By Mary Bigelow
Posted on 2010-11-26
NSTA Journals have published many articles related to science notebooks. Click here for a collection of articles and free book chapters that I assembled using the NSTA Learning Center’s My Resource Center tool.
Seasons Change lists many useful websites. I was reading the PDF version of the article, and when I clicked on the URLs I did not get the sites. Aha—the article is formatted into three narrow columns, and the URLs wrap around to the next line. So here are the sites mentioned in the article:
And check out the Connections for this issue. 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.
By Francis Eberle
Posted on 2010-11-23
By NSTA Web Director
Posted on 2010-11-23
Dr. Christine Royce muses about “time travel” and her recent experiences at the Sino–US Science and Education Forum in Shanghai.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Well, it’s “Back to the Future.” Just as we had all come together in singles, forming groups of two or three, so did we disperse. Due to different flights, we met in the lobby of the hotel at different times (mine being 5:45 a.m.) and were shuttled to the airport with people who were returning to the same city with us. There was no large group good bye, there was no ending group hug, but rather each of us heading back to our respective cities from whence we came. We left on Sunday morning, Shanghai time, and according to the flight itinerary we arrived an hour later Detroit time. Not quite that quick of a trip, but due to the time difference we were literally going “back to the future.” We were going “back” due to the difference in time and location of the time zones, yet we were returning to our future. More knowledgeable about our counterparts in China and with a greater understanding of the people that we met and their intricate culture which is multifaceted.
When we reached Detroit (or LA or Chicago or wherever each plane was headed) we returned to being an individual or pair headed for their own gate—to return to Wisconsin, or DC, or in my case Shippensburg. The group disbanded physically in a rather quick manner however I think that many of us will be the “sticky rice” that was referenced earlier and keep in touch. After all, each of us has a commonality that binds us together—the pursuit of excellence in science education in order to improve the education of our students whatever the level. This pursuit in itself impacts the future of not only the country in which we live—but also countries around the world as we realized by working with our friends, colleagues and counterparts from half way across the world.
Dr. Christine Royce muses about “time travel” and her recent experiences at the Sino–US Science and Education Forum in Shanghai.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
By NSTA Web Director
Posted on 2010-11-23
Dr. Christine Royce notes that there is old, and then there is old. And also “old.” China has all three, and the new as well, in a heady mix.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Today we spent the day being “tourists”—and doing all of the things that tourists do—visit sights, shop, eat in good restaurants, shop, board more busses to go to the museum, shop etc. In the past few days we had heard about the “old traditions” of schooling, approaches to instruction, and the mindset of the people as well as the new traditions related to the same topics. Jennifer at one point discussed with us how the influx of money has influenced the people of China. Today was a great example of how old traditions collided with new traditions.
The first part of the morning was a visit to the Jade Buddha Temple, which housed an extremely large Buddha made of a single piece of Jade (thus the name). When entering the temple, it was packed, people purchasing incense of sheets to write wishes on and burn; others folding “money” or at least paper meant to represent money to burn for their ancestors in the afterlife; others were praying. Contrasted with these old traditions, were the new ones—people rushing back and forth snapping pictures; those moving in and out of the myriad of shops. Where old meets new would have been a way to describe the clothing that people wore also—some young people wore stiletto heels on knee high boots where some people who could be my grandparents wore the flat shoes and attire that was reserved and modest. Somehow all of them did have a similar purpose for being there—remembrance of their ancestors and the continuation of sending wishes and good will to them in the offerings they made.
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Dr. Christine Royce notes that there is old, and then there is old. And also “old.” China has all three, and the new as well, in a heady mix.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
By Mary Bigelow
Posted on 2010-11-22
When I read The Inquiry Flame, I had a flashback to my methods course. Our introduction to teaching via inquiry was with a candle. This enhanced version shows how teachers can scaffold (or guide) the process to help students design and organize their experiments. The article includes several graphic organizers that could be used in other contexts.
In the Science 2.0 column Instant Inquiry, the author describes the value of studying slow-motion images and directions for using high-speed cameras to create these images as part of student investigations. A useful site on photographic images is Molecular Expressions from the Florida State University. Many of the individual sections are in the SciLinks database already, but the main site shows the extent of the collections.
I know a teacher who uses Headline Science as supplemental readings for students. These brief updates describe what is being learned from current research projects. For many of these topics, there are related SciLinks if students are interested in more information:
Have you been reading this year’s Science & Children? Each issue is themed around aspects of inquiry learning. It’s great to read about what younger students are doing.
Check out the Connections for this issue (November 2010). Even if the article does not quite fit with your lesson agenda, this resource has ideas for handouts, background information sheets, data sheets, rubrics, etc.
By Francis Eberle
Posted on 2010-11-22
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By NSTA Web Director
Posted on 2010-11-20
Dr. Christine Royce describes her visit to the ancient city of Zouzhuang as a member of the NSTA contingent at the Sino-US Science and Education Forum.
Friday, November 19, 2010
“Be like sticky rice … not loose noodle.”
You probably think I have lost it by now. What could she possibly be thinking? Well, this was the quote of the day from our tour guide Jennifer on our bus. Today was a field trip day. Well, the entire experience could be considered a field trip, but today was a day where we loaded the buses and headed out of Shanghai to see an “old town,” which we were to compare to Shanghai as a “new town.”
