sharing the BIG IDEAS of physical science with pre-K children: Properties of matter, force/motion, and measurement” presented by Robert Williams, Mary Hobbs and the teachers in the BLOCKS project.
• “Ramps and Pathways: A fun integration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics” presented by Betty Zan and Beth Van Meeteren of the University of Northern Iowa.
• “Playing and learning with nature’s play materials” presented by Mary Rivkin, Jan White, and Beth Grant.
• “Science at the center: Promoting inquiry and process skills throughout the day” presented by Rosemary Geiken, Mary Myron and Cathy Landy of East Tennesee State University.
  
   

These are just a few that were on my itinerary “wish list.” Please comment to add information about sessions you found valuable.
My last stop at the conference was the closing general session, “Monsters and superheros,” by Trisha Lee about (and demonstrating) the storytelling and story acting techniques of Vivian Gussin Paley. Much fun and meaning, learning how to listen to children as they tell their stories.

Each month, the NSTA journals have many ideas for helping students become producers of knowledge, through science investigations and engineering problems. This issue, however, looks at how students can become informed consumers of science and engineering. As the editor notes, “To be critical consumers…students need more than just exposure to core science content; they also need to locate, read, and understand information and to use their knowledge about the nature of science to judge the validity and quality of that information and how it was gathered or constructed.” Regardless of the grade level you teach, you can find articles here with suggestions to enhance student skills in information location, evaluation, interpretation, and use.
“Where will you get your information about new science after you take your last science class?” is a question asked by the author of Building Science Literacy by Reading Science News. He describes an ongoing project in which students look at science news: what’s reported, how it’s reported, and the source. After modeling how to “dissect” a news story (with guiding questions), the students spend one day a month on science news presentations. The guidelines are included with the article.
The NGSS documents include a cross-walk between science and literacy standards. Saturn, Science, and Cross-Curricular Literacy Standards shows “how the questions students ask during science lessons can be thoughtfully integrated with strategies for literacy instruction and science practices such as engaging in argument from evidence and the crosscutting concept of patterns. The authors describe an organizer called a “comprehension window,” using a file folder and sticky notes for claims. The graphics in the article illustrate how this was used to investigate the temperatures on planets. [SciLinks: Planets, Solar System]
Part of understanding science information is becoming familiar with the vocabulary—the technical vocabulary as well as words that have different meanings in science contexts (such as theory or energy). Increasing Science Vocabulary Using PowerPoint Flash Cards shows two strategies: a mnemonic keyword strategy and using PowerPoint to create “flash cards.”  Technology also plays a role in the study described in Human Impact on Water Quality: Conducting Inquiry with Cyber Databases and ICTs (information and communications technologies). The authors share credible online sources of real-world data and ideas for how students can use this wealth of data to create information. [SciLinks: Water Quality]
Sometimes we need to make quick decisions and other times we need more reflective and purposeful thought. Evaluating Scientific Arguments with Slow Thinking describes these two forms of systems thinking and  has examples of the shortcomings of “fast” thinking and suggestions for promoting more in-depth thinking and argumentation with a claim-evidence-reasoning framework.
One of my favorite resources is the Natural Inquirer (a free research journal written in student-friendly language).  The author of Engaging Middle School Students in the Analysis and Interpretation of Real-World Data describes how she guides students through reading and analyzing an article on how much time kids spend outdoors. The main focus here was on interpreting the data represented by the graphs. The students then replicated the study using their own survey data and compared the results to the published study.
We teachers want to help students learn. But sometimes the best way is not to give students a correct answer but to provide ways they can use a variety of sources to evaluate their response. Student-to-Student Collaboration and Coming to Consensus has two examples of what this looks like in a middle school classroom. The teacher provides a focus for reading and a prompt for student responses. Pairs of students shared their responses and then read information on the topic. They then discuss their responses in the context of the reading and try to reach a consensus. The second example is a Think-Ink-Pair-Share activity. Most of us have used TPS, but this variation has students write a response before refining it through pairing and sharing. When the teacher demonstrates the concept, the students evaluate their responses. [SciLinks: The Moon, Rotational Motion]
When reading research from the fields of medicine or psychology, it’s important to consider just who the subjects are. Classroom Zoo* has suggestions for helping students learn how to conduct research with live specimens in an ethical and responsible manner. The author includes a timeline and student handouts for a research project.
When assigning videos in the classroom or online, teachers should also be aware of Safety in Videos. Ken Roy has suggestions on what to consider when creating or choosing online media.
* Many of these articles have resources to share, so check out the Connections for this issue (November 2013). Even if the article does not quite fit with your lesson agenda, there are ideas for handouts, background information sheets, data sheets, rubrics, and other resources.

