You’ve turned the clocks back an hour, but you’re still short on time—that’s what most teachers tell us! How can the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) help? With grade-level journals targeted to your needs, written by educators who know what works. Our November journals are live online (with select articles being free for all, and full content being free to all NSTA members). Browse these issues for classroom-tested ideas, activities you can use tomorrow, and commentary from experts in the field.

Science and Children

We all know that assessment should be ongoing, a seamless part of what we do each day in class. When done right, the outcome is rich, yielding an understanding of what students know and can do while allowing us to help them fill in the gaps and then build on their knowledge. This issue offers helpful strategies for developing effective, insightful assessments that support you as you develop instruction.
Featured articles (please note, only those marked “free” are available to nonmembers):

• … And Action!
• Free: Assessing for Achievement
• Crystal Clear Assessment
• Free: Editor’s Note: Seamless Assessment
• Scoring a Goal for Learning
• Seeing the Science
• Simply Performance Assessment
• Full Table of Contents

Science Scope

Today’s students are bombarded by news not only in print but on screens everywhere around them. Now, more than ever, they need help in analyzing and critiquing the information that they are consuming. This issue is filled with strategies for developing critical consumers of science. We hope you’ll use these activities and lessons to remind students that just because something has been published, doesn’t mean it’s true!
Featured articles (please note, only those marked “free” are available to nonmembers):

• Free: Building Science Literacy by Reading Science News
• Free: Editor’s Roundtable: Developing Critical Consumers of Science and Engineering
• Engaging Middle School Students in the Analysis and Interpretation of Real-World Data
• Evaluating Scientific Arguments With Slow Thinking
• Human Impact on Water Quality: Conducting Inquiry Activities With Cyber Databases and ICTs
• Increasing Science Vocabulary Using PowerPoint Flash Cards
• Saturn, Science, and Cross-Curricular Literacy Standards
• Student-to-Student Collaboration and Coming to Consensus
• Full Table of Contents

The Science Teacher

Last month’s issue looked at the impact of the newly released Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) on chemistry instruction, focusing on the first physical science standard, “Matter and Its Interactions” (HS-PS1). This issue, focused on physics and physical science, will consider the NGSS‘s other high school physical science standards: Motion and Stability (HS-PS2), Energy (HS-PS3), and Waves and Their Applications in Technologies for Information Transfer (HS-PS4). Each standard relates performance expectations to disciplinary core ideas, crosscutting concepts, and scientific and engineering practices. This issue brings together several articles on physics that will help science teachers meet the challenges of today’s classroom.
Featured articles (please note, only those marked “free” are available to nonmembers):

• Free: Editor’s Corner: Physics Instruction in the Era of the NGSS
• Inexpensive Equipment for the Physics Classroom
• Physics Portfolios
• Rethinking Failure
• Toying Around
• Free: What Happens When You Flip a Switch?
• Full Table of Contents

Journal of College Science Teaching

Read how the implementation of student-centered learning in introductory biology classes is being facilitated by the use of faculty learning communities at a large state university. Can web-based, collaborative annotation tools improve student participation and learning in academic settings? See the results of one study that focused on the Nota Bene tool. And in a study described in this issue, high school and undergraduate research students taking part in 10-week summer research programs were surveyed to determine their understanding of key concepts in science ethics and whether their understanding changed over the course of their programs.
Featured articles (please note, only those marked “free” are available to nonmembers):

• Free: Editorial: Rattled on the Reviewing Stand
• Free: Implementing Pedagogical Change in Introductory Biology Courses Through the Use of Faculty Learning Communities
• Light, Brain, and Action: An Introductory, Interdisciplinary Course on Optogenetics for Undergraduate Students
• Online Reading Informs Classroom Instruction and Promotes Collaborative Learning
• Reforming an Undergraduate Environmental Science Course for Nonscience Majors
• Research and Teaching: An Investigation of the Evolution of High School and Undergraduate Student Researchers’ Understanding of Key Science Ethics Concepts
• Research and Teaching: Blooming, SOLO Taxonomy, and Phenomenography as Assessment Strategies in Undergraduate Science Education
• Scientists’ and Teachers’ Perspectives About Collaboration
• Transformative Research-Based Pedagogy Workshops for Chemistry Graduate Students and Postdocs
• Full Table of Contents

