Toward the end of the school year, you might be looking for a culminating activity in which students can apply what they’ve learned during the year to new situations or problems. This issue has ideas that help students investigate the big idea of the interrelationships between biodiversity and human activity–how each affects the other.
Exploring Biodiversity’s Big Ideas in Your School shows students that there’s more to studying biodiversity than reading about the rain forest or other exotic places. The activities focus on the plants, microorganisms, and invertebrates that are often overlooked in traditional activities. The authors include a simple survey, graphic organizers, and activities. [SciLinks: Biodiversity]
Testing for Toxins: Using Daphnia spp. and Table Salt integrates skills in measurement and observation with content knowledge of invertebrates and experimental design. Students use water fleas as indicators of the level of toxins in water. The authors include detailed procedures illustrated with photographs, a sample data table, a student handout, and background information. [SciLinks: Bioassay, Daphnia]

Sometimes it’s difficult in the classroom to conduct a long-term study. The authors of Ecological Investigations Within an Interactive Plant Community Simulation show how simulations can be used to “experiment” with factors that affect the growth of plants. They describe a particular simulation using screen shots and its system requirements. They also describe three experiments that reflect different student roles in inquiry activities: student as research assistants, students as co-researchers, and students as lead researchers. [SciLinks: Plant Growth]
Having pHun With Soils shows a practical application for learning about acids, bases, and pH. With the context of planning and developing a wetlands restoration project, the 5E lesson guides students through a soil analysis. [SciLinks: pH Scale]
When I taught middle school science, I worked closely with our art teachers. He would have enjoyed Science Meets the Arts. This article shows that with guidance students can go beyond the traditional diorama to create realistic wildlife art. Several photographs show the finished work, which I’m sure scored high on the included rubric.
Looking for ideas for field trips? The authors of Our Watery World: Teaching Middle School Students About Biodiversity share their experiences in planning a study of a water restoration site. The 5E lesson includes a student activity sheet. Even if you live in a different type of surroundings, the lesson is very adaptable. [SciLinks: Wetlands]
Cold Scat Creamery: Using Ice-Cream-Parlor Tricks to Create Fake Scat sounds like it would be interesting to middle school “scatologists”! Using indirect evidence (the simulate scat) students explore heribivores, carnivores, and omnivores.   [SciLinks: Food Chains and Food Webs]
The Human Impact on Biodiversity: A Case Study With Corn examines issues related to biodiversity and agriculture, including economics and health. For students who are not familiar with agricultural practices, this could be an interesting look at this important crop.[SciLinks: Corn, Sustainable Agriculture]
Studying animal behavior requires more than just watching animals. Using Mathematics to Conduct Social Analyses of Bottlenose Dolphins in Science Classrooms shows how technology and mathematics are integral parts of these behavioral studies. Students use real data in their analysis and learn that mathematics is essential to biologists. The article includes a rubric and additional resources can be found in this month’s Connections. [SciLinks: Animal Behavior, Behavior and Adaptations]
 

This is exciting news! I’ve been a fan of the Everyday Science Mysteries for a long time, but it took time to cull through each volume to get the discipline-specific activities I wanted. In response to teacher demand, NSTA recently published the books for separate content areas: Physical Science, Life Science, and Earth and Space Science.

These are great open-ended stories for your students that can lead them right into hands-on science demonstrations. In addition to the many stories included in the book are detailed explanations for how to use them and why you should. Each volume presents the following:

• Theory Behind the Book
• Using the Book and the Stories
• Using this Book in Different Ways
• Science and Literacy

But what will keep you coming back to these books time and again are the engaging stories and the science concepts they illustrate. Consider these examples:

Everyday Physical Science Mysteries

• Grandfather’s Clock (Periodic motion and experimental design)
• The Crooked Swing (Engineering application of pendulums, improving a product)
• The Magic Balloon (Gas and temperature laws)

Read the free chapter: How Cold is Cold?
Everyday Life Science Mysteries

• Flowers: More than Just Pretty (Botany)
• What Did That Owl Eat? (Zoology)
• The Trouble with Bubble Gum (Health, nutrition)

Read the free chapter: Seedlings in a Jar
Everyday Earth and Space Science Mysteries 

• What’s the Moon Like Around the World? (Astronomy)
• Where Did the Puddles Go? (Evaporation)
• Here’s the Crusher (Atmosphere)

Read the free chapter: The Little Tent That Cried
One of the primary purposes of these books is to relieve the overburdened teacher from the exhausting work of designing inquiry lessons from scratch. Another stems from the idea that the use of open-ended stories challenge students to engage in real experimentation about real science content. With those goals in mind, enjoy these activities right along with your students.

