Our science department meetings were interesting. My colleague and I taught life and environmental science, and our counterparts in the high school sciences would poke (good-natured) fun at our “woodsy-birdsy” themes. Well, I hope they’re reading this month’s issue. The article “Back to the Future” really spoke to me. It’s scary to know that our students spend less time in the outdoors in favor of other diversions. And we don’t help matters by building schools without windows and yards and by trying to “cover” as many facts as we can instead of going beyond the facts in authentic investigations.
The articles Ecological Field Studies and Place-Based Investigations and Authentic Inquiry describe authentic investigations that don’t necessary involve a lot of travel. One question my students investigated dealt with the effects of lawn chemicals on the diversity of lawn plants and the critters that live in the soil. For those students who didn’t have a lawn of their own, we used the grass in front of the school for their samples (the principal was not thrilled, but he got over it). Our class motto soon became “It’s not just a yard – it’s an ecosystem.” I don’t have all of the documentation anymore for this activity, but if you contact me via a comment, I can share an outline of the investigation. For more on ecosystems, go to Scilinks and enter the term ecosytem or the Keyword TST020801 for sites related to Ecology.
Yellowstone is a place I think we’d all like to study. The 1988 Fires in Yellowstone article describes a new web resource The Greater Yellowstone Science Learning Center and includes a poster about the park and the wildfires. This is a wonderful website that’s worth taking a look at. Not being a creative bulletin board person, I really like this kind of poster as a source of information to stimulate student interest and discussion. For more resources on wildfires in general, go to SciLinks and enter wildfire as a keyword.
It’s spring and time for field trips (at least for those schools that still have field trips – another topic for another time!). Most of us want these to be learning experiences, rather than just letting kids loose on unsuspecting guides and docents at zoos, museums, and gardens. And so we see the “scavenger hunt” lists which students use in a race to gather trivial information (name three frogs that live in the rain forest). While I must confess that I’ve used these, I’m excited about how the students in the article It’s a Zoo Out There used their time at the zoo to conduct a real behavioral study of a particular animal and present their findings. What impressed me was the fact that the teacher took time before the study started to model and provide guided practice in observing animal behavior. I wonder if this is the missing link – the scaffolding that many students need, not because they are slow or unmotivated but because they just don’t have the experience we think they should have. It seems like a few sessions of modeling, “think aloud,” and practice will pay off in positive experiences.
With all this reading about nature and field studies, I’m going out for a walk!

I’ve been attending NSTA conferences off and on since the early 1980s. But this year, since I’ve retooled (rather than retired!), I don’t have to report back to a district on specific topics, and I’m taking a break from doing presentations. I’m a free agent!
Conferences are rejuvenating. It’s exciting to be surrounded by thousands of folks who share similar interests, and there is so much to learn, both formally at sessions and informally through meeting other people. But it’s hard to get to conferences, especially if it’s on the opposite coast and travel expenses are high. This time of March could also be the testing window for state assessments, and I know it’s hard to get good substitutes (or any substitutes at all in some cases).
But here’s an offer you can’t refuse. Since I am a free agent, I can plan my own conference schedule. If you can’t make the conference, but there are hot topics you’d like to suggest, let me know and I’ll focus my energies on a few of them and report back through this conference blog site, with session summaries and resources. Just add your suggestions through a comment below!

I’ll give Tyson credit – he spelled my last name correctly (no mean feat) and South Jersey includes the shore, so close enough.
I joined the NSTA staff only a few months ago, so I am looking forward to my first National Conference in Boston. As a first-timer, I hope to share this perspective with all of you.

