I’ve used some of your suggestions on class participation, but this year I have several fifth-graders who try to monopolize class discussions and often ask questions that are off-topic or beyond the scope of the lesson. Sometimes, I don’t know the answer to their questions. I hate to squelch their enthusiasm for science, but I want to give everyone a chance to participate.
—Amanda, Winston–Salem, North Carolina
We’ve all a class in which no student wants to be the first to participate, and there are many strategies to encourage participation (see the blog entry Encouraging Class Participation). But your situation is a little different. I can still see some of my “ooh-ooh” students (the sound they made as they waved their hands frantically in the air). Their enthusiasm should be celebrated, but a few overeager students shouldn’t discourage the others.
Talk to these students privately and individually. “I appreciate your enthusiasm and knowledge. But as the teacher, I have to give everyone has a chance to participate. So even if I don’t call on you, I still value your ideas and questions. But I need to listen to the others in the class, too.” A wink or slight nod in their direction will acknowledge their waving hands as you call on other students. But you’ll also have to make it very clear that any behavior or language belittling other students is unacceptable.
Sometimes students ask questions or offer comments only tangentially related to the topic (or perhaps not at all). These might be teachable moments worth pursuing. If not, use a section of a bulletin board or wall space as a “parking lot.” Ask the student to write the question on a sticky note or index card and add it to the parking lot to be addressed at a later time. Periodically, revisit the parking lot to look at the topics and respond to them. If the question relates to a topic later in the lesson or unit, add it to the parking lot and then remove it when it is addressed, thanking the student for asking the question earlier.

Keep using strategies such as wait time or calling on students randomly. Quiet responses such as a thumbs-up or holding up a paper or small white board with an answer will allow you to get feedback from everyone. Some teachers give students a limited number of “tokens” to use while participating in whole-class discussions. The tokens can be used to respond to questions, add to a discussion, ask questions, or elaborate on another student’s response. If students use all of their tokens, they must wait until the others have used theirs before participating again. The ooh-oohs will have to judge when and how to use their tokens.
If a student asks a question and you don’t know the answer, the worst thing you can do is make up answer. It’s OK for a teacher to say, “That’s an interesting question, but I’m not sure how to answer it. What do you think? Does anyone else have an idea?” If the question is related to the lesson, you could model how you would go about finding information. If it’s not related, add it to the parking lot and go on with the lesson. If the student has some extra time, encourage him or her to find information and share with the class.
How do these students relate to others in cooperative learning activities? Do they take over and try to do everything themselves? Are their teammates content to stand back and watch them? Be sure to assign roles to the members of the team and identify the official spokesperson for the group. Rotate the roles so that all students eventually have the opportunity to perform each one. Monitor the teams as they work. You may need to intervene to make sure students are participating in their assigned roles.
I once did some action research on cooperative learning in which I put the ooh-oohs in the same group for an activity. It was interesting to observe the group dynamics when no one wanted to relinquish the role of team leader. We then discussed leadership, teamwork, and what it was like to have someone try to take over your job. It was also interesting to observe the other teams and note the leaders who emerged when they had the chance.
Photo:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/rongyos/2686415336/

I had a good time at the USA Science and Engineering Festival Expo in Washington, D.C. on October 23 and 24. I was really impressed with the large number of people attending—great diversity of age, sex, ethnicity, race, language, families and individuals. I saw one of my neighbors there, a young mom with 3 kids and her mother—someone I didn’t realize was interested in science or engineering, and I saw a lot of STEM* geek t-shirts. Well attended, the festival was crowded even at 4:30 on Sunday just before closing.

*STEM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.
The number of people in attendance made it difficult for young children to get access to some booths, but by going with the flow they could see some really cool stuff. Hopefully the cool stuff will inspire children to take science classes, join science clubs, and pursue science inquiry at home and in informal settings.

My favorite exhibits were:
Dissecting the Humboldt squid–we were there before the dissection but got to touch it and learn all the external anatomy–Squids for Kids.
Making a “Puff-mobile” using (at most) 3 straws, 4 lifesavers, a 9cm x 12cm piece of paper, 2 paper clips and 50 cm of tape and then racing it by blowing it (windpower)–The Society of Women Engineers.