Yesterday I appeared before the DC State Board of Education and urged them to adopt the Next Generation Science Standards (see my testimony below).
I spoke about how the NGSS would bring positive changes to District classrooms with its new approach to teaching science that ties lessons into a few “big ideas” of science, incorporates engineering as a key science component, and emphasizes the practices used by scientists and engineers.
Probably the biggest change is that the new standards will engage students to pose (not just answer) questions and understand the process they go through to get to the answers, allowing for a deeper understanding of content and how to apply it.
These skills are key to ensuring that all students are science literate and critically savvy science consumers of the future.
I emphasized to the Board that NGSS implementation will require time and top level commitment and financial support. Teachers and school leaders will need to restructure classroom lessons and courses, and we need to make sure that teachers are trained to teach to the new standards.
NSTA has a number of resources focused on NGSS and the Framework for K–12 Science Education, including a series of interactive web seminars, articles from peer-reviewed journals, NSTA Press books by NGSS writers, online short courses and face-to-face conference lectures and workshops, all designed to build an understanding of the standards and provide a pathway for putting the best practices of the standards into action in the classroom.
In addition to the resources, NSTA released a new position statement, which expresses NSTA’s strong support of NGSS and provides a series of recommendations to ensure successful implementation.
The Board asked me to comment on the difficulty involved in implementation. I explained that implementation would be a generational process, but that student benefits will accrue almost immediately. The Board also asked for comments on reports that DC science standards have been rated “A” and are viewed as superior to NGSS. Speakers from Achieve and the National Research Council and I all emphasized that NGSS is based on the best research on how students learn; that they are for ALL students, not just the elite; and that much better preparation for career and college comes from richer in-depth understanding of fewer topics, than the shallow but broad approach reflected in current standards.
Principals from three DC Reward schools were also on the agenda and it was exciting to hear about one school’s science program called “Think Tank.” From their website: “Think Tank is an inquiry-based learning class at Maury Elementary that is based in Habits of Mind and Multiple Intelligence theory.” Science provides an exciting focal point for many Maury’s activities. Unfortunately, the Maury principal had to give the assistant principal position to fund her science teacher. She expressed no regret of the choice, however.
I was delighted to see teachers in the room, as these are the people who will ultimately implement the changes that will come and who have the biggest stake in hearing about these new standards. DCSTA was also well represented with one of their members also testifying.
I urge all teachers of science, and that includes elementary teachers, to read the NSTA position paper, use it as a resource, and share it with policy makers, principals, administrators and parents. Join us and become part of this national movement to transform K–12 science education.

