I’m an elementary teacher and I’m thinking of taking the Praxis test to be certified to teach science in middle school. It has been many years since I was in high school and college, and I only took the basic science classes. Could you suggest resources to help me prepare for the test?
—Twyla, Mississippi
I shared your question with a colleague who had been an elementary math department chair, but decided to make the switch to middle school when she was ready for a new challenge. She said preparing for the math test was a good professional development experience. (Her school district awarded her professional development hours for her independent study). She had a few suggestions.
First of all, familiarize yourself with the test. The Educational Testing Service (ETS) website has a section on the middle school science exam with a test blueprint, a list of topics, and sample questions. You can download a PDF so you can add notes as you prepare. Prioritize the list of topics into those you’re most familiar with, those you need to review, and those you’re unfamiliar with.
For this last category, you could go to NSTA’s Learning Center online and look at the list of Science Objects. These are online content modules for elementary, middle, and high school topics (they take about two hours to complete and they’re free). Use the middle or high school ones to review the content on the Praxis list. For example, for the Praxis topic Electricity and Magnetism, there are three Science Objects on Electric Charges, Electrostatics and Current Electricity, and Electromagnetism. NSTA’s SciLinks has collections of webpages on a variety of topics, too.
I personally have never taken a Praxis exam, so I posed your question via social media sites (Twitter, Facebook, the NSTA Listserve, and the Middle School Portal 2). Our colleagues have other suggestions for you:

• “Use the Sciencesaurus Handbook (the green version is for middle school)”—George, who teaches a science methods course, via the NSTA Listserve

• “I used the ETS books as more of a topic guide—I went through the book looking for topics I thought I should brush up on and then studied those topics via online websites.” -—Cheryl via the Middle School Portal 2.

• “I went to the library and reviewed Basic Chemistry for Dummies, Basic Physics for Dummies, and Basic Biology for Dummies for about 10 hours and passed the test.” —Helene via the NSTA Listserve.

• “When I recently took this Praxis, I downloaded the online materials that were available to practice released questions. I practiced these questions often so that I was familiar with the types of questions that may be asked. I also borrowed middle grades science books and thumbed through them to refresh any topics that I felt weak in because my strength was in biology. If time permits, make your own questions to practice modeling the released ones.” —Donna via the NSTA Listserve

• “From the Praxis site you can print practice tests and advice for free. I found it useful to review the written short essay questions where they give you examples of answers that got full credit compared to answers that did not.” —Kathleen from the NSTA Listserve

• “Read ‘Science Matters’ cover-to-cover.” —Scott via the NSTA Listserve

• “What are your long-term goals? If you would ever consider teaching a high school science course, you might want to take that Praxis, assuming that a high school credential would also allow you to teach at the middle school level. That way, you would be credentialed at both levels.” —Jessica via the NSTA Listserve

• “Read all three of the constructed-response (essay) questions first and choose the shortest ones first so you don’t run out of time. Also, the online info suggests 90 minutes for the multiple choice and 30 minutes for the essay questions. I used 60 min for the MC and needed all 60 min for the three essays.” —Anonymous from the NSTA Listserve

From my experiences in graduate school, having a study group can be very helpful. Go online via NSTA’s social media sites or the Middle School Portal 2 to ask if any one else is studying for the test and form an online study group. Or check around to see if any local colleges or other school districts have Praxis prep courses.
Keep a journal of how you prepared. When you pass (notice I said “when” not “if ”), I’d be glad to post your advice on the blog site. Good luck!
 
Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mhcseattle/1111568504/

It’s a challenge for science teachers to design activities and investigations that fit into the time periods we have. But science research and investigation doesn’t always fit neatly into 45- or 60- or even 90-minute packages. (One of my challenges was a class split in half by a lunch period!). Even a full-day field trip may not often be long enough.
Much has been written in NSTA blogs and listserves about citizen science projects in which students collect, share, and analyze data as part of a larger nationwide study. Students can participate according to your schedule. These ongoing projects illustrate how real studies are longitudinal, extending over weeks, months, and years. NSTA blogs and journals have featured citizen science projects that are appropriate for students. (For example, see Citizen science: collaborative projects for teachers and their class and The Great Backyard Bird Count)
I’ve just learned of another citizen science project, this one from the North Carolina State University: School of Ants. Students use the provided kits to collect ants and send to the lab. After the entomologists there analyze the samples, the students can study maps showing the species collected. The project site has descriptions of ant species and interesting questions. The project is accepting registration for kits starting on September 1. (The kits are free, and who doesn’t have ants in the neighborhood?)
The National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE) describes the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program opportunity on the International Space Station (ISS). Each team will be provided an experiment slot in a real microgravity research mini-laboratory scheduled to fly on the ISS in the spring of 2012. According to the website, letters of commitment are due in mid-September.