The non-Newtonian fluid pool where kids ran across the cornstarch and water mixture (except for the child who stopped and sank to her ankles)–Michigan Technological University.
Meeting Johannes Kepler and George Washington Carver, and Sid the Science Kid.
Other engaging booths:
The stink bug and cricket CO2 output measuring activity at NSTA was cool for preteens and up.
NASA’s 3-D Mars landscape, puzzles of the Earth, and telescope viewings of the Sun.
A giant Newton’s cradle made with volleyballs.
Ancient ice from the Arctic, sea ice, glacier ice, and permafrost ice, .
“Maggot Monet” creating art by letting flesh eating fly larvae crawl through paint drops, putting them back on the paper with forceps when they wander too far.
What did you see?
Peggy

The on-site Science Store at the Kansas City Area Conference has been bustling. Books and gear items garnering a lot of attention include John Haysom and Michael Bowen’s new NSTA Press book Predict, Observe, Explain: Activities Enhancing Scientific Understanding and Michael Klentschy’s Using Science Notebooks in Middle School. Susan Koba and Anne Tweed’s Hard-to-Teach Biology Concepts and Anne’s Designing Effective Science Instruction are topics of discussion and interest, buoyed by those authors’ workshop sessions at the conference. Lots of science teachers at the conference are sporting the conference pin, which features blinking versions of Kansas City’s iconic “Sky Stations” sculptures atop the convention center. Items from the “I Love Science” and “Science Matters” NSTA gear lines continue to be popular, as well. All of these NSTA Press books and gear items are available online at the Science Store.

The fall is my favorite season — the colorful leaves, the cooler weather, the different position of the sun that gives everything a slightly different look. For most of us, it’s also the beginning of a new school year and a good time to explore new ideas for our classrooms.
Our colleagues in the NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) and IRA (International Reading Association) have a great resource to help students with reading and writing: ReadWriteThink. I used the menu in the left margin to search on “Standard Lessons” and the theme “Science” and found a list of 54 lessons that relate science and language arts on topics such as vocabulary, reading nonfiction texts, informational writing, and critically evaluating Internet resources. You can further finetune by grade level. Many lessons have intriguing titles such as Digging Up Details on Worms: Using the Language of Science in an Inquiry Study, Digital Reflections: Expressing Understanding of Content Through Photography, and Using THIEVES to Preview Nonfiction Texts. Most of these are for K-8, although if you have high school students who are English language learners or have difficulty with high school text, you may find some helpful lessons here.
The bonus here is that if you enter a keyword, the site also accesses resources from the Verizon Thinkfinity partners. This list can be futher finetuned by grade level. I entered the keyword keyword “cell” and filtered with 9-12, science, and lessons. I got a list of 21 results, although not all were actual lessons (some were “updates” which are podcasts).

The folks at Edutopia, one of my favorite sites, have a new Home to School Connections Guide. This free document (you do need to register) has many suggestions for involving and communicating with parents and other caregivers. You may also be interested in a blog entry on the Edutopia site How to Teach Students to Think Like Scientists.

I always find something interesting and relevant in the Educational Leadership journal. For example in the October 2010 issue I found articles such as The Words Students Need, Reviving Reteaching, and Cell Phones as Teaching Tools. You don’t have to be a member to access these articles. (Thank you, ASCD!).

The SciLinks webwatchers are continually expanding the database with new resources. Check out some new entries on topics such as Ciliophora, Stoichoimetry, Chemical Safety, or Lunar Eclipses. And you can always review the Reasons for the Seasons this fall.
Photo by MLB: Central Park in the Fall.

On an appropriately blustery morning in Kansas City, the short course “Wind Energy for the Science Classroom,” led by Joe Rand of The KidWind Project in St. Paul, MN, supplied participants with background information and sample classroom lessons on the rapidly growing field of wind energy. Joe began with an overview of where the industry and the technology now are in this alternative energy area. About 2% of our energy now comes from wind, and Midwestern states like Minnesota, Kansas, and Michigan are rapidly expanding the manufacture of turbines and equipment to harness this resource. Course participants had the opportunity to then build a turbine using PVC pipe, a crimping hub, multimeter, motor, and other materials from the supplies provided. The unique element of the lesson for students is that they design the turbine’s blades out of everyday materials and then perform various blade-design experiments. Efficient blades are a key part of generating power from a wind turbine, and students learn that it takes thought and time to make good blades that function efficiently.  They can make adjustments to the blades, such as shortening them, changing the pitch, or using fewer blades to improve the performance of their turbines. KidWind has great resources and links on their website that make it easy to incorporate hands-on activities on the science behind wind energy. Perhaps today’s lessons will inspire tomorrow’s engineers and specialists in the burgeoning field of renewable energy.