What is the purpose of an assessment? The featured articles in this issue show assessment as a true part of the instructional process, not an add-on to get a score for a grade. As I read the articles, I was impressed at how the assessments were designed to match the learning goals and the instructional content.
This approach to assessment is described in Assessing for Achievement.* The authors show how formative assessments can be included in each phase of the 5E Instructional Model during a lesson on mixtures and solutions. The authors include samples of student handouts, and their chart showing examples of assessment for each phase of the Model is a wonderful resource for any teacher and any topic. [SciLinks: Mixtures, Solutions] Is It Melting?* (Formative Assessment Probes) has a tool for examining students’ ideas about physical changes in matter (and has an interesting discussion of the difference between melting and dissolving). [SciLinks: Physical Changes, Dissolve]
The first paragraph of Crystal Clear Assessment* should be required reading for educational decision-makers, including the sentence “An effective teacher creates a student-centered learning experience that links essential concepts and skills to students’ current understanding and natural curiosity about the topic.” The authors apply their understandings about students and learning to a 5^th grade chemistry unit, using student-designed experiments as a summative activity (rubrics are included). [SciLinks: Physical Properties of Matter]
During a lesson on simple machines, the students featured in Simply Performance Assessment* used basic, inexpensive materials to demonstrate their understanding and use their creativity. The article includes rubrics, a list of materials provided to the students, cooperative learning roles for each team, and photos of some final projects. If you need more background, this month’s Science 101 column is What is the Physics Behind Simple Machines? [SciLinks: Simple Machines]

Do you have students who love to “perform” in class? The authors of …And Action!* describe a skit their students created to show their understanding of electricity. The skit also showed off their skills in writing and performing as a way of communicating. The article includes rubrics, photographs of students in action, and a discussion of how these skits were learning and assessment opportunities. [SciLinks: Magnets]
As the authors of Seeing the Science note, English language learners have two challenges in the science classroom: learning science and learning English. They describe a rubric they developed to assess ELL students’ written observations and include examples of student work. The article also includes strategies for supporting these students as writers and scientists. The unit focused on plants, but the rubric could be modified for other topics. Speaking of plants, this months Teaching Through Trade Books column, Pondering Plants*, has trade book and lesson suggestions for engaging K-2 and 3-5 students in a study of parts of a plant, observing plant growth, and investigating factors that affect plant growth. [SciLinks: Factors Affecting Plant Growth, How Do Plants Grow?, Parts of a Plant]
Models (designing, developing, and using) are an important features of the NGSS. This month’s Engineering Encounters column describes how to capitalize on elementary students curiosity and enthusiasm for dropping things (in this case, parachutes!] Who wouldn’t enjoy and learn from this type of activity? And this month’s Early Years column, Are They Getting It?* also has an engineering focus in which students experience a variety of materials and then design a container for food items. The article and lesson note that formative assessment can be as basic as watching students at work and interacting with them with open-ended questions.  [SciLinks: Engineering Structures]
The kindergarten class in Scoring a Goal for Learning used a soccer analogy to guide their teamwork toward meeting a learning goal. The lesson included activities for students to reflect, observe, record, and discuss—all of which are opportunities for formative assessment by teachers (and self-assessment by students). The author of The Sun Is a Star? describes his experiences as a college instructor with a group of third-graders and their misconceptions. He offers suggestions for  using these misconceptions and misunderstandings as opportunities to help students “develop their capacity to make sense of scientific ideas.”
* Many of these articles have extensive 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.

Join the #NSTA13 Charlotte Twitter contest! If you’ll be attending the National Science Teachers Association’s Conference on Science Education in Charlotte, NC, November 7–9, 2013, tweet for a chance to win NSTA Gear or a $50 Gift Certificate to the onsite Science Store at the Charlotte Convention Center. Tweet the answer to the question “What session/exhibit/talk did you like best at NSTA’s conference in Charlotte?” and put #NSTA13 into your tweet. Those who tweet between 9:00 a.m. ET, Wednesday, November 6, and 2:00 p.m. ET, Friday, November 8, 2013 will be eligible to win. Winners will be selected randomly and must be in the onsite Science Store in the Charlotte Convention Center at 3:30 p.m. ET, Friday, November 8, 2013 to win. Here are the terms and conditions.

