This is my first year of teaching in a middle school, and I am really struggling with paperwork. Currently I am spending all my time checking papers to make sure my students are actually doing their homework and grading worksheets, lab reports, and tests/quizzes. On top of that, I’m planning each day as it comes. How can I get away from my desk once in a while? I need some balance in my life!
—Nicole, Newbury Park, California
The first year you teach a subject is the hardest, especially for a new teacher. But even experienced teachers find it challenging to plan lessons for a new course. Be sure your lesson plans are detailed and keep a file of assignments, handouts, notes, lists of resources, and assessments. At the end of the lesson, take a few minutes to reflect and annotate your plan with what went well and what should be revised. Next year, you’ll be updating rather than recreating the lessons.
One of my big “aha” moments as a teacher (with 150 students) was realizing that different kinds of assignments require different levels of attention from the teacher. Summative assessments and major projects certainly do require in-depth evaluations. However, teachers can overwhelm themselves with trying to assign points to every piece of student work. The real value of in-class assignments, homework, and formative assessments is in how they contribute to student learning, rather than how many points they’re worth.
For lab reports, I borrowed the idea of “Focus Correction Areas” from my Language Arts colleagues. Instead of reviewing the entire report, focus on one or two key areas, such as the research question/hypothesis, data tables, graphs, or conclusions. Glance through the rest of the report for glaring errors or omissions, if you like.

Differentiate between proofreading and providing feedback. Part of your rubric for major assignments could be “clarity of communication,” but correcting every spelling or usage error on every assignment takes away time from providing constructive comments related to the science goals.
In terms of homework, a few purposeful assignments are better than lots of busywork that is not directly related to the learning goals of the unit. If the assignment is to practice a skill, be sure the students have a basic understanding so they’re not practicing incorrectly. If the assignment is to prepare for the next day’s activities, be sure the students understand the purpose. Some teachers give a homework “quiz” to catch students who didn’t do it (or reward those that did), but you’ll have to decide if it’s fair to penalize students before the lesson for a misconception or an incomplete understanding.
At the beginning of a class, have the students put their homework or notebooks on their desks. As they complete a warm-up activity, walk around to scan the assignments for key items and rubber-stamp those that appear to be complete. The students can then revise their work during the class discussions or activities.
Giving students more ownership in and responsibility for their work was another “aha” moment. It’s frustrating to spend time reviewing student work and then re-reviewing it after they make corrections. For projects or writing assignments, try a peer-review process in which teams of students use the rubric to assess their own work and provide feedback to each other. The students make their revisions and then turn it in. As they’re working together, you can visit each group to get a sense of their learning and guide them through the feedback and revision processes. Having a completed assignment could be a prerequisite for this peer-review activity. In addition to saving you some time, the students can benefit from discussing their work and making their own revisions.
Use science notebooks as much as possible. Each week, review a few from each class or focus on a key assignment. Have students include their vocabulary, notes, graphic organizers, summaries, or bell-ringers and review them holistically instead of individually. During lab or small-group activities, spend some time with each group to observe their work and do a quick scan of their notebooks.
If you have access it a “clicker” system, use it for multiple-choice assessments. As an alternative to paper-and-pencil quizzes, use small white boards or half sheets of paper on which students can write and display short responses and hold them up. A brief scan of the room lets you see the responses.
Finally, take a break from the paperwork once in a while—go for a walk, read a novel, wash your car, do some yardwork, exercise, visit a coffee shop, or do something fun with your family or friends. Your health and sanity are just as important as today’s science quiz.
Add a comment if you have additional suggestions for Nicole.
 
Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/judybaxter/3310525306/

In this month’s Leaders Letter, some of the questions posted connect to STEM related activities in your area.  To start the topic off, I’d like to highlight some upcoming possible STEM initiatives that people can attend and hope that others will also include their own areas local events to help highlight STEM activities.
Being from the East Coast (Pennsylvania, to be specific), I am fortunate to be within driving distance of several states.  The first event to discuss is the Office of Naval Research’s STEM Forum which will be held in Alexandria, VA on June 15–16, 2011.  Another event that is happening on June 15th is the Pennsylvania Central Region STEM Conference which includes speakers on a variety of STEM-related topics. Information can be found at:  www.francis.edu/stemconference.html.
We all live in varied areas that offer different events.  I am sure that as leaders, we would love to hear about possible events for professional development and encourage you to include events in your local area.

Ammonia is one of the chemicals that feeds the world. No, you shouldn’t drink it from a bottle, and mixing it into your flan would be a bad idea, but about 83% of ammonia produced industrially is used as fertilizers, either as salts or as solutions, and it is estimated that fertilizer generated from ammonia sustains one-third of the Earth’s population, and that half of the protein the world eats grows from nitrogen produced from ammonia, while the remainder was produced by nitrogen fixing bacteria.

Fritz Haber and and Carl Bosch, developers of the Haber process, were the brains behind the industrial use of ammonia in the 20th century, allowing manufacturers to pull the nitrogen needed to make up ammonia out of thin air. Haber is also known as the “father of chemical warfare,” and you can read a review of a short biographical film about him if you’d like to learn a little more about this complex and controversial figure.

As you’ll learn from the Chemistry Now video, ammonia is also used in household cleaners because of its ability to break down fatty acids so surfaces may be wiped clean. It also has the handy (or problematic, depending on your point of view) tendency to vanish back into the thin air, leaving a sparkling surface behind.

We have reached the 12th week of the weekly, online, video series “Chemistry Now,” and the chemistry of the kitchen moves under the sink as a source of interesting video and lessons. As we’ve written before, please view the video, try the lessons, and let us know what you think.

