This semester, a group of students from a nearby college are participating in a study abroad program in the UK. Last week they set out to learn more about sustainable energy—in Iceland. So they are right on the scene of the current events there. What an opportunity to learn up close and personal!
The websites of the various news media have stories and images of the volcano and its impact on world travel. But if you’re looking for background information on volcanoes for yourself or your students, SciLinks can help. There are sites on Volcanoes (grades 5-8 and 9-12) and additional sites on related topics such as Volcanic Eruptions and Volcanic Zones (If you enter the stem word volcan in the search box on the SciLinks page, you’ll get a list of all the topics.) Many of the sites in SciLinks focus on volcanoes in the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” but there are sites on the earth processes that cause volcanoes, the types of volcanoes, and the hazards associated with eruptions.
Here are some of my favorites that relate to current events:

• A stunning photograph from NASA
• The Global Volcanism project from the Smithsonian, which  includes a map to locate volcanoes around the world
• Volcanoes of Iceland
• Volcano Explorer
• The Savage Earth including an animation of the anatomy of a volcano
• Volcanoes has simulations of the temperatures needed to melt rocks
• Volcano Live with daily updates
• Any health risks from volcanic ash?

This year has provided many teachable moments in earth science, from earthquakes to severe storms to the current volcanic eruption. If you need to brush up on your own knowledge, a search of the NSTA Learning Center with the topic volcano lists journal articles with teaching suggestions, books with related chapters, and “do-it-yourself” learning modules, such as the Science Objects Plate Tectonics and Earth’s Changing Surface, and archived webinars and podcasts.
Photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/sverrir_thor/4493031870/

We’re pleased to announce a new resource for science teachers: NSTA’s Book Beat, a monthly e-newsletter designed to quickly connect you with lesson and activity ideas, new resource books, free chapters, and special offers from NSTA Press.  Visit the NSTA website to read the first issue or to sign up to receive future monthly issues of this and other NSTA e-newsletters.  We look forward to hearing your feedback and suggestions!

I recently had the pleasure of connecting with Dr. Peter Veronesi. Dr. Veronesi is the Lawrence Scadden Teacher of the Year Award Chair for the Science Education for Students with Disabilities (SESD). SESD promotes science teaching and instructional material development for all students, regardless of learning level or disability. The Scadden Award, co-sponsored by Reaching the Pinnacle for Students with Disabilities, New Mexico State University and SESD, recognizes a dedicated teacher who made an outstanding contribution to science teaching for students with disabilities. 
Dr. Scadden was blinded at age five and went on to overcome significant barrier to his dreams. Scadden is internationally renowned for his contributions to the advancement of disabled people. To learn more about this award, please click here: http://www.sesd.info/scadden.htm.
Please keep me posted on what your group is doing—the success of this blog is dependent on your participation!  And remember, I’m only a few keystrokes away at aodonnell@nsta.org.

The United States has long been called a “melting pot,” a place where diverse people mixing and mingling. Learning the dominate language is a challenging part of the process, particularly when a student is trying to learn a new language and expand their content knowledge. Okhee Lee and Cory Buxton shared their views on teaching science to English Language Learners in the April op-ed of NSTA Reports. They write:

English Language Learner (ELL) students can now be found in virtually every school in the nation. Currently, more than 20% of U.S. residents speak a language other than English at home. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, more than 5.5 million—11%—of public school students are currently categorized as ELL students. While Spanish speakers comprise approximately 80% of the ELL student population, U.S. students speak more than 400 different languages. Although the vast majority of U.S. ELL students attend schools in large urban districts, increasing numbers have spread into geographic regions that have not historically seen this linguistic diversity.

Read the rest of the article here.

Is it surprising that there are no books for children titled “Evaporation”? Why this exciting subject doesn’t have it’s own title is beyond me—ha! But there are many good books that do touch on the subject in interesting ways. While we don’t need to dwell on the concept of evaporation, it should frequently be part of our vocabulary in early childhood classrooms to help children understand that water (and all matter) does not “disappear” or “go away”, but always exists, although in different forms.
Here are a few resources about evaporation. What can you add to this list?
Online
CHEM4KIDS.com by Andrew Rader Studios
Prepare yourself to comfortably use the word “evaporation” by reading the definition and description of the process at:
http://www.chem4kids.com/files/matter_evap.html
Evaporation is a phase change—read more at:
http://www.chem4kids.com/files/matter_changes.html
Marvelous Explorations Through Science and Stories (MESS®) : Investigating Water. HHS/ACF/Office of Head Start. 2008.
Download a copy of the Teacher’s Guide, which describes many activities for hands-on exploration of the properties of water and its importance to all living things. The list of Recommended Materials includes a list of books on water.