Testimony to DC State Board of Education
Next Generation Science Standards
November 20, 2013
Presented by David Evans Ph.D.
Executive Director, National Science Teachers Association

On behalf of the National Science Teachers Association, I want to thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony in support of the Next Generation Science Standards.  My name is David Evans, and I am executive director of the NSTA. NSTA is the largest science teacher organization in the world with more than 55,000 members from every state and from numerous countries.  We have 212 members in the District of Columbia, and we work closely with our local chapter, the DC Science Teachers Association.  It is an honor to be here tonight with my distinguished colleagues who I am sure join me in strongly encouraging the District of Columbia to adopt the Next Generation Science Standards.
Simply put, the NSTA believes that the Next Generation Science Standards will be a game changer in the way science is taught, and learned, in classrooms nationwide.  It calls for a new approach to teaching science that ties lessons into a few “big ideas” of science, incorporates engineering as a key science component and emphasizes the practices used by scientists and engineers. In our position statement on NGSS, which is included in our written testimony, we strongly endorse adoption of the new standards and outline the steps needed to ensure that all students have the skills and knowledge required for college and STEM careers and to be well-informed citizens.
First, some background on how these standards were developed. Education experts from 26 states and a cadre of teachers, administrators, curriculum developers, scientists, and other stakeholders worked for two years to develop the Next Generation Science Standards.  The NGSS is based on the publication titled A Framework for K–2 Science Education, which was written and released in 2011 by a respected panel of National Research Council scientists. The Framework for K–12 Science Education describes the major practices, crosscutting concepts, and disciplinary core ideas that all students should be familiar with by the end of high school. The Framework also spells out how these practices, concepts, and ideas should be developed across the grade levels.
To date eight states—Washington, California, Rhode Island, Maryland, Vermont, Kansas, Kentucky, and Delaware– have already adopted the standards.  This is important to note, because these standards were written by states, for states, with no federal involvement.
Public support is also very high for new science standards; in a recent poll, Achieve found that 87% of those polled support new science standards. In an NSTA online survey, 83% of science educators indicated strong support for common standards in science.
So what positive changes can District parents and teachers expect with the Next Generation Science Standards?
NGSS introduces engineering and key technology principles into the classroom, starting at the early grades.
Research shows that the best way to gain a deep understanding of science is to engage in scientific and engineering practices. NGSS effectively integrates these practices with rigorous science content.
The standards emphasize the process of science and how science is conducted in the real world. It engages students in not only finding answers to questions, but also understanding the process they go through to get to the answer, allowing for a deeper understanding of content and how to apply it.
Next Generation Science Standards also foster whole systems thinking, and will help students to develop critical and contextual thinking skills in order to prepare them for college or a 21st century career. Most importantly, these critical skills are key to ensuring that all students are science literate and critically savvy science consumers of the future.
These positive changes are encouraging, but will require time and top level commitment and financial support. Teachers, school leaders, and parents will need to restructure classroom lessons and courses, develop new methods of teaching and support systems. Most importantly, we need to make sure that teachers are trained to teach to the new standards.
When the District of Columbia adopts the Next Generation Science Standards, NSTA will be ready to help parents, school leaders, and teachers to implement them.
NSTA already offers a number of quality resources, including web seminars, online short courses, face-to-face workshops and conferences, and books by NGSS writers—all designed to build an understanding of the standards and provide a pathway for putting the standards into classroom instruction.
In addition, we are working to develop an online web resource that will allow District teachers to learn and understand the standards, identify and share targeted resources, interact and collaborate with colleagues, and locate tools to plan instruction.
In summary, the National Science Teachers Association strongly encourages the DC State Board of Education to adopt and implement the Next Generation Science Standards.  The Next Generation Science Standards represent a significant shift in how we want students to learn science and what we want them to learn.   Improving the quality of science education for DC students is also an economic issue.  It is no secret that employers are demanding workers who are proficient in science, technology, and engineering knowledge and skills. To fill this demand, and better compete in the global marketplace, students in the District of Columbia must be provided with a world class education in the sciences and STEM that prepares them for college or a career. Adoption and implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards is the path forward to achieving these goals.
Thank you for your time, and I look forward to answering any questions you may have.