The group set off this morning to Zhouzhuang, which is a water city about an hour and a half west/southwest of Shanghai. It was described to us as being a “very beautiful city” with many bridges and the river. When reading about it in tour books and on the web, the city is actually about 900 years old and has many “historic” type homes. In total, there are 14 bridges in Zhouzhuang, which was made famous by a painting which was purchased by some American gas or oil tycoon. We watched the sites go by as the bus departed the city for the suburbs which seemed to be a continuation of the city—hundreds of towering structures that were apartment buildings; we watched as we entered a rural area which did have agricultural aspects—rice paddies and other types of plant cultivation; and finally we watched as we entered this “small” town which really looked more like a small city.
We listened as Jennifer gave us information about our time frame, where the facilities where (and yes most of the stalls had squatties) and finally directions for following her and her waving yellow flag. At that point, she gave us the initial directions as we were to progress directly to the boats for a boat ride through the city and to the entry point into the town—which has a charge. Her specific directions—you will have time to shop later, do not stop and look or take pictures—“be like sticky rice—not loose noodle.” Many of us decided that was the phrase of the day and was a perfect way to describe her expectations.
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Dr. Christine Royce describes her visit to the ancient city of Zouzhuang as a member of the NSTA contingent at the Sino-US Science and Education Forum.
Friday, November 19, 2010
By Mary Bigelow
Posted on 2010-11-20
My ninth-grade students are struggling with lab activities. For example, they don’t seem to know how to formulate a hypothesis or write a conclusion. When I asked them to graph the data, I saw lots of blank looks on their faces. What can I do?
—Jeff, Baltimore, Maryland
Your question brings back memories. When I started teaching, I was excited about doing inquiry-based investigations. However my middle school students were similar to yours in their understanding of hypotheses and graphing. They were also confused about observations and inferences, and their conclusions were simply summaries of their observations. I did a lot of reflecting: Am I expecting too much of middle school students? Are my students academically clueless? Are they unmotivated? Are my explanations and guidance insufficient? Am I hopeless as a teacher?
At the secondary level, it’s common for teachers to expect students to be experienced in essential science skills: questioning, observing, summarizing, formulating hypotheses, drawing conclusions, notetaking, graphing, and solving problems. If students do not measure up to these expectations, some are quick to blame the teachers in the earlier grades. So high school teachers question the middle school program, middle school teachers question the elementary program, and we all point at parents. Yet when students walk through our classroom doors, we have to take them as they are. It’s our role to set appropriate and challenging learning goals, and then work with students to meet the goals.
In situations such as you describe, it could be that in earlier grades the students did cookbook activities where the procedures were already determined and the data tables already set up. Perhaps their teachers used different vocabulary (e.g., “wrap-up” instead of summary). The equipment they used, such as balances or microscopes, may have looked different. They may have learned skills in isolation with few opportunities to apply the skills in new situations. Students moving into the school may have had different experiences in their former schools.
Once you have determined what skills your students need to develop, you can begin to “scaffold” their learning in three stages: focused instruction with examples, guided practice in a variety of contexts, followed by opportunities to choose and use the skills independently (even if they make a few mistakes). I observed a teacher doing a “think-aloud” as she modeled how to graph data from an investigation. As she talked through the process, she showed students how to set up the graph and add data points, but it was a not a lecture. She asked herself questions and deliberately made some mistakes (and corrected them). It was as if the students could peek inside her mind as she worked through the process. When she paused in her thinking, the students volunteered their own suggestions. In the second part of the investigation, the students worked in groups to create similar graphs as the teacher monitored each group and offered suggestions and feedback.
Guiding questions, prompts, and templates can also help students focus their thinking. For hypotheses, the template If [I do this], then [this] will happen can show students that a hypothesis is not just a guess. LabWrite from North Carolina State University has templates and resources for each part of an investigation. The site would probably be overwhelming for ninth graders, but it could be a valuable resource as you divide lab reporting into manageable chunks to introduce to your students. Create A Graph from the National Center for Education Statistics is a student-friendly online tool for designing several common types of graphs. The finished graphs can be saved for additional editing, printed, or downloaded (as PDF files).
Processes or templates appropriate in younger grades may need to be “kicked up a notch” in the upper grades. For example, in the younger grades notetaking may focus on particular strategies, while at the upper grades, modeling how different strategies are appropriate for different tasks may be helpful to students. If you can project a copy of a text page, you can model how you would decide what to highlight and how you would add margin notes or questions.
Ask students to describe and reflect on their learning in science notebooks, they’ll have a record of what they did to meet the learning goals. This can be the foundation for new skills in their next course.
Graph: http://www.sciencenotebooks.org/student_work/
My ninth-grade students are struggling with lab activities. For example, they don’t seem to know how to formulate a hypothesis or write a conclusion. When I asked them to graph the data, I saw lots of blank looks on their faces. What can I do?
—Jeff, Baltimore, Maryland
By Francis Eberle
Posted on 2010-11-19
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By Francis Eberle
Posted on 2010-11-19