Sometimes in the classroom, we have the opposite situation—small pockets of time, such as when a student says “I’m finished with [fill in the name of an activity or assignment]. What do I do now?” Or leftover time at the end of the period. Or the day before a holiday break.
If the teacher gives free time or tells the students to get busy on something, what students find to do on their own is often distracting and not related to science learning. This time is too precious to waste, so teachers provide  collections of magazine articles to read, online resources to examine (such as those found in SciLinks), or additional worksheets or vocabulary puzzles.
Some citizen science projects enlist volunteers to sift through mountains of data. These projects use bits and pieces of time (I multitask and work on some while watching late-night TV or riding the train). Here’s a new one if your students have access to a computer, tablet, or smart phone. The latest project at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology is described on their Round Robin blog  What Color Is This Bird (Help make bird ID smarter).  The Lab is engaged in developing artificial intelligence to create a bird identification tool. But to create this, input from human intelligence is needed. Some of the data will come from bird occurrence studies, but the Lab is requesting input on how people perceive colors in birds.
In the Merlin challenge,  the user is presented with a photograph of a bird and given a few seconds to study it. The photo disappears, and you’re asked to choose up to three dominant colors you observed in the bird. Then, you get a followup screen with the photo, the name of the bird, and a pie chart showing how other people responded. I’ve tried it several times (on both a laptop and a smartphone), and the birds are presented in a random order each time. I learned a few new birds, too. If you’re looking for an activity for students to practice their observation skills, this could be a good one (and they’re contributing to a real project, not just doing a worksheet). This is somewhat similar to Galaxy Zoo in which volunteers log in and classify images of galaxies.
Use the Network for Citizen Science Projects to find authentic citizen science projects to match your curriculum and the interests of your students. These range from international projects to localized ones. NASA also has many citizen science projects. Perhaps participating in one will turn on a student to a potential career!
Phot0: http://www.flickr.com/photos/glaciernps/4427417055/in/photostream/

OK—you’ve seen the adventures that students have to explore living things, but you don’t have the funds for a field trip and your school is not close to a park or other greenspace.  What to do??
Or, you’d like to have your students get some experience with microscopy, but the ones in your school are in heavy demand or perhaps many are not  in working order. What to do??
If you and your students can find a few insects, you can participate in the Bugscope project.  This project from the Beckman Imaging Technology Group at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign puts a $600,000 electron microscope under the control of K–12 students from all over the world, via the Internet. And it’s free.
I recently learned about this and took a look at the website: “You sign up, ask your students to find some bugs, and mail them to us. We accept your application, schedule your session, and prepare the bugs for insertion into the electron microscope. When your session time arrives, we put the bug(s) into the microscope and set it up for your classroom. Then you and your students login over the web and control the microscope. We’ll be there via chat to guide you and answer the kids’ questions.”
I’ve looked at some of the archives and there are several sessions already scheduled starting in a few weeks. There is a guest login to follow these sessions. I’m going to check them out.
I used to tell my students about electron microscopes and we’d look at pictures taken with one, but now through the Internet, K–12 they could get actual experiences.
Please feel free to share your experiences with similar projects that involve students in authentic experiences (especially ones in which student can participate online).
SciLinks Topics:

• Microscopes (Elementary K–4, Middle School 5–8, High School 9–12)
• Electron Microscopes