In print
Down Comes the Rain (Let’s Read-and-Find-Out Science Book) by Franklyn M. Branley. (Scholastic Inc. 2000).
Frankly Branley’s timeless writing is engaging and accurate. The illustrations by James G. Hale include children speaking (words in balloons), promoting the concept that children do science. Read this book as an introduction to the topic of water (do the hands-on activities), or as a way to pull together children’s explorations, after the fact.
The Drop in My Drink: The Story of Water on Our Planet by Meredith Hooper. (Viking 1998). A wonderful book (with many references to evaporation) for reading aloud to just a few children because of the complexity of the path water takes around the world and the level of the vocabulary.
A Drop of Water by Walter Wick. (Scholastic 1997). The text, written for grades 3-6, will equip teachers with a good explanation of “molecules” for teaching that through evaporation, tiny pieces of water move into the air. The amazing photographs illustrate the properties of water for all ages.
River of Life by Debbie S. Miller, illustrated by Jon Van Zyle. (Clarion Books 2000). Focused on one body of water, a river in Alaska, and all the life that it supports, read this book to highlight how essential water is to life.
Where Did the Rain Puddle Go? Vol. 10 Evaporation (Winnie the Pooh’s Thinking Spot Series) by Dawn Bently. (Advance Publishers 2005).
Disney is not the company I usually think of when looking for a science title. But this book turned up on an internet search for books titled “evaporation”. I couldn’t find more information about the content, however, the description says that Pooh and friends learn “simple scientific facts while examining how young children learn through listening, questioning, observing, comparing, and experimenting” and there is a hands-on activity at the end. I shouldn’t be such a snob.
Where Do Puddles Go? by Fay Robinson (Childrens Press 1995) may inspire your class to make a puddle and then make observations over the period of recess, or a day.
Have you used the National Science Teachers Association website feature “NSTA Recommends” to look for “thoughtful, objective recommendations of science-teaching materials” on water, evaporation and any other topic? It’s available to all at no cost and also part of each journal. Here’s one sample of the results of my search for evaporation:
My World of Science: Water by Angela Royston
Price at time of review: $14.95
32 pp.
Heinemann Library
Chicago, IL
2001
ISBN: 1-58810-247-5
Grade Level: K-4
Reviewed by Monica Hayes
Middle School Teacher
“My World of Science: Water is one of ten books on physical science topics written for primary students by Angela Royston. Their conceptual level, format, and presentation make them excellent supplements to classroom activities for students at this level.
This book covers a great deal of content usually included in primary curricula: phases of water, the water cycle, and the dependence of all living things on water. The book also includes practical observations, like the water content of fruits and vegetables, and applications, such as using water to clean or fight fires. The author explores phase changes and movement of water through gravity and negative air pressure (suction). Activities demonstrate some of the more difficult concepts; for example, children can measure a puddle over time to observe evaporation. Students can also try to push a balloon under water to show that water pushes back. These experiences will help students to understand some of the unique properties of water.
Each book in this series is written at a second/third grade level to encourage independent reading, but also would be appropriate for younger students as a read-aloud. No background information is necessary for the teacher or parent. All of the books are trimmed in appealing primary colors, and photos of familiar objects at home or school place the concepts in an authentic context. These books are highly recommended for their child-friendly text and visual representations that are accurate and realistic.”
Get the Early Years activity column, Where Did the Water Go? from the April 2010 issue of Science and Children.  I’m off to water the just-sprouting pea plants because the good soaking rain from a few days ago has evaporated from the top few inches of soil,
Peggy

April is the month of Earth Day, and this issue on air and gases also has ideas for environmental studies related to the atmosphere.
The article Using Citizen Scientists to Measure the Effects of Ozone Damage on Native Wildflowers describes how students near the Great Smokey Mountain National Park in Tennessee are doing a longitudinal study of the effects of ground-level ozone on plants. The authors show how the study incorporates the 5E learning cycle, observation, data collection and analysis. There are examples of concept maps and data collection protocols to use as examples for your own projects. SciLinks has many websites with information and activities related to ozone and several have more on how ozone affects plants: The Ozone We Breathe and Ozone Spells “Ouch” for Some Plants
I live close to Hershey, PA, where Smelling the Chocolate happens whenever I travel through the town. But the authors of this article (with the subtitle The Perks of Modeling Habits of Mind) describe a student’s journey to an understanding of what causes things to “smell.” They also include a description of the activities in their unit on smell and how these activities promote critical thinking and communication.

Reading Classroom Terraria brought back a lot of memories! Having a classroom terrarium was a popular activity back in the 1970s, so it was interesting to see the newest version. This is Terrarium 2.0: using them to study plant-related processes such as evaporation, transpiration, photosynthesis, and respiration. The website Bottle Biology has more suggestions for enhancing classroom activities with bottle gardens made from recycled materials.
Speaking of recycled materials, Home Sweet Home has some great photographs of how to build homes for Madagascar hissing cockroaches from common materials. I’ll bet some students would enjoy building the homes for these fascinating insects almost as much as they do observing them. Click here if you’re not familiar with these insects or wonder if they really do hiss.
Stay on the theme of recycling and waste management with A Suggested Project-Based Environmental Unit for Middle School. The inquiry-based lesson investigated the amount and content of household garbage. (See Trash Pie: Is Your School Serving? in the March issue of Science & Children to see how a school analyzed its cafeteria waste.)