On Tuesday, April 9, the final Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), a new set of voluntary, rigorous, and internationally benchmarked standards for K—12 science education, were released. For more information on this document and the release of the NGSS, please read the press release.  Also, if you haven’t yet downloaded your copy of the NGSS, PDFs of the standards are available and can be viewed based on topic or on disciplinary core idea.
As a participant at the National Conference on Science Education which was held in San Antonio earlier this month, there was much excitement and enthusiasm around the release of the NGSS which occurred the day before the conference started.  Prior to the conference, the Council for State Science Supervisors held their annual meeting and were having ongoing discussions about the standards, the National Science Education Leadership Association had a day long Professional Development Institute dedicated to the NGSS, and other organizations and associations, as well as commercial companies were buzzing about the release of the document.
The excitement was obvious and the enthusiasm contagious.  Conversations in sessions and throughout the different venues could be overheard as science educators were discussing the release of the document, the changes made since the previous draft, and the inevitable question of “what next?”
Which brings us to the question – “what next?” Now that the standards have been released, it is only the beginning of the journey. Dare I say this is where all leaders in all schools need to look directly into the faces of the educators they work with and say “engage” (sorry needed to go there with the whole Next Generation thing)?
But even with the bad reference, it is a good question – how do we engage all science educators and other school leaders in the discussion and implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards.  Everyone in the school district, corporation, business or informal setting can find a stake in and participate in the development and dissemination of resources as well as the implementation of this document.
An example of such connections that can be made from the NGSS to the English Language Arts and Mathematics Common Core Documents is shown in a Venn Diagram developed by Tina Cheuk of Stanford and focused on Relationships and Convergences Found in NGSS and CCSS ELA and Math.  This PDF was included as one of the recommended resources in the most recent issue of the Leaders Letter.  I personally plan to utilize this document in my methods classes next fall and also share it with colleagues who teach math methods and language arts methods classes.  We work on the idea of integration of subject areas already, assign a project for all seniors that requires the development of a cross curricular unit and discuss how integration can help topics be relevant and maximize instructional time.  Therefore it is my belief that this graphic is a great way to help my college students and colleagues see the connections.
NSTA has also begun to engage science educators with resources for the NGSS and has been for several months.  They have developed a guide to help science educators lead study groups to review the draft standards. Take a look at the slides from this session and download our guide. See also the

• NSTA Reports article “NSTA Stepping Stones to Help You Prepare for New Science Standards.”
• NSTA Journal Series: Exploring the Science Framework and Preparing for NGSS
• NSTA Resources: Preparing for Next Generation Science Standards

So back to the question, posed, what will you as a science educator do to engage all of your colleagues in the implantation of the NGSS?

I am a student teacher in sixth grade earth science. My question is about makeup exams.  I have several ideas, but can you suggest other systems or procedures for allowing students to make up exams?
—Dawn, San Jose, California
Student absences are a given. It’s frustrating when students miss a class (or two or three) due to illness, field trips, or family situations. It’s hard to find time for students to make up assignments, especially tests, labs, and projects.
In your note, you listed your ideas for students to make up a test when they return to school. Two important considerations regarding make-up tests are the format and content. Will you give the same test as a make-up or an alternate version? How will you ensure the alternate version assesses the same objectives as the original test?
Based on my experiences, I have some thoughts and questions on these ideas:

1. Students must schedule an appointment with the teacher to make up the exam. I suspect this is a very common strategy with teachers. But do your students have study halls or resource time during the day when they can make up work? What about before or after school? (My school had a majority of bus students, so these were not options.) If students don’t have time during the day, you could ask the student to do the test during class time when he or she returns from the absence. If the rest of the class would be distracting, the student could go to another classroom or the library (talk to your colleague beforehand to set this up). My principal also had a conference room in the office he made available for students as a quiet place to work. One drawback is that when the student makes up the test, he or she is missing what is happening in the class.

2. Take an online test or computer-based test. This option assumes students have access to the technology and you have the appropriate resources to create, administer, and view the results of an online test. Do you typically use an online format, or will you have to create this version of the test separate from a paper-and-pencil one? Where and when will the students complete this? What if other students would prefer this alternative?