I’m a new elementary teacher, and I love seeing how students get excited doing hands–on science activities. But the students can get out of hand and I have a hard time focusing them on the activity. Any advice on channeling their enthusiasm with good classroom management would be great!
—Carolyn, Hartford, Connecticut
Most students of any age enjoy being active mentally and physically. As you noted, the key is to capitalize on the enthusiasm of your students in productive ways.
It’s important that students understand a science activity is as much of a learning event as a worksheet, lecture, technology application, or teacher-led discussion (and probably more so). You want them to enjoy the activity, talk with each other, and get up out of their seats (if appropriate), but students need to understand that doing the activity is purposeful and not “free” time. So before they get started, introduce the purpose of the activity and emphasize what students are expected to produce as a result (e.g., a report, a table or graph, a drawing, a model, a list of questions, a summary, or new ideas to share). For example, you could introduce an activity with “Can you remember a time when your heart was beating really fast? [discuss] Today we’re going to explore how your heart rate changes with physical activity. During the investigation you’ll collect data in your notebooks, and then we’ll compare and discuss our findings.” Remind students of any safety issues.
Before the class period, gather all of the materials and make them accessible for students. I found it helpful to have a numbered tray for each group stocked with necessary supplies and an itemized list to help students inventory and return the materials. Keep additional items handy.
Teachers often assume students know how to work cooperatively, but we know assumptions are not always correct! Demonstrate or model the routines you expect (such as getting materials) and appropriate language for group work. For some classes I had to help students practice the routines. One thing that worked for me was to establish teams of 3-4 students. We changed the teams periodically, but students knew where their workstation was and who was in the group (this saved a lot of time and discussion). Each member of the team had a colored dot on their notebook: red, yellow, blue, and green. For an activity, I would say that the red dots would be the recorders, the yellow dots would be the equipment managers, the blue dots would be the question-askers, and the green dots would supervise the clean-up (substitute whatever roles you would have). For the next activity, I would change the roles, so everyone had a chance at each. The roles were clearly defined and I modeled the expectations of each.
During the activity, walk around, ask students about what they’re doing, and reinforce appropriate behaviors. This is also a good time for formative assessments of students’ skills in lab and safety procedures, measurement, and data recording. Immediately address individual students or groups who are off-task or engaging in unsafe, disruptive, or distracting behaviors. If things really start to get out of hand, stop the activity and refocus the students on the activity.
It’s hard to estimate how long a new activity will take. Give yourself and the students enough time, even if you continue the lesson the next day, to avoid rushing through it. If some groups complete the activity in less time than you thought, have some suggestions for extensions or additional ideas to investigate, rather than letting them use this as unstructured time.
Allow enough time to summarize or debrief on the activity (and clean up) before the end of the class period. This gives students time to settle down, focus on what they did, and transition to the next class.
For more ideas, see the July 2009 issue of Science Scope with the theme of Classroom Management. The articles would be appropriate for upper elementary classes, too.
Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rongyos/2686415336/lightbox/

The colors of the autumn leaves in my area call out to me for attention and to bring inside in a basket for the kitchen table. Outside I arrange them into patterns pleasing to myself. While making this ephemeral art with natural materials, artists may notice details about the materials that we might otherwise overlook—the veins visible on both sides of the leaf but bulging above the surface on one side and within the surface on the other side.


This leaf structure shows clearly in leaf rubbings and prints.  Leaf collections and drawings provide interesting mathematical and literacy tasks–counting and graphing, learning new vocabulary and writing.
Teachers can model using natural materials for creative purposes. Do you draw in the sandbox, arrange pebbles in shapes, gather sticks and build or hit them together to make a rhythm? Maybe you throw leaves into the air and dance among them as they fall or pretend to be the river and flow as you walk the school grounds.
Andy Goldsworthy is an artist who creates works with natural materials and photographs them. It is hard to describe the fascinating beauty of his work. It is further revealed in a movie about his work, Rivers and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working With Time (2001), directed by Thomas Riedelsheimer. I watched this movie in parts, each time I had a short break from work on a non-teaching day. It was relaxing to watch someone else work and fascinating to see his choices as he worked with natural materials of wood, ice, stone and water to create a sculpture that often fell apart within a short period of time. The work is often meant to be temporary—it’s part of his plan.
I wonder what young children would think of his work. While I would not plan for the children to watch the 90-minute film, I’d like to see if any would choose to watch for short periods of time if I had it playing during a work/free-play/centers time. Like pictures of interesting architecture hung in the block area to inspire children to take risks and try new build strategies, a book of Andy Goldsworthy photographs taken outside might inspire new uses of natural materials. What can you do with a red maple leaf?