Spring is rapidly approaching, as indicated by the recent “springing forward” of our clocks. The arrival of Spring not only means longer days but also warmer weather, beautiful blooms, and…restless students. Luckily for teachers, you can exhaust your students’ boundless energy by taking their science lessons outside. NSTA Press’s new book, Inside-Out: Environmental Science in the Classroom and the Field, Grades 3–8, aims to engage teachers in activities that incorporate the scientific disciplines found in environmental observation. The authors’ main goal is to enhance understanding of basic environmental science concepts and to instill confidence in teachers’ abilities to engage students in the process of science learning. Each chapter heavily focuses on content knowledge and then applies this to activities that promote student inquiry. Examples of chapter topics include the study of soil, water, energy and biodiversity. In the introduction, former elementary school principal Debbie Freels recalls how “students yearned for the opportunity to be outdoors during the school day. By providing instruction through project-based teaching and learning, teachers were able to integrate cross-curricular objectives in science-oriented projects.” This time of year is a time of renewal and there is no better way to refresh your science lessons then by utilizing the beautiful outdoors and the activities found in Inside-Out: Environmental Science in the Classroom and the Field, Grades 3–8!
—Amy America

Our school recently received grant funds to upgrade the technology in our science labs next year, and the funding organization requires an annual report. This is a new endeavor for us. Do you have some suggestions on what to include in the report?
—Patricia, Philadelphia, PA
Congratulation on your grant! It’s a lot of effort (and stress) to apply for funds, but in many respects your work has only begun. When you receive funds from government agencies or private foundations, the funders want to know how their money was used to accomplish the purpose of the project. However, the evaluation and reporting component is often an afterthought when schools receive grants. If you wait until the project ends, you might overlook some critical data documenting the success of your efforts. You’re very wise to think about evaluation before implementation.
Revisit your proposal to determine how your school described the project evaluation beyond documentation of expenditures. Find out if the funding agency has a template or rubric for the required report or if the website has example reports you could use as a model. Depending on the scope of the project, you could enlist assistance from your district office or contract with an external evaluator to design an evaluation plan and determine the scope of data to be collected.
Whether you’re evaluating a grant-funded project, a new curriculum effort, or a professional development program, most evaluation plans address several basic questions:

What progress are you making in implementing your project? This is the “what happened” part of your evaluation. Create a project calendar or timeline to document when key events happened and who the participants were. Be sure the events are related to the goals and objectives of the project.

• What equipment was purchased and when was it installed? What software, peripherals, or other instructional materials were included?
• What professional development workshops were provided (include dates, times, description, and attendance)? What follow-up activities were conducted?
• How did the teachers respond to the workshops? This should go beyond asking participants if they “enjoyed” a workshop. Ask them to describe what they learned and what they will do differently in their classroom as a result of having and using this new technology.
• How was the project publicized (newsletters, school website, letters to parents)?

To what level are you achieving the expected results or outcomes? This is the “so what” part and is often overlooked. Describe observable effects on teaching and learning and to what extent the goals and objectives of the project are being met.

• How was the technology used? (Classroom observations, videos, photographs)
• Which students had access to the technology? (Classroom observations, schedules, lesson plans)
• How did the teachers change their instructional strategies to take advantage of the technology? (Classroom observations, lesson plans, interviews, surveys)
• What is the impact on student learning? Is the project having a different impact on subgroups of students? (Formative assessments, test scores, student engagement/participation)
• Did attitudes toward science teaching and learning change on the part of students, teachers, or administrators? (Surveys, focus groups, interviews)

Collecting, organizing, and analyzing data from many sources provides the basis for documenting the implementation and impact of your project. You need to decide what kind of data should be collected, when it should be collected, how it should be organized, and who will be responsible for the data. Unless your project is a formal research study, you probably will not need more than a basic knowledge of statistics.
Having an evaluation plan ahead of time and collecting data as you move forward will help keep the project focused on the intended outcomes. But if something is not working as planned, be sure to document the unanticipated events (e.g., a key teacher leaving partway through the project or a delay in installing equipment).
In addition to meeting the requirements of the funding agency, well-organized data could be the basis of a needs assessment for future funding. There are many opportunities to share what you learned from the project through NSTA journals, NSTA Reports, and presenting at the national and area conferences. We’ll look forward to hearing more about your project!
Resource:
User-Friendly Handbook for Project Evaluation (National Science Foundation)
Photo: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2796/4333770330_61e3640dc1.jpg

One of Chapter Leaders called me this morning to ask about the NSTA Communities. I wanted to share the highlights of our conversation with the CAG Blog.

• Did you know that the NSTA Communities site contains many smaller communities?
• These smaller communities, called groups, have formed around their own purpose. For example; subject matter, issues, event, etc.
• You can join as many groups as you want!
• It’s a great way to share your knowledge and obtain support from other science professionals.
• If you don’t find a group that addresses your specific needs, you can create your own group!

To join this forum of science educators, visit www.nsta.org/communities. You will be asked to log in to the website and create a short profile. It only takes a couple of minutes. Once you have created your profile, you will be matched with other like-minded professionals and you can join the groups you want or create a new one!
Please keep the great ideas coming. Post a comment below or e-mail me at aodonnell@nsta.org and share with your fellow leaders. Remember, the success of this blog is dependent on your participation!

