One of the many rich workshops I attended at the NSTA Portland Area Conference was the Family Science Day Session presented by the Foundation for Family Science. The specific goals of Family Science include:

To get parents more involved in their children’s science education by encouraging:

• participation in informal learning activities which supplement children’s formal school science experiences.
• parental interest and involvement with school science curriculum.
• families to do science activities at home using inexpensive and readily available materials.
• adults and children to be partners in learning.

After the presentation, families who have participated in Family Science events joined us and demonstrated the Family Science activities. Here’s one father and his children exploring what happens when air is blown under a folded index card. They talked about what they thought would happen, then tried it and talked about why. Then they graciously allowed this participant to try it.

All around the room children were eager to show conference attendees how to do and learn from the activities, such as this one about vibration and sound where after stretching a rubber band around a mug (across the opening) you hold the bottom of the mug against your ear and pluck the rubber band.
After trying this with your class, ask your children “What would you do to the rubber bands if you wanted to change their sounds?”
Then think about how you can get families involved … maybe with a Family Science Event.
Peggy

With the emphasis on literacy since the onset of No Child Left Behind, there seems to be two schools of thought. One emphasizes instruction in reading and math to the point that instruction in science, social studies, and the arts, especially in the primary grades, is greatly reduced. The other looks at ways to integrate these subjects, so that students see that reading and writing are part of learning in all subjects. There are many resources that can help teachers to incorporate science and literacy skills, and this issue of Science and Children has many of them.
Two articles address writing in science. The authors of The P.O.E.T.R.Y of Science use the acronym (predict, observe, explain, think, reflect, yearn to learn more) to describe the processes used in student “journals.” What they describe as a journal is the same as newer definitions of science notebooks. Whether you call it a notebook or journal, if you require more than just a collection of assignments or a log of events, the rubric in this article can be helpful. In Scientific Journals: A Creative Assessment Tool the authors describe how guide students through the process of integrating science and writing skills. If you’re a secondary teacher, these articles are great resources, especially if you have students who are new to the idea of writing in science. Other resources related to science notebooks can be found in a SciLinks blog entry from June 2008.
As you’re reading the articles, don’t forget to check SciLinks for more resources, using the keyword “reading”. One that I like in particular is Connecting Elementary Science and Literacy. For each step of the inquiry process, this page has suggested resources for incorporating communications skills. With the increasing demands on classroom time, the author of Reading and Writing in the Science Classroom describes how to work “smarter” by integrating reading and writing with content areas such as science. There is a table showing how these three areas are connected. Reading in the Sciences is a collection of resources, including a summary of the research on the topic, a matrix showing the correlation between reading and science skills, and links to a collection of K-8 lessons that illustrate how science and reading are connected. Reading Across the Curriculum has resources that help students make sense of their reading: anticipation guides, vocabulary instruction, KWL charts, text analysis, questioning, predicting, and summarizing.
The November 2007 issue of Science and Children was also themed around literacy with great ideas and suggestions.
Note: If you’re looking for SciLinks resources on spiders related to the article Becoming a Spider Scientist, use the keyword “arachnid”

I am a new teacher, and my supervisor asked me to write a letter recommending a student for an award. I don’t think he is qualified. What should I do?
Nancy, No City Please
Teachers are often asked to recommend students for awards, scholarships, or job applications. Sometimes we know the student well, and our remarks could span several pages detailing accomplishments and credentials. Other times, we don’t know the student well enough to write an enthusiastic recommendation. Finally, we may have very compelling reasons, based on our experiences, not to recommend a student at all. Without knowing the requirements of the award or the details of your relationship with the student or your supervisor, I’ve compiled some suggestions to help you think through this.
First, there are some general factors you should consider:

• What is the relative value of this award?
• Is student being judged on his potential for future achievement or on his past
• performance?
• How well and under what circumstances do you know the student?
• Is the student a protégé of your supervisor?
• What happens if the student is denied the award?
• What happens if the student wins the award?
• Are other nominees more deserving?
• Do you have a student you would rather recommend?

One option is brutal honesty. You could tell your supervisor you decline to write the letter and specify the reasons. Do this respectfully and professionally, and you would most likely leave the meeting feeling positive about your personal integrity. However, I can’t guess how your supervisor would react;,the fact you are writing for advice suggests that as a new teacher you might be a little nervous about this. Of course, if there are compelling reasons for not recommending the student (e.g., dishonesty, bullying) this is your only choice.
Another option would be to meet with your supervisor and tactfully mention that you are having some difficulty organizing your thoughts. Ask for some help to think through the particular qualities or potential of this student so that you can choose which to emphasize. Be sure to ask questions for clarification. Perhaps your supervisor knows this student from other contexts beyond your class and can help you to develop different perspectives on the student’s qualifications, at least enough to craft a letter.
There is also the time-honored tradition of damning with faint praise. You could choose to write the letter with well-worded honesty. Keep it brief, emphasize the positives of this student from your experiences, and avoid any direct negatives. Provide contact information if the award committee requires further (verbal only) information. Savvy members of the award committee will see through this and base their decision as much on what you don’t say as on what you actually say.
Then there is the “oops” approach. As a new teacher you are surely busy beyond belief. Some things naturally slip off the table for all of us. No one will ever know that the delay in completing your letter was intentional. There are some potential negatives for this approach, especially in that you may seem disorganized or undependable.
In the end, only you can decide how much emotional and intellectual energy to invest in this situation, and only you can make the final decision as to what to do.