 

Photo: Rae Allen

Through the Chemistry Now series, NSTA and NBC Learn have teamed up with the National Science Foundation (NSF) to create lessons related to common, physical objects in our world and the changes they undergo every day. The series also looks at the lives and work of scientists on the frontiers of 21st century chemistry.

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Video: It’s a staple of Spring Cleaning: all-purpose ammonia cleaner. “The Dirt on Ammonia as a Cleaning Agent” explains how ammonia works with water to dissolve fatty acids, like stearic acid, in greasy dirt.

Middle school lesson: the Sugar Cube Investigation allows students to understand factors that affect the rate at which a solute dissolves.

High school lesson: the Solubility and Bonding lesson describes the  relationship between types of bonding, polarity, and solubility.

You can use the following form to e-mail us edited versions of the lesson plans:

[contact-form 2 “ChemNow]

In my neck of the woods we are enjoying a consistently cool Spring with cherry blossoms and daffodils lasting longer than in most years. The sugar snap peas that the children planted in a large pot outside are about 7cm tall and while we’ve seen Cabbage White butterflies around, we haven’t found any eggs on the overwintered collard plants. 
  
  Here are a few spring science resources:
 Science Companion
Life Cycles Virtual Field Trip, “Butterflies: Larger Caterpillars” for all those Monarch butterfly watchers, and any class that is observing any butterfly or moth life cycle. Also see the science inquiry resource about Painted Lady caterpillar observation, to go with your larvae from the digital Teacher Lesson Manual on Painted Lady observation. Even if you prefer to find butterfly larvae on the larval food that you plant (collards and other broccolis family plants, and parsley, dill, and fennel for the Black Swallowtail……. 
Science NetLinks, a lesson plan on seed structure and sprouting  for preK-2.
And in print, read the National Gardening Association’s comprehensive gardening curriculum in, Garden Adventures: Exploring Plants with Young Children, by Sarah Pounders. She urges us to start small so initial enthusiasm is not exhausted before the plants mature. The first lesson is “What is a plant?”with a Plant Parts reproducible page of a pea plant.
What is your class up to? Take a look at these classes–one is following the life cycle of a chicken and another is beginning to clean up the garden to get ready for planting.
Peggy

If this issue had been published several years ago, the options for students to share their results would have been more limited. They could do “oral reports” to the class, a traditional science fair project, or the teacher could display their written work on the wall. These methods are still very good, and through technology students also have the means to share and get feedback on their work from around the world (Skype, blogs, webpages, social media, videos). But whether the sharing is high-tech or low-tech, the editor makes an excellent point …your [the teacher’s] challenge is to find outlets that offer appropriate sharing opportunities. Don’t assume students know how to do this. They must be taught how to organize their information and ideas in a variety of presentation formats. The articles in this issue present many ways for students to share, and I’ve noted the SciLinks topics that would support the content or that have suggestions for additional activities.
Two articles have ideas for tweaking the traditional science fairs to focus on communication. Have a Kids Inquiry Conference describes an effort to provide students with an opportunity for students to share using a format that replicates a scientific conference, including discussion groups and poster sessions. The authors provide a sample schedule and suggestions for guiding students through the process. A Standards-Based Science Fair puts the emphasis on the extent to which student project meet established standards or benchmarks rather than students competing against each other. The rubric (included with the article) guides students through the process of doing research. The author describes a scenario similar to the first article, in which the projects are displayed in the classrooms for visits by parents and other students. The projects are scored on how they meet the inquiry standards.

The guest editorial author, Linda Shore from the Exploratorium, describes What a copper-plated nail taught me about sharing results. She notes how the experience could have been transformed from a demonstration to inquiry, with a little assistance from the teacher. On the other hand, the students whose explanations are showcased in Explaining Electrical Circuits show a much deeper understanding of the concepts and vocabulary. The article describes how the teacher guided the students through the writing process (the rubric is included). [SciLinks: Electricity, Electric Current]
Who doesn’t like to talk about the weather? The first-grade Weather Watchers use their senses and instruments to learn about the topic. I visited a school where the young meteorologists use data from their weather station to prepare a report each day that is read on the PA system and that the principal uses to decide on outdoor/indoor recess. Delving into Disasters guides students through an investigation of weather data to find patterns and trends associated with rainfall and snowfall and with the paths of hurricanes. [SciLinks: Weather, What Is a Weather Map, Weather Instruments, Weather Forecasting, Hurricanes, Precipitation]
You can get some interesting discussions about what makes something “alive.” Is It Living? includes an assessment probe to examine students’ preconceptions or misconceptions. In the activities described in Living or Nonliving? students explore and discuss a concept that even older students struggle with. [SciLinks: Living Things, Characteristics of Living Things, Life Cycles]
Sharing Digital Data takes a seed germination inquiry project to a new level by introducing fifth-grade students to online collaboration (secondary teachers take note). It’s fascinating to see how a traditional activity can be enhanced as students learn new skills (I hope the lead photograph was digitally manipulated and not a real situation). [SciLinks: Seed Germination, Plant Growth]
After reading How does a lever work? you might be interested in helping your students learn more. Claims, Evidence, and Reasoning shows how to use an investigation to help students communicate their conclusions in the form of a claim, evidence, and reasoning (not just with levers but with any topic). The article has an example of a document that guides student thinking, along with actual student work and how the rubric was used to assess it.  [SciLinks: Levers]
Kindergarten students are not too young to share their results! Young children love to play with play dough, and in Sharing Research Results you can see what happens when they make their own. Note how the teacher guides them through using different ingredients and analyzing the results in a kid-friendly way. All About Me/All About Gary young scientists use photography and journalism to explore their surroundings. I attended a photography seminar recently, and the questions that the teacher used with these young students were the same as we were asked in the seminar (Why did we take the picture? What does it say? What makes it interesting?).
And check out more Connections for this issue (April 2011). 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.