3. Do a take-home test. Would this be the same test or an alternate version? Do students who take the test in class have access to their notes, the textbook, the internet, or each other? If not, how will you regulate what happens at home when these resources are readily available? What is the time frame for completing it? What about other students who would like this option?

4. Substitute a project in place of the exam. If you do this, you’ll have to be careful that the project reflects the same learning objectives as the traditional test. For example, if your test focuses on recall of factual knowledge or written explanations but the project requires a higher level of thinking or creativity then you’re assessing different learning objectives. Decide in advance how much time to allow for the project. Would students who were not absent prefer or benefit from projects?

A strategy that worked for me was having “transition time” between units of instruction, usually a day or two. During this time, students could make up the test, revise lab reports, re-take the test (if that is an option), finish projects, or engage in extension activities.
As a student teacher, you can observe how your mentor/cooperating teacher handles this issue.
Photo:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/46632302@N06/4279477491/

The gas chromatograph, until recently, has been a founding member in the exclusive club of scientific instrumentation that lived only in the rarified air of serious scientific laboratories. Other members of the club include the electron microscope, the mass spectrometer, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and of course the cyclotron.
Below is a picture of a mass spectrometer at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Besides being wildly complex, it takes up the better part of a room, and leaves little to the engineer’s imagination given all the exposed wires, tubes, and components.



For decades, a magic box was the main thing between students and real-time data collection. The magic box went by many names including Universal Lab Interface, MultiPurpose Lab Interface, Serial Box Interface, LabPro, LabQuest, GoLink, LabQuest Mini, and LabQuest2. But in all cases, the excitement over the interfaces provided students with connectivity to instrumentation that in most cases was possible through other means albeit filled with limitations. It has been a while since truly illusive classroom measurements have become possible, and the Mini GC moves the inquiry excitement beyond the interface and into the instrumentation.

I noticed the first hints of a change in the winds of gas chromatography, or GC for short, a couple years after the terror attacks of 9/11. In discussion with a local hazardous materials team I learned that a suitcase-sized GC was onboard their truck. I just had to see it and learn about its operation. A few caveats however. First, the “suitcase” was huge and heavy, but did have a handle and hinges like a suitcase. Second, the suitcase GC cost over $100,000. Third, it was not fast or easy to use, maintain, nor inexpensive to operate. Since that time, GCs have dropped in price and size and increased in speed and number of features, but still a $55,000 13kg suitcase is out of reach of almost every high school. But drop a magnitude and the science teacher’s day just got brighter. What about a $1800 1.3kg GC that can communicate with an iPad? Now we’re talking!
The Vernier Mini GC Plus not only opens up a brave new world of high school/college-level instrumentation, but pushes the envelope of student expectations into uncharted territory; a new intellectual playspace from which there is no turning back.

I belive the Mini GC marks a conceptual change is the dedication to science teaching by a technology company. Many of us are quite happy, overwhelmed perhaps, with all the available probeware, sensors, interfaces, and output options, but the arrival of the Mini GC, whether intentional or not, has raised the bar of imagination for anyone on the delivery or receiving end of high school science.
In a nutshell, the Mini GC Plus is a real gas chromatograph that is smaller and lighter than a six-pack of pop (or soda if you live in that region of the US). The Mini GC does have some limitations in the types of samples it can process, but the mechanics and workflow are true GC.
The Vernier Mini GC Plus connects via USB to a computer running LoggerPro3, or to a LabQuest. If used with an LabQuest 2, the datastream from the Mini GC can be wirelessly collected and analyzed on an iPad running the Graphical Analysis App or viewed in a web browser.

 

 
An entire GC run can take as little as five minutes, or much longer if complex compounds are analyzed. The steps are basic since the instrument does the initial work (which is much of the magic of the elite instruments of science). When connected to Vernier software, the GC is autodetected and identified as such, and a window filled with setting choices appears. A couple microliters of a liquid are injected into the GC’s port at the same moment that the data collection run is started. As the volatiles are cooked off in the GC’s oven, a signal of concentration and duration is processed into a spike or spikes on a graph. From that point the statics features of the software can be used for further analysis.
The Mini GC, according to Vernier, “is an instrument for separating, analyzing, and identifying substances contained in a volatile liquid or gaseous sample. The Mini GC Plus can detect and distinguish between families of compounds, including alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, aromatic hydrocarbons, carboxylic acids, esters, ethers, and nitriles.”
A GC operates by heating an extremely small amount of a liquid whereby the individual compounds in the liquid separate out over time yielding both definable characteristics and percentages of the total amount of material analyzed. By cross-referencing the results with knowns, specific compounds and mixtures can be identified.
A webpage at Oregon State University describes this process well as the process being, “similar to a running race where a group of people begin at the starting line, but as the race proceeds, the runners separate based on their speed. The chemicals in the mixture separate based on their volatility. In general, small molecules travel more quickly than larger molecules.”
The workflow for analyzing acetone with the Mini GC, the LabQuest2 and an iPad is presented in the video below recorded at the Vernier exhibitor booth at the 2013 NSTA National Conference in San Antonio, TX.
Now that the Mini GC has raised the high school classroom science teaching bar to what was once an unimaginable level, we can only hope that other members of the exclusive scientific instrumentation club will be available for the cost of less than two football helmets (the Head Impact Telemetry System kind of football helmet, of course.)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0tBIW-hV9I[/youtube]
 