The RSC’s (Royal Society of Chemistry) Chemistry Week is a themed week of events that is held every two years to promote a positive image of chemistry and increase the public understanding of the importance of chemical science in our everyday lives. This year’s theme is “Health.”
Using simple household equipment, students test how much vitamin C is in various fruits and vegetables. They then share and compare results with students around the world to see the global picture. For example, do fruits and vegetables from different parts of the world differ in their vitamin C content? Does boiling vegetables affect the amount of vitamin C? Does oxygen affect the vitamin C content?
Find out how this project works with the RSC’s ‘How-to’ video.  The project website  also has lesson suggestions for the classroom and a world map showing the location of participants. The results can be uploaded and analyzed in real time. It looks like a school can submit more than one set of data, too. Follow on Twitter at #globalexperiment

The amount of dissolved oxygen (DO) in water is a critical component in the aquatic ecosystem. While measuring the level of DO is a common practice in water quality studies, the sensors often used to capture the data were far from the instantaneous measurements we have grown to love about many other probes.

Popular sensors designed to measure dissolved oxygen in real-time usually required a preparation sequence slightly less complex than the launch of a spacecraft to Mars. initiating the launch of  a DO sensor could include a 10-minute warm-up period with the probe tip submerged in distilled water. After that several sequenced, time-consuming and precise steps must be followed to accurately calibrate the probe. To make matters worse,it is recommended that the probe be recalibrated every few hours of use making for an even longer day in the field, or  loss of precious class time. Traditional DO probes used a Clark-type polarography electrode to detect the concentration of oxygen in the solution under investigation. In addition to complex preparation of the probe before use, it was also rather needy and demanded special care and feeding to keep it healthy during storage.

But what if dissolved oxygen could be measured as easily as we measure temperature complete with auto-detection of the sensor and no calibration necessary? Not only would we take more DO measurements in more places, but we would also greatly expand our field of study both figuratively and literally!
Now just such a probe is now available! Vernier Technology has an Optical Dissolved Oxygen sensor that uses a luminescence-based optical oxygen sensor that makes taking DO measurements so easy that students can venture into previously uncharted territory to collect data.

As a test of the new probe, I headed out to a nearby waterway not generally  considered conducive to school-age scientific exploration. Even thought the channel is just a stone’s throw from a university, it’s somewhat agressive nature is broadcast conspicuously through large “Danger” signs sprinkled around the area.

The Optical Dissolved Oxygen sensor, or what I call an ODO, has a few other tricks up its sleeve. First, the probe is located at the end of a meter and a half of waterproof cable. Next, the entire business-side that end of the cable is  submergible. That means you can lower the probe from a height down to the water, or control the probe’s decent down through several thermoclines.
Additionally an optional 125 gram stainless steel guard can be added to the end of the probe to protect the actual sensor as well as weigh down the instrument to help control the variables of depth and current, and in my case wind. The steel guard gently screws onto the probe’s plastic midsection in the same way and place as the translucent housing designed to keep the probe safe and moist during storage.
In one of my tests, I took advantage of the probe’s 1.6m cable to lower it into a water channel immediately upstream from a diversion culvert. Although two meters above the water, the added length of my arm was enough to submerge the probe in the stream.

For combined measurements in the current, I held the probe in the water along with a Vernier Flow Rate sensor to capture both DO and current speed. Because of the somewhat tricky area I was testing, and that I was using a LabQuest2 interface and an iPad Mini, I collected samples from several different locations in one data run with the intent to sort it out later. Managing both sensors at the same time was so easy, I could do it one-handed and take pictures with the other hand, all with a LQ2 in the mix as well.


For best results, it is recommended that the ODO probe remains submerged in the medium under exploration for at least a minute.  And as I discovered, it is possible to get DO readings over 100% if the probe bounces around in a strong current. Given that in one of my tests the plastic tube of the flow rate sensor bowed downstream as the sensor’s propeller looked less like a boat motor and more like an airplane trying to take flight, so yes, strong currents were present.
 