Hello everyone!  I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself —I’m Teshia Birts, one of the newest members of the NSTA staff.  You may have seen the message Howard Wahlberg sent about me a couple of weeks ago and I’m really looking forward to working with the chapter/associated group leaders and staff.
I know it has been a few months since we have communicated to you through our blog.  I hope to blog at least weekly…providing you with info from the National office, but also insight and advice on association-related issues.  If you are struggling with governance, leadership development, membership retention/recruitment, etc., feel free to contact me and I will provide you with as much guidance as I possibly can.
Recently a chapter reached out to us with questions about their tax-exempt status and we were able to provide them with the help they needed.  (Want to learn more? Log in to the NSTA Communities and check out Moira Fathy Baker’s financial management presentation from the 2010 NCSE meeting.)
I will also be on the road the next few weeks attending all three NSTA Area Conferences.  If you plan to attend, please let me know or feel free to stop by the Membership Booth on NSTA Avenue.
You can always reach me at tbirts@nsta.org.  I look forward to working with all of you.  Talk to you soon!

“Whether we like it or not,” Christoph Niemann writes at the New York Times website, “human life is subject to the universal laws of physics.” He goes on to illustrate:

My day, for example, starts with a demonstration of Newton’s First Law of Motion.

It states, “Every body continues in its state of rest, or of uniform motion in a straight line…”

“…unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed upon it.”

We think you’ll enjoy reading the entire piece, tongue-in-cheekingly entitled “Unpopular Science.”

Many science curriculum guides are identifying “big ideas” (or essential questions, underlying themes, understandings) that provide context or a framework for helping students to make connections between concepts within and between subject areas. Some students are able to make their own connections, but many others may need a little assistance to get to this “aha” moment. And when that moment occurs and the light bulb goes on (to use an old metaphor), it’s a rewarding event for a teacher.
This issue focuses on suggestions to help students understand how cycles of land, air, water, air, and living things are interconnected, and how they relate to real-life events and issues.
Living in Pennsylvania, I was immediately interested in Connect the Spheres with the Coal Cycle. The article includes lots of background on the formation of coal and how the formation, extraction, and use are related in the carbon cycle (with connections to climate change and acid rain). An extensive list of websites is provided (suitable for WebQuests or other projects). More resources can be in found in the SciLinks Coal Mining.

Speaking of projects, take a look at The Take Action Project article with examples on how to help students discover their connections to nature and to turn this learning into do-able and relevant projects. Examples of connecting science to personal interests can be found in Physics Fun with Toy Cars, The Science of Soil Textures (with connections to racing, gardening, and other outdoor activities).
It’s always interesting to ask students where something comes from. The article Banning the Bottle (this month’s “Green Science entry) looks at issues related to the bottled water that is so commonly used—from the source of the water, plastics, bottling equipment and labor, transportation, and recycling vs. disposing in landfills. Students can see how even as something as mundane as a throwaway water bottle is connected to various processes.
Even a class activity such as a test can be considered a cycle, as described in the “Teacher’s Toolkit” article Strategies for the Meaningful Evaluation of Multiple-Choice Assessments. The author describes each step in the process, from sharing tips for test taking, scoring, analyzing errors (on the part of both teachers and students), which can lead to reteaching or revising the test as the cycle continues to the next unit. The process described by the author is a teacher-friendly (and student-friendly) analysis, and several graphics illustrate the process.
Transporting Students Into Thin Air shows how students can experience the connections between science and communications skills (reading, writing, discussion) and includes examples of student work (which I always like to see) and a “grading” sheet. Taking the Time to Read Aloud also illustrates connections with science and reading, showing how middle-schoolers are not too old to enjoy and learn from teacher read-alouds. The author includes some suggested materials, and NSTA Recommends would have more ideas for appropriate trade books to share with students. SciLinks also has a list of online resources related to reading and writing in science.
NSTA’s SciLinks has several categories at the middle school level that have online resources for learning about cycles and connections:

• Nitrogen Cycle
• Rock Cycle
• Water Cycle
• Carbon Cycle
• Cycles of Matter
• Cell Cycle
• Lunar Cycle

Finally, the article Finding Learning Beneath the Surface: Monitoring Student Progress with Science Practices Learning Progressions is definitely connected to the processes describe in this month’s Science and Children. The author describes a way to assess students’ ability to observe, measure, graph, diagram, investigate, design, explain, analyze, and model. The progressions are in four levels, ranging from “beginning” to “proficient.” This looks like an excellent way to diagnose student needs and to help students self-monitor their development of inquiry process skills.