Visiting the city of Portland, Oregon and the waterfalls of the Columbia River Gorge invigorated my thinking about taking classes outside. Hiking part-way up the Eagle Creek trail reminded me that being comfortable in a natural area can take practice. As I held onto a cable while rounding a bend in the path high above the creek, I was feeling something between anxiety and acute awareness of the consequences of tripping on the rocky path. Now when I take a group of city teachers and children into a nearby city natural area, I will be more understanding of teachers who caution children not to step off the paved path or those who flinch when insects whiz by. And I resolve to get outside with the classes more often.
Here is Latourelle Falls, seen from the base at a distance and then up close to show the columnar jointing of the basalt volcanic rock. It is a short walk down a paved path from a stop along the Columbia River Scenic Highway.

(Click on the photos to see a larger view.)
Peggy

It was exciting to be in the midst of so many people who care about teaching and learning science, and a pleasure to anticipate being on the receiving end of lesson planning. I’m looking forward to using what other educators thought was important enough to share.  More on this later, in the comments …
Peggy

Collaboration is key for many scientific endeavors, and an opportunity for growth for teachers. Here’s how two preschool teachers, both with a science outlook but from opposite coasts, came to present a workshop together.   A writer of The Early Years column in  Science and Children, I (Peggy) yearn for a larger community of like-minded early childhood educators. Many of the classroom teachers I get to work with have so many duties that they are very happy to “leave the science to someone else” most of the time. When teachers contribute to the Teacher’s Picks section of the column, I get a glimpse into another teacher’s classroom and the broadening experience of collaboration as I look at resources from another’s viewpoint.
Marie Faust Evitt contributed a “Teacher’s Picks” list of resources and in our discussions we found out that we are living parallel lives, teaching preschool, excited about doing science with young children, and writing about it. A year of email conversation later we decided to learn more from each other by presenting together.
What I’ve learned from Marie:

• West coast children also love to explore varied materials.
• Plastic rain gutters are indispensable classroom equipment.
• Playing “air soccer” by waving cardboard sheets to blow packing peanuts across a table is learning through play.
• Doing science activities in a BIG way is meaningful to children and worth teachers’ time and effort.

Join one of the NSTA lists, group e-mail discussions that allow members to exchange information in a peer-to-peer forum, to benefit from being part of a science-teaching interested community. Newbies asking questions are welcomed, gentle direction is offered to veteran teachers and beginners alike as we try out our ideas and refine our science and education thinking within the community.
Peggy

My reading matter for the trip to the NSTA Portland conference is How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School, Expanded Edition, (National Academy Press, 2000) and a fantasy novel, Dragonsbane by by Barbara Hambly (Del Rey, 1987). Both works relate how students (people) have preconceptions about how the world is supposed to be, and that incorrect ones get in the way of building correct understanding. This idea is important to teachers who want to introduce new concepts and information…and to witches who want to convince a court noble that dragonslayers may not resemble their description in an epic song.
How People Learn emphasizes that teachers need to be aware of their students’ existing understanding of a topic and give them ways to challenge that understanding to build an expanded understanding or be able to replace any incorrect preconceptions. As an early childhood educator I need this book to help me avoid creating or supporting misconceptions in children’s ideas about science.
Good reads, both!
Peggy

More than 60 educators crowded into room C124 at the Convention Center this afternoon to ponder the imponderable: the size and scale of the universe?
With humor and knowledge Herb Koller, a retired high school teacher representing Imaginova Corp, demonstrated how teachers can use the Starry Night astronomy program in the classroom to help students gain perspective on distances in space. Whether you were looking to learn about our solar system or prefer to consider all that is beyond, the program had something, and lesson plans, too.

Have you ever thought about writing for an NSTA journal?
Get the tools you need at Write (Right) from the Start. After an overview of the manuscript submission process, editors of all four journals (Science and Children, Science Scope, The Science Teacher, and the Journal of College Science Teaching) give personal feedback to propsective writers.
You can get some of the benefits of this session online at www.nsta.org/pdfs/writestart.pdf.
Find calls for papers for all four journals at www.nsta.org.
Look for the next Write For session in New Orleans!

Overly political, endlessly complicated…and standing-room only, featured speaker Dr. Philip Mote had a receptive audience for his climate change talk. Coauthor (with 100+ participating scientists) of the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report, Mote’s humor-filled talk began with the popular representations of climate change and how they affect public perception. The scientific portion focused on a “dialogue with a skeptic” and featured clear evidence (that only lost me on the modeling part). It’s not every day you get to hear a Nobel Prize winning scientist speak!
For more information, visit http://www.ipcc.ch/index.htm.