YouTube is an amazing resource, with videos on just about any topic. There are animations, videos of demonstrations that you might not be able to do in your classroom, and records of talks by famous scientists. The SciLinks webwatchers have been including them as teacher resources in SciLinks for several reasons: Some of the comments about the videos may contain inappropriate language and some of the “related ” videos suggested on the page may be irrelevant (as well as inappropriate) for the classroom. A recent Free Technology for Teachers blog describes the View Pure tool that strips away the extra “stuff” on the YouTube site, if teachers want to share YouTube videos without all of the extras.
I just discovered another source for videos. The BrightStorm site has “thousands” [their words] of video segments on topics in math and science. The science videos I looked at are not glitzy or loaded with eyepopping graphics and soundtracks with popular music. They basically consist of a teacher at a board, sometimes with an animation. There are three tabs underneath—a summary of the key points, a transcript of the audio portion, and a space for students to log in and post a question. These videos could be useful for students who miss a class, who would benefit from hearing (and seeing) an alternative explanation, or as an overview of the topic students could access outside of class.  Best of all – no ads, unrelated links, or off-color comments!  There are also resources (free) for test prep (SAT, AP, etc.) The collection is worth a look.
 
Graphic: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lwr/3556397980/

Our district has a goal for every teacher to reinforce student literacy skills. We’re struggling with this at the secondary level. Most of our students seem to have decent reading levels, and the reading specialists provide extra help for those who need it. So what can we do in science classes to improve student literacy?
—Hailey, Richmond, VA

You’re fortunate that your students are reading at or near grade level. However, in addition to sentences and paragraphs, the typical science textbook is full of colorful diagrams, photographs, flowcharts, graphs, maps, tables, and sidebars. Many of these (including animated versions) are also found in online or electronic resources. All of these are (or should be) correlated with the text: to visually represent the information, to provide additional information, to present information hard to express in words (e.g., maps or diagrams), or to illustrate how concepts are related.
Students are challenged to interpret visuals as they read informational text. Some textbooks make things even more challenging for students—referring to a graphic on a different page or using different vocabulary in the graphic. Do your students really understand the purpose of visuals and know how to make sense of them? Perhaps your school’s goal could be adapted for visual literacy in science.
The May 2011 edition of The Reading Teacher has an excellent article by Erin M. McTigue and Amanda C. Flowers on this topic. In “Science Visual Literacy: Learners’ Perceptions and Knowledge of Diagrams,”  the authors describe their efforts to understand student perceptions of visuals and how students interpret them. The study used elementary students, but I suspect some of their findings could apply to secondary students (what a great topic for a thesis or action research!). A membership in the International Reading Association is required to access the issue, so I’ll summarize their findings here. (The reading specialists in your school may have a copy.)

Students from grades 6–8 responded to four different graphic representations of the water cycle, copied from a popular science textbook series. Among their findings, the authors noted students “sometimes” or “rarely” looked at the diagrams in their textbooks and reported that the only function of the diagram was to visually represent what was in the text. Students often misinterpreted the structure of the visuals. For example, the authors shared an interview with a younger student who described the use of arrows as a way to point out interesting information on a graphic of the water cycle, not to depict movement or directionality.
The article suggests several strategies for teachers:

• Model for students how to interpret a graphic, using a think-aloud to describe your thought processes.
• Assess student knowledge of graphics through think-alouds or questions that probe their interpretations. The authors provide an interview protocol teachers can use to gauge students understanding of diagrams.
• Provide multiple representations of the same object, such as a photograph and a diagram. Help students compare and contrast what can be learned from each. (I’m reminded of the ongoing discussions among birdwatchers of the merits of line drawings vs. photographs in field guides to assist with identification).

Creating visuals is another aspect of visual literacy often used in science classes—drawing and labeling diagrams, organizing data into tables, graphing, and using graphic organizers. Knowing more about the purpose of visuals may help students make better choices when they create web pages, presentations, or videos.
Additional suggestions from the authors can be found in the article Visual Literacy in Science in the July 2010 issue of Science Scope.
This article has four brief lessons introducing students to the concept of visual literacy. These could be complementary to the “textbook tour” many teachers use to point out the purpose of text structures such as the headings and subheadings, sidebars, and summaries. This type of instruction is important, especially in the middle years, as students make the transition from “learning to read” using stories to ”reading to learn” from informational text.
If your principal needs extra convincing of the importance of visual literacy, you could cite the authors’ note that more than half of the questions on standardized tests required students to interpret graphical representations. Although helping students with visual literacy will have a far greater impact than test scores.
I have addressed other questions related to literacy in previous columns: Boosting Science Vocabulary and Science and Reading.
 
Photo:http://www.flickr.com/photos/43503694@N00/2876561266/