The articles in this issue focus on one of the fundamental processes of science: observation. How big? What happened? What changed? How does it feel? Students enjoy observing and using tools such as magnifiers, lenses, rulers, and scales. Inferencing, however, is a more complex process, as several articles point out. Log into SciLinks and use the keyword inference. You’ll get sites that are geared for grades 5-8, but many of these ideas can be adapted for younger or older students.
Inferencing is something for which students needs lots of guided practice. Doing a “think aloud” for the class, in which you verbalize your thought processes, can be a powerful instructional tool. These processes can’t be contained in a single “unit” but rather should be part of every unit of instruction. I found that with my less experienced students, I couldn’t assume a “once and done” approach. I had to be relentless!
Another topic that I had to keep reinforcing was fact vs opinion. Middle school students love to express their opinions! But we had to focus on facts in our written descriptions: “It felt moist to the touch” vs “It was gross.” There are several websites that can help your students to work on fact and opinion, too: Binky’s Facts and Opinions (from PBS Kids), a Fact Versus Opinion lesson plan, Is It What I Think or What I Know? , and Fact or Opinion? Rather than formal lessons on Observation/Inference and Fact/Opinion, I found it was better to embed the concepts in everyday events. With younger students, you could ask students during “show and tell” time to give one fact and one opinion about their object. Or during a class discussion (on any topic), ask the students whether a statement is an observation or an inference. I like to have all students participate, sometimes with a thumbs-up. But I also taught them a few letters of the manual alphabet so that they could raise their hands with the sign for O (observation) and I (Inference).
After reading the articles on magnifiers, you might want to go to SciLinks and enter the code SC020801 for Microscopes. Two of these sites go beyond simply naming the parts of a microscope. In Bugscope classes may remotely operate a scanning electron microscope to image bugs at high resolution. Classes design their own experiment and provide their own bugs. With the Virtual Electron Microscope interactive game, students view objects through a virtual electron microscope and try to identify the specimen.
Science is more than just observing for the sake of observing. There is usually a purpose. Here are three online projects in which students can record their observations as part of an ongoing study:

• The Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology has a number of online projects, including the Great Backyard Bird Count, Project Feederwatch, and Bird Sleuth , as well as other more specialized projects described on the websites. (I worked with a third-grade class on the Feederwatch project, from observing and counting birds to entering the data online. The students were enthusiastic about watching the birds (and disappointed when at first their feeder did not attract many – the teacher turned that situation into an “I wonder why…” lesson.) Although the Great Backyard Bird Count is over for this year, the website is worth taking a look at for ideas for next year’s event!
• Monarch Watch is gearing up for this spring. A colleague of mine used the book “The Hungry Caterpillar” as an introduction to a study of butterflies, and with ideas on this site, she came up with some truly wonderful (and meaningful) questions for her students to investigate and write about.
• I just heard of a new project in which students, gardeners, and other interested folks can observe flowering plants in their gardens, schoolyards, and lawns. The observations can be entered into a national database to help scientists study the effects of climate change by observing the timing of flowers and foliage. The press release from the National Science Foundation describes the project and the actual Project BudBurst has lots of ideas and resources (use the “How Do I Participate” link to get to the teacher resources). If the URL looks familiar, it’s because this project is sponsored by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Studies, which also does the Windows on the Universe site – another of my favorites.

The exciting thing about these projects is that students are using their observation skills in projects that go beyond the classroom walls. If students are involved in these projects, I wonder how many will sustain this interest outside of the classroom?

In much of the country, February is not the month in which we think of environmental activities, at least the outdoor kind. But this month’s Science Scope has a lot of suggestions for teacher-tested activities that can be done at any time of the year – from exploring the microorganisms that help termites digest wood to working with spectroscopes to study light.
Sometimes our attempts to integrate subject areas can be superficial or contrived. But “Using Art to Get Kids Into and Doing Science” looks like an authentic way to integrate science and art. Even if you’re not into birds, perhaps the same type of activity could be done with other animals, plants, or the sun and moon. But if you are into birds, the annual Great Backyard Bird Count is February 15-18, 2008. (schoolyards or parks would count, too!) Even if it’s too late for you to participate this year, you can add it to your plans for next year. But be sure to look at the website. The section “Explore the Data” has maps and lots of searchable data from previous years by species, geographical location, and other topics. Projects such as this and Cornell’s Project Feederwatch and Bird Sleuth are neat ways to engage kids. (I worked with a third-grade class on the Feederwatch project, from observing and counting birds to entering the data online.) Along with these sites, you may want to check out Cornell’s online exhibit Beautiful Birds just because we need to see beautiful things once in a while.
“The Fish Kill Mystery” illustrates how case studies can provide a context for student thinking. This particular case study is from the Case Studies in Science collection. There are lots of case studies there, but the best thing is the “Teaching Notes” link for each one with background information and suggestions. If you use SciLinks to get a list of suggested websites with more information and related activities for the topic, you have the makings of an engaging study.
If you’re interested in “Investigating Ecosystems in a Bottle,” there are additional ideas at the Bottle Biology websites. Who know there were so many investigations involving 2-liter bottles! For additional resources related to the topics and activities in “How Do Our Actions Affect Water Quality?” log into SciLinks and enter water quality or groundwater as keywords for links to websites with activities and background information. The article “Alien Invaders!” has a board game that reviews invasive species. For more on this topic, log into SciLinks and use the keyword invasive species. One of the best of these resources is NOAA’s Lionfish Invasion which describes a real-life invasion, with graphics, video, and lots of teacher resources on the topic of invasive species.
I have to admit that when I search for a topic, I often look at the wiki article first. It seems like wikis are becoming the basic encyclopedia of the digital age. But many schools block wikis, and many teachers will not let students use them at all! In the BI (before Internet) era, we used to discourage students from using basic encyclopedias as their only source of information. Perhaps that’s the strategy we should be using with wikis –an initial background source, but certainly not the only one. The authors of “The Collaborative Powers of Wikis” describe the value of having students create wikis. I wonder if by creating and maintaining one themselves, students will see firsthand the advantages and shortcomings of this source of information. According to the Wikispaces site, teachers can get private space for free. It might be interesting for a few teachers to test-drive the process first. The authors mention that Tree of Life and Wikibooks are worth taking a look at, as examples of worthwhile wikis related to science.
Don’t forget to check out SciLinks and enter SS080201 as a code for a list of websites related to environmental activities.

