By Mary Bigelow
Posted on 2012-02-22
Given the mild winter weather that we have been enjoying will make it even easier to participate as a citizen-scientist in the GLOBE at Night project to preserve dark skies. The GLOBE at Night project is a global effort to raise awareness of the impact of light pollution by inviting citizen-scientists to measure their night sky brightness by counting the visible stars within the constellation of either Orion the Hunter or Leo the Lion. The observation should be made during the evening hours and only during certain weeks including this week and two other weeks this winter and spring. The star count observation is then reported to the Globe at Night website from a computer or smart phone. Last year participants made more than 66,000 observations from 115 countries.
I encourage the readers to join others around the world by participating in the Globe at Night campaign this year. Not only will you contribute relevant data to this global investigation but you may also find that spending some time outside looking at our starry sky is a rather pleasant past time. For more information about the project or light pollution please visit the Globe at Night web site.
By Claire Reinburg
Posted on 2012-02-22
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By Mary Bigelow
Posted on 2012-02-18
By Peggy Ashbrook
Posted on 2012-02-17
Science learning can occur whenever children have the opportunity to pursue an answer to a question. If you wait until it’s your turn in the science lab, the questions that can be asked may be limited to the materials available there and the length of the 30-50 minute session. Add science and engineering learning to your daily routine or schedule and put the related jobs, such as watering plants or observing animals, on your job chart.
Here are a few kindergarten and preschool daily schedules. Click here to see them in detail.
Send me a photograph of your schedule or comment below to share how science best happens in your program.
Peggy (email is all one word, no spaces: science is simple at yahoo dot com)
Science learning can occur whenever children have the opportunity to pursue an answer to a question. If you wait until it’s your turn in the science lab, the questions that can be asked may be limited to the materials available there and the length of the 30-50 minute session. Add science and engineering learning to your daily routine or schedule and put the related jobs, such as watering plants or observing animals, on your job chart.
By Teshia Birts, CAE
Posted on 2012-02-16
Over the past few days, I have been keeping an eye on an interesting thread on an association discussion forum – the topic: whether committees are still relevant especially for smaller organizations like chapters and special-interest groups.
In recent years, organizations of all sizes have taken a closer look at the need for formal committees in their governance structure. With an economy still in recovery and the resource of time being more precious than ever, apathy is at an all-time high when asking members to volunteer for anything.
If you manage or lead a smaller organization, like a chapter or associated group, you may not have enough “bodies” (members) to entice to become officers, committee chairs or committee members.
For this reason, many organizations are doing away with formal committees (other than the ones required legally – like budget/finance, judicial affairs and nominating) and are moving toward a more ad hoc model. Associations are using work groups, task forces and volunteer/talent pools more than ever. Why?
Organizations like the Oncology Nurses Society, International Facility Management Association, Institute of Food Technology, American Society of Association Executives and others have incorporated some form of “adhocracy” into their volunteer management program and they are working with their chapters and special-interest groups to do the same.
If these models sound interesting, remember there is a LOT to consider before diving in:
Keep in mind, there are many reasons members don’t volunteer for their professional organization. As mentioned in the book, The Decision To Volunteer, the lack of short-term assignments for volunteers falls right behind (1) not having enough information about volunteer opportunities available, and (2) “no one ever asked me.” Many organizations have found their volunteer pool grow leaps and bounds when they promote activities with shorter time commitments (that are predetermined) — combine that with detailed descriptions requesting specific skill-sets and you will be take your volunteer program to a whole new level.
Want to learn how your state ranks in volunteering efforts overall? Visit www.volunteeringinamerica.gov.
How does your chapter or associated group manage committee activities? What do you do well and how can you improve?
By Mary Bigelow
Posted on 2012-02-14
To allow more time for test preparation in reading and math, the principal at our elementary school is requiring that teachers cut back on (or even eliminate) science activities. She says it’s just as effective to integrate more nonfiction books on science topics during reading class. How can we convince her of the value of hands-on investigations and activities?
—Catherine, Texas
Even before this current emphasis on test scores, science was often shortchanged in terms of scheduled time. The high-stakes nature of these tests (and the consequences for any school falling short of the goals set by legislators or politicians) is driving schools to make short-sighted, counterproductive decisions about class time.