A pile of sand, a sandbox or a sensory table full of sand are tools for imaginative play, sensory exploration and science investigations.  In the April 2013 issue of Science and Children, the Early Years column, I wrote about how children wondered what made a series of cone-shaped pits in a line in the sandbox. Their question came after a long period of unstructured play and it inspired an investigation into how water can move sand.
As children work with dry and wet sand, they notice and make use of the differences due to the properties of water:

• Wet sand sticks together and can be made into deep holes and tall “mountains.” Footprints and other impressions are easy to make and see in wet sand.
• Dry sand can slide off a shovel and flow into a hole or fill a bucket.

The water molecules adhering to sand grains and each other aren’t visible to the children but they can explore this property, and think about how that is the same or different from the way other materials behave.
Some teachers bury small objects, such as shells, for children to discover while digging. In nature, sand and other sediments cover and bury objects and previously laid down layers of sediment.
Using a magnifier children can see the shape of the sand grains and notice different colors.
Children may notice the temperature differences between sand in direct sunlight and sand in the shade.
Impressions made by feet or objects can be filled with wet plaster of Paris (mixed by an adult in a plastic bag) and later pulled out of the sand to reveal the cast of the shape. Some fossils are formed when the space that a dead plant or animal occupied is filled with minerals over time.
Early childhood programs that have a water source that can be used with the sandbox provide an opportunity for children to create and observe water flow. As children work, ask them to tell you what they notice is happening. Record their words, have them write or draw about their observations. This documentation, along with their recollection of the experiences, is their evidence for any statements they make about the properties of sand and the force of moving water. Talking about what they observe is an important part of learning. Sharing their ideas about why and how is part of “doing science.”
These early childhood investigations and experiences support later learning about properties of liquids, engineering design, earth science concepts such as erosion and sedimentation, energy, forces and motion, and systems. Take a look at the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) for K-grade 2 and see how the performance expectations (and the practices, core ideas and crosscutting concepts they were developed from) are supported by sandbox play and investigations. The NSTA has guides to the NGSS to help us use them in teaching children from early childhood and up.

The 2013 National Science Foundation (NSF) report Women, Minorities, and Persons With Disabilities in Science and Engineering indicates that “U.S. citizens and permanent residents earned higher numbers of science and engineering (S&E) doctorates in 2009 than they did in 1999. Since 2008, they’ve earned more doctorates in S&E fields than in non-S&E fields.” In 2010, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights issued the  Encouraging Minorities to Pursue Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Careers briefing.
These efforts indicate that more and more high school science teachers are and will be teaching students with disabilities in advanced science classes. If you teach Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), or honors science courses, you are likely experienced and knowledgeable about science, but you may have little or no experience with special education. Conversely, many special education teachers have little or no experience in teaching advanced science courses.
In their newly published book, Including Students With Disabilities in Advanced Science Classes, authors Lori Howard and Elizabeth Potts explain that advanced or accelerated courses are not usually team taught with a special education teacher and that those teachers may not have ready access to special educators to share strategies for fostering success for those students with disabilities.
This book is a unique resource for teachers of advanced science courses. The authors break down the essentials as follows:

• Basic Special Education Terms and Laws
• Working with the Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) Team
• Classroom Considerations: Behavior and Instruction
• Labs
• Assistive Technology and Your Classroom

The openness and willingness of teachers to welcome students with disabilities into the classroom is often identified as a key component for student success. As I read this book, I wondered what teachers facing this situation for the first time would be most concerned about. If  you have already taught students with disabilities in your advanced science classes, how would you advise someone to prepare? What was your experience?
Note: This book is also available as an e-book.