As an NSTA member, did you know that you have electronic access to each of the journals, in addition to the print copy you receive? In the monthly SciLinks blog for each issue (and on the NSTA home page, there are links to browse the table of contents of the three K–12 journals. (And you can also access the quarterly Journal of College Science Teaching.)
In addition to the themed articles, NSTA journals have regular features that appear in each issue. Each journal has different features, but they are valuable resources for any grade level. Keep reading to see what monthly features are available online from the March issues:

Science and Children The Every Day Science Calendar, subtitled “Facts and challenges for the science explorer,” highlights facts, historic events in science, or suggestions for reading, or interesting questions. It’s a nice addition to the bulletin board or for bell-ringer ideas. In Teaching Through Trade Books, Christine Royce highlights books related to the month’s theme and provides lesson suggestions for investigations. This month, for example, the theme relates to STEM, and the trade books are about inventors and inventions. The two activities help students to develop their skills in design and problem solving.
Science Scope In his Scope on Safety column, Key Roy discusses issues that are timely and informative, regardless of what grade level you teach. For example, this month the topic is “Battery safety basics.” Scope on the Skies takes a monthly look at topics in astronomy. This month’s column discusses the language of mathematics and how to take advantage of opportunities to integrate the subjects. The topics would also be appropriate for high school classes. Speaking of astronomy, look at the article Exploring Galileo’s Telescope in which students looked at the work of Galileo from a historical perspective and built simple telescopes.
The Science Teacher Even though this journal is targeted to high school teachers, the monthly features are appropriate to all grade levels. In this month’s The Prepared Practitioner, Alan Colburn summarizes information on the concept of “Universal Design.” Discussing his one-pagers could be the focus of a department meeting.  Ken Roy provides additional best practices and safety suggestions in Safer Science. I know teachers who keep copies of both of his columns in a folder on their computers! Science 2.0 is a recently added feature that looks at new web tools to support learning in science. (this month features probeware and digital sensors). Career of the Month by Megan Sullivan (which is based on interviews with science-using professionals) and Health Wise (a new questions every month) by Meg Streker are meant to be shared with your students, whether you cut them out of your print journal or access an online version.
It’s hard to find time to keep up with everything, but these features are worth a look!

As the dust settles from NSTA’s Annual Conference, my thoughts return to a conversation I had with a new NSTA member during the conference.  I was grateful to have the opportunity to say “thanks!” for being a member of NSTA and “thanks” for coming to the conference!
I want to thank all of you too.  Thank you for your continued membership.  Thank you for attending the conference.  Thanks for your great ideas and input.  And thank you for the time that you devote to promoting excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all.
Please keep the great ideas coming. Post a comment below or e-mail me at aodonnell@nsta.org and share with your fellow leaders. Remember, the success of this blog is dependent on your participation!

If you’re looking for ideas for authentic projects for Earth Day in April or for an end-of-the-year summary project, this issue has some great examples of getting students involved in community-based science. And SciLinks can provide ideas for additional activities or background information.
Environmental issues lend themselves to research on perceptions and attitudes. But creating a survey that will provide “analyzable” data requires careful planning. The authors of Investigating Green: Creating Surveys to Answer Questions outline the process, from establishing the research question to determining the participants, constructing the items, and reporting the results. They include examples to illustrate their suggestions, which could be applied to survey research in other topics. Paper-and-pencil surveys are common, but have you looked at online tools such as Survey Monkey or the “forms” feature in Google Docs? These tools enable participants to respond to items online, and you’ll get the results in a spreadsheet format.
Several projects in this issue describe student investigations of aquatic habitats. A Study of the St. Lawrence River Ecological Habitat includes an anticipation guide, examples of graphic organizers, and a rubric for the project on invasive species. Keep reading for more ideas!

We’ve all done activities on food webs. But in Disrupted food webs: Exploring the relationship between overfishing and dead zones in the Chesapeake Bay, the students compared current data with  historical data and photographs to examine problems of interest related to human impact on food webs. The article describes how the teacher modeled how to graph the data. Bringing scientific inquiry alive using real grass shrimp research reports on how students used real situations to learn about the research process. (Grass shrimp are found in the estuaries of the East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico.)
OK, so you don’t live near the St. Lawrence, the Chesapeake Bay, or a grass shrimp habitat. SciLinks has keywords for more background information and activities that could be relevant to the aquatic habitats in your community. Just type in “water” and you’ll get lists of websites on watersheds, water pollution, water quality, and more. Also look at the sites in rivers and streams. I recently looked at Surf Your Watershed from EPA. Click on your state and finetune for your exact location to find out information about the watersheds in your area.
Do you need expensive materials and supplies to engage in inquiry? Not according to the author of Simple Machine Junk Cars. This is the culminating activity for a unit on simple machines. The teacher provides “junk” such as empty boxes, spools, plastic containers, straws, wooden dowels, masking tape. The students are given minimal directions and a rubric: Build a car that includes three simple machines. That’s it! The photographs show the creativity of the students in how they applied what they learned about machines.
Speaking of photographs, two articles in this issue described the use of photography as a tool in science investigations, which has become much easier in the digital age! Picture This: Taking Human Impact Seriously references on the work of Ansel Adams. It includes some helpful tips for taking photographs and a rubric for a photojournal project. You might as well model your work on the best! Photovoice: A Community-Based Socioscientific Pedagogical Tool has a long title also includes suggestions for engaging students in documenting  issues that are important to them, using an example of a water-quality study.
You may also be interested in these other March articles in NSTA journals. Community-Based Inquiry Lessons in the The Science Teacher shows how students created a scientific community in their classroom, investigating real-life situations. In Trash Pie: Is Your School Serving? (from Science and Children), students studied the amount of trash generated in the cafeteria. As a result of their data analysis, the school has embarked on a recycling and waste-reduction program.
Doing projects about the rain forest or other far-away places can certainly be worthwhile, but having students study environmental issues in their own communities will make a lasting impression. Just look at the results of students’ using a variety of resources to create a presentation on local issues in Project Citizen: Students practice democratic principles while conducting community projects.