Divining the keys to better science education doesn’t require extrasensory perception—just check out the ESP Symposium at the Phoenix Area Conference. Coordinated by Robert Yager, 1982-1983 NSTA president, NSTA’s Exemplary Science Program (ESP) sessions will examine outstanding science education programs and share insight into successful science learning.
“The National Science Education Standards provide the reforms of science teaching advocated after four years of debate,” says Yager. “More than a dozen NSTA leaders (officers and committee members) evaluate nominations…A panel of experts in the focus for a given search evaluates and works with the persons judged to have the most exciting programs for each monograph.”
Six monographs have been released; a seventh, on science dealing with personal and societal issues, is expected to be available in 2010. Three symposia offered in Phoenix will focus on informal education, science education in grades 5-8, and inquiry.
“The ESP sessions are designed to discuss the nature of teacher successes with meeting the specific reforms that are central to the recommendations central to the National Science Education Standards that are often not approached in State Standards which focus primarily on traditional science concepts,” says Yager. He explains the session will share information “concerning how real changes were accomplished and how they can be duplicated in other classrooms.” He hopes the session will get more educators involved by giving them an opportunity to try the practices themselves and “act as research teams similar to those of scientists and technologists. The sessions are meant to be as interactive as time permits.”
And if you use the online session browser, you won’t need that other ESP to find the sessions!

Our students may be used to using evidence to answer questions, but in Elk Habitat: A Case Study of Scientific Inquiry, the authors describe an activity in which students ask questions, examine evidence, ask new questions, and design potential research studies. If elk studies are not relevant for your students, look at the resources of the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science for more examples and resources. Wouldn’t it be interesting for older students to design case studies for younger grades?
The articles Argument-Driven Inquiry and A New Twist on Mystery Boxes both describe the value of argumentation in science. If argumentation is a new concept for your students, look at this month’s issue of Science and Children for ideas on how to introduce this type of discussion. Although “Mystery Boxes” have been used by many teachers, this could be a good activity for the beginning of the year, helping students to differentiate between evidence and inferences (and opinions). There is also a rubric for assessment.
Although there are many ways to measure temperature (use the code TST110901 in SciLinks,) The Sound of Crickets looks at whether the temperature can be estimated by counting cricket chirps. The process that the author used to figure out how to collect the evidence would be interesting for students to read about.
Students aren’t the only ones to engage in inquiry. Examining Student Work describes a process in which groups of teachers meet to examine student work in detail to examine student thinking and learning. Rather than looking only at the summative data from standardized tests, these teachers followed a systematic inquiry process to examine evidence of student learning throughout the school year. The authors provide many of the resources in the NSTA Connections, including an outline of a 55-minute study session. This month’s issue of Educational Leadership is devoted to the theme “Multiple Measures.” Many of the articles look at various types of assessments as examples of student work. Although most articles can be read online by nonmembers, unfortunately Looking at Student Work does require a fee for nonmembers. Perhaps a colleague who is a member of ASCD can get a copy for you.
Give a copy of Data, Data Everywhere to anyone in your school who analyzes data or transforms data into graphical representations. The author differentiates between types of data and describes the kinds of graphs that are appropriate for each, including how to graph the relationships between independent and dependent variables. To help students (or other teachers) communicate evidence graphically, check out the Create a Graph website from the National Center for Education Statistics. The Tutorial (which can be downloaded as a pdf file) also has an explanation of when to use various types of graphs and a discussion of independent and dependent variables. The tool itself can be used to make, save, and print graphs.

I love books. Not only do they overflow the various bookshelves in my house, but they also fill boxes (and boxes!) tucked away in many of my closets. So naturally I spend most of my conference time in the Science Store.