Wednesday through Saturday I’ll be attending sessions at the annual conference of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). I love that the worlds of science teaching and early childhood teaching overlap! This is made very clear by the number of sessions about teaching science concepts and science practices.
The NAEYC Early Childhood Science Interest Forum (ECSIF) will have our annual meeting, open to all, so if you are coming to the conference, join us for a lively discussion of the video clips we’ll be viewing of toddlers and preschoolers engaged in science activities. Come find out how you can participate in this Interest Forum and learn about efforts to develop a position statement on early childhood science education. Thursday 11/21/2013 at 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM in Room 146B Washington Convention Center.
The Saturday 8am conference session, “Defining science learning and teaching”, led by Ingrid Chalufour, Cindy Hoisington, Karen Worth, and Linda Froschauer, is top of my list because I want to know what these educators and researchers will tell us about what young children are capable of learning and effective strategies for engaging young children in scientific inquiry and conceptual learning.
Stop by the ECSIF table at the Interest Forum Cafe and sign up to participate in the ECSIF and get email updates. Science and engineering learning begins with young children and we can support their explorations.
 
 

Rodger Bybee’s new book Translating the NGSS for Classroom Instruction gives science teachers a powerful tool for moving the new science standards into classroom practices. Having the NGSS is a critical piece, but they will only go so far in affecting true reform if the standards aren’t applied to how science education is delivered in the classroom.
In Translating the NGSS for Classroom Instruction, Bybee tackles the questions and concerns that teachers have:

• How will the NGSS affect my teaching?
• How do I translate the standards to classroom instruction?
• Are there instructional materials that align with the standards?
• How does my teaching (at the elementary, middle, or high school level) fit into the K-12 science curriculum?
• Will national, state, district, and classroom assessments change?
• How can the standards in the NGSS be used to create school programs and curriculum materials for classroom instruction?

The NGSS provide a powerful set of policies to guide the improvement of science education. As important and challenging as the development of the NGSS is, the standards represent only one step in the progress of standards-based improvement of science education. The NGSS specifically include features that address issues associated with implementation.
The NGSS are based on the following foundational ideas:

• Present performance expectations for all students.
• Describe policies and not a curriculum.
• Clarify equity and excellence.
• Integrate engineering with science.
• Provide guidance for college and career readiness.

As Bybee explains, “The task of translating the Framework to NGSS and NGSS to school curriculum and classroom instruction has some characteristics in common with the process of translating a book from one language to another…. In the process of translating standards to curriculum (i.e., programs) and instruction (i.e., practices), one must endeavor to understand standards as policies and the requirements of school programs and classroom practices.”
Translating Performance Expectations to Classroom Instruction
A useful perspective is to approach the translation as a sequence of lessons, not a lesson of each performance expectation. Understanding of the practices, ideas, and concepts should be developed using multiple lessons in a carefully designed sequence.
For students to meet the requirements described in the beginning, middle, and conclusion of the instructional sequence:

• What did the teacher do?
• What did the students do?
• How would you determine if the students can demonstrate the understandings described in the performance expectations?
• How would you assess student learning?
• What would you design as an assessment that provides acceptable evidence that students have learned the science and engineering practices, disciplinary core ideas, and crosscutting concepts in the performance expectations?
• Describe how you would assess the performance expectations.
• Describe the challenges you encountered in translating the standard
• Were these challenges of vocabulary? Science content? Architecture of the standard? Other?
• What was lost and gained in the translation?

Bybee goes on to assert that what counts as student improvement is student achievement. He explains that higher student achievement can be attained by focusing on the instructional core.
He outlines his plan for each chapter of the book

• Answers questions about translating standards to classroom practices
• Gives insights about reforming curriculum for schools, districts, and states
• Provides examples of curriculum, instruction, and assessment

Bybee emphasizes the need for clear and coherent curriculum and instruction that connect standards and assessments. “If there is no curriculum for teachers, I predict the standards will be implemented with far less integrity than intended by the NRC Framework and those who developed the NGSS.”
Check out the sample chapter: From NGSS to Classroom Instruction
This books is also available as an e-book.