You could try to impress upon your principal that science is more than a collection of facts to read about. Most standards and framework documents in science have a focus on processes and practices such as asking questions, developing and using models, obtaining and communicating information, analyzing and interpreting data, and communicating information. I’m curious how your principal expects students to achieve these skills (and learn the content) that are tested in the upper elementary grades.
It would be interesting to see the data on which your principal made the decision to reduce time for science. I know many elementary teachers who do make time for science. In the context of investigations, their students apply their skills in reading and mathematics to new and authentic situations. Their students do a lot of writing and journaling/notebooking—and do well on the state reading and math tests.
There are those (such as your principal) who suggest science content could be integrated with reading instruction. There certainly are many interesting nonfiction books students could use in reading class, and there are students who prefer nonfiction to fiction. The teacher would have to select the materials carefully to ensure all students have access to science-related content, whether in classroom or school libraries or from online sources. I’m curious as to how science learning would be assessed in this case.
But I think we’re shortchanging students when we substitute reading assignments for planned and purposeful science instruction including both science content and processes such as hands-on investigations, vocabulary development, observations, writing, measuring, graphing, and questioning.
You could share guidelines on preschool and elementary science investigations from the NSTA Position Statement: The Integral Role of Laboratory Investigations in Science Instruction:
Perhaps you could suggest your principal visit science classes in which students are engaged in planned and purposeful science activities. Highlight the math and reading skills students are using, as well as the science processes. NSTA’s Science & Children journal has many ideas for activities appropriate for elementary students., as does NSTA’s Early Years blog. But none of these activities occur in a vacuum. Virtually all of them have components that integrate reading, writing, and math.
Although your question dealt with science, I’m equally concerned that social studies, the arts, and physical education often are also shortchanged in a quest for higher test scores. We’ve been on this testing craze for 10 years, and I still don’t understand why students’ applying their reading and math skills to new and authentic situations is less important than their one-time test scores on isolated skills.
Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/benwerd/329570851/
To allow more time for test preparation in reading and math, the principal at our elementary school is requiring that teachers cut back on (or even eliminate) science activities. She says it’s just as effective to integrate more nonfiction books on science topics during reading class. How can we convince her of the value of hands-on investigations and activities?
—Catherine, Texas
By Claire Reinburg
Posted on 2012-02-13
Rather than rolling your eyes at the common student query, “Why do I need to know this?”, use it to your advantage! Yale astrophysicist Priya Natarajan wrote in the Washington Post, “if we want more Americans to pursue careers in STEM professions, we have to intervene much earlier than we imagined” to help them see connections between classroom learning and the real world. Natarajan notes that early explorations “help students understand that science and math aren’t just abstract equations, but tools we use to understand our world.” The February 2012 issue of NSTA’s Book Beat highlights resources that can help you convey to students how science literacy is relevant to understanding and solving real-world challenges facing our society.
In Front Page Science: Engaging Teens in Science Literacy, Wendy Saul and coauthors show teachers how to use science journalism techniques to help students become better consumers of, and contributors to, a scientifically literate community. The authors ask, “What might we teach students now that will help them make sense of their world 15 years after graduation?” Because students will encounter scientific, medical, and technological issues throughout their lives, they will require the skill to continually seek out and assess new information. The book offers concrete advice on how to help students recognize that science is and will continue to be everywhere—even if they don’t pursue science or engineering careers. Students then become engaged in reporting on a science current event—learning research, interview, and writing strategies along the way. February Book Beat includes links to the free chapter “Setting the Stage by Modeling” for a helpful illustration of how one teacher introduces a potential research topic to her class and models her own questioning about a recent news article. Elementary and middle school teachers might also be interested in the other free chapters linked in the issue: “Keeping Science Current” and “Extra, Extra, Learn All About It” from Science the “Write” Way, in which students find and write about a science topic in the news or create a science-based newspaper. Encouraging students to explore and write about science that’s relevant to them will not only engage them in the lesson today but will also foster an interest in staying scientifically informed for life.
By Peggy Ashbrook
Posted on 2012-02-12
Sometimes activities engage children in overlappings mathematics, science, and engineering learning. Check out Kassia Wedekind’s discussion of how she uses math centers in her kindergarten classroom.
The discussions she holds with students are central to her planning. I had some questions and maybe you will too.
Peggy