I’m trying to use more projects and open-ended assessments this year, but I’m getting bogged down with grading. I know I should use rubrics, but it’s hard to create them for every assignment. Any suggestions on how to streamline this process?
—Sarah, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Scoring objective tests is simple: the answer is either correct or incorrect. Essay questions, lab techniques, writing assignments, reports, cooperative learning/ group work, presentations, or other projects (including multimedia ones) are more complicated. Some students (intuitively or through prior experience) just seem to know how to do things well. Others, however, need some guidance to understand what quality work is. Facing a pile of reports or a roomful of projects to evaluate can be a daunting task. Sometimes the evaluation boils down to factors such as length, neatness, spelling/grammar, and whether it’s completed on time. While these criteria may be important, it’s easy to concentrate on these without an in-depth consideration of the actual content, demonstrated skills, or creativity of a science project or activity.
This is where rubrics can be useful. A rubric is a summary of desired work criteria, including descriptions of levels of achievement for each criterion. A rubric can range from a simple checklist (where the levels are “present” or “not present”) to a more detailed, analytic tool, written in the form of a table with levels such as excellent, proficient, basic, or beginning and a description of what work at that level would include or “look like.”
Creating rubrics can be a time-consuming task, but you don’t necessarily need a brand-new rubric for each assignment. For example, a basic “lab report” rubric can be tweaked for different kinds of investigations. As your students become more accomplished, you can add additional criteria. Examining rubrics created by others will give you some ideas to use or adapt, rather than always starting from scratch. Many NSTA journal articles and NSTA Press books include rubrics for the activities or investigations and exemplify a variety of formats and criteria.
The Internet is another source of ideas for rubrics and tools for creating them. Assessment and Rubric Information from Kathy Schrock’s Guide for Educators has ideas for rubrics on reports and presentations. In addition, there are dozens of other resources here on graphic organizers, report cards, and more. Rubistar requires free registration, but you can create, save, and print a variety of customized rubrics right from the website. Rubrics for Assessment, provided by the University of Wisconsin, is a collection of rubrics from a variety of sources.
It may be helpful if your science department has some common rubrics, although reaching a consensus on the levels and criteria may be a challenge. It’s not easy to put criteria and levels into words, but the discussions about the indicators of student learning can be enlightening and enjoyable. These common rubrics provide consistency across subjects, teachers, and grade levels. I recently visited a school in which each classroom displayed a standard rubric for informational writing, based on the state’s writing assessment criteria. Regardless of the subject area, the students and teachers had a consistent idea of effective writing.
Sharing the rubrics with the students ahead of time shows them how their work will be evaluated and eliminates the “guess what the teacher thinks is important” frustration many of us have felt ourselves. Students also get feedback that is more focused than just the phrase “good job” or “try harder.” As they become more familiar with rubrics, your students can help create them and use them for reflection and self-assessment.

Will I see you at the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s national conference in Washington, D.C., this week?
Come say “Hi” and tell me what great sessions you’ve attended. I’ll be in the Learning Galleria, Table 12, on Thursday November 19, 2009 from 10-11:30 am, and at the Gryphon House Publishers booth 703 on Saturday morning until 11 am.
Look ahead at the schedule for state affiliate or national NAEYC professional development coming near you next year. The learning is well worth the time and money spent.
See you later,
Peggy

Did I tell you how happy I was to see the returning three-year old students use magnifiers appropriately? Because this half-day preschool for 2-5-year-olds had moved to a new space over the summer, the “usual place” for everything had to be determined. It is one thing to design a preschool in a set of rooms and another to put it into action. That’s what the children did and showed us that our design needed adjustment. So I did not get magnifiers into use until late October when I brought a container of Tenebrio beetles and larvae (mealworms although they are not worms, just baby insects like caterpillars). I was all set to have the children practice using the magnifiers before getting out the beetles but these former two-year-olds showed that they remembered how to use magnifiers by immediately holding the instrument close to their fingers to view, saying, “It’s bigger!”. The beetles looked bigger too, and the children counted the tiny legs.
Here is how children often approach magnifiers (and beetles) on first encounter:

Here are experienced beetle wranglers using magnifiers expertly:

The Science Shorts columns in the National Science Teachers Association’s elementary school journal describe classic classroom activities that emphasize science-process skills. Larger Than Life: Introducing Magnifiers by Tracy L. Coskie and Kimberly J. Davis (Science and Children, Summer 2009) is a valuable discussion and activity about magnifier use.
Now the magnifiers are easily available for self-serve in the two-year-old class room, at the light table, and in the centers room. It is so gratifying to see that the lessons of last year are retained and used by the children to learn more about their world.
Peggy

Subtle differences in words can make a big difference: for example “arguing” and “argumentation.” Our students see TV shows where arguing is the most common activity. People shout at and interrupt each other, spout ideas that may have little or no truth to them, and have little tolerance for different points of view or experiences. But structured and respectful argumentation can be a wonderful experience anywhere, especially in a classroom.
The skills involved in argumentation have to be taught and modeled, and the articles in this month’s issues have many suggestions and real-life examples of what this kind of activity looks like and sounds like in a real classroom. (I can think of a few talk show hosts who should read these, too!)
Connecting Science and Literacy Through Talk describes the benefits of whole class discussion to debrief, summarize, and reflect on learning. What the authors describe is not a “discussion” that includes interrogation by the teacher in a Q/A format, but active listening and engagement by the students (with their science notebooks). I met a teacher once who boasted that her students were so busy that they didn’t have time to think. But the authors of this article would argue that “Although direct experience is crucial to inquiry, students may learn little from the hands-on experiences if they are not given adequate time to make meaning from them.” This type of discussion would also be an appropriate time for teachers and students to use wait time. Use SciLinks for suggestions on other Literacy Skills.
The article More Than One Right Answer has “sentence starters’ for the language of argumentation and describes a debrief discussion routine. The authors note that using routines or protocols (such as a Think-Pair-Share) can help students to focus their conversations.
If you and your colleagues have been “arguing” over the role of textbooks and trade books in learning science, the article Bringing Back Books will be relevant. Rather than a dichotomy in which students either engage in inquiry OR read books and other materials, the authors suggest that several programs of research have demonstrated how inquiry-based science experiences combined with science text can support students’ scientific understanding. Their research has demonstrated that “students who experience science through a balance of text and hands-on experiences exhibit greater growth in science knowledge than do students who participate in curriculum involving mainly hands-on inquiry experiences or mainly reading science books.” It’s nice to hear that research does support the variety of planned and purposeful learning experiences that teachers use. If your students struggle with reading in science, check out some of the Reading and Writing in Science resources in SciLinks.
Reading about scientists of the past and present may inspire the scientists of the future in our classroooms. But reading biographies does not have to be a dull experience. Check out the suggestions for reading and reflecting on biographies of scientists in this month’s Teaching Through Trade Books article. For additional ideas and online biographies, use “biographies” or the name of a particular scientists as a SciLinks keyword.
Having survived a few nor’easters on the mid-Atlantic coast, I was interested in How Can Wind Cause a Bridge to Collapse? I did review some background information on bridges and resonance in SciLinks.
You won’t get much of an argument (but perhaps lively argumentation) if you focus on the science behind some familiar topics: pizza (Solar Pizza Friday), skateboarding (Speed Kills! Or Does It?), and Digging Soil. For the last topic, check out the selected Scilinks for Explore Soil and use the search term “soil” for even more information and teaching suggestions.

Judging by the large audience, teachers love teaching astronomy, and of course they love free resources, too. John McFarland of the Johannes Kepler Project delivered both (in period costume!), sharing an annotated list of software, props, songs (with an emphasis on They Might Be Giants Here Comes Science CD), websites, applets, activities, and more. Get the complete list at http://johanneskepler.org/.

Looking for a little outdoors time in between sessions? If the beach doesn’t do it for you, a short trip up the coast to Hugh Taylor Birch State Park will. Smack dab in the city, this “oasis of tropical hammocks” features native and exotic plants, plus an opportunity to see mangroves. It is well worth a visit, for “botanizing,” wildlife spotting, or just some fresh air and exercise among the trees.

Learning about science curriculum and meeting more early childhood teachers than I expected were the happy outcomes of the two days I spent at the really well-run Virginia Association of Science Teachers 2009 Professional Development Institute.

Engaging workshops delighted early childhood teachers at VAST 2009.

• Discovery Tree program, teaching young children ecology by connecting literature and visual models—from University of Virginia’s Blandy Experimental Farm.
• Growing up WILD, learning about wildlife for young children and their teachers—from Project WILD.
• Planting a Square Foot Garden (using the book of the same name by Mel Bartholomew) to set up a school garden that is easy to maintain and can include every class, a square foot at a time.
• Butterfly resources, enthusiasm for learning was infectious and the information plentiful—their favorite site is The Butterfly website.
• Using podcasts as a learning tool—although high school teachers presented this how-to and why-to workshop, I can see how audio and visual podcasts will be a great teaching tool to use in trainings for early childhood teachers.
• Ecology Clubs—projects for young children, such as making a percussion instrument, a rainstick, using discarded cardboard tubes.

Teacher learning about leaf shapes.