As I was reading my February issues of the NSTA publications, it occurred to me how there is a common thread among them. The lead article in The Science Teacher is “Back to the Future?” which looks at nature-study as an approach to teaching. The whole issue of Science Scope is devoted to environmental studies, and a wonderful article in Science and Children shows what students can learn from walking a nature trail.
As I reflected on these writings, I looked over at a needlework on the wall of my den. It was a quotation from the poet Wordsworth: Come forth into the light of things – Let Nature be your teacher. These words were my guiding principle as a life science teacher, but at the time, I never could find the entire poem. BI (before Internet) I would have to have gone through all of his poems to find the right one. But with the Internet, I decided to google the lines and see what I could find. I was surprised to see how it resonates with this month’s themes of nature study and environmental activities. Here it is.
THE TABLES TURNED
AN EVENING SCENE ON THE SAME SUBJECT
UP! up! my Friend, and quit your books;
Or surely you’ll grow double:
Up! up! my Friend, and clear your looks;
Why all this toil and trouble?
The sun, above the mountain’s head,
A freshening lustre mellow
Through all the long green fields has spread,
His first sweet evening yellow.
Books! ’tis a dull and endless strife:
Come, hear the woodland linnet,
How sweet his music! on my life,
There’s more of wisdom in it.
And hark! how blithe the throstle sings!
He, too, is no mean preacher:
Come forth into the light of things,
Let Nature be your teacher.
She has a world of ready wealth,
Our minds and hearts to bless–
Spontaneous wisdom breathed by health,
Truth breathed by cheerfulness.
One impulse from a vernal wood
May teach you more of man,
Of moral evil and of good,
Than all the sages can.
Sweet is the lore which Nature brings;
Our meddling intellect
Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things:–
We murder to dissect.
Enough of Science and of Art;
Close up those barren leaves;
Come forth, and bring with you a heart
That watches and receives.
The title is a little obscure, but apparently this is a follow-up to another poem in which someone criticizes Wordsworth for daydreaming by a lake and not paying attention to his books. Although this poem is from 1798, does it still speak to us in terms of what is important for students (and for ourselves)?

As I catch up on readings and resources from other blogs, listservs, and journals, I found several things I’d like to share. I’m calling them WOWs because that’s what I say when I see them – in some cases a positive wow (with one or more exclamation points) and in a few cases a disappointed wow (followed by an arrggh).
I’ll get the disappointing one out of the way fast. Read about how one high school is responding to the mandate for science testing. Is this what NCLB at the high school level is all about? In case you think that this is a unique situation, I know of an elementary school where it has been decided that science and social studies are not taught until after the state tests are over. This means no science or social studies until April! I shudder to think what happens to the arts and physical education, too. What are we teachers going to do about this?
One thing we can do is become more savvy about assessments and their purposes. The December/January issue of Educational Leadership deals with the theme of “Informative Assessment.” Most of the articles are available to all, with a few reserved for ASCD members. But there are enough public ones, including one from Carol Ann Tomlinson on “Learning to Love Assessment” with ten basic understandings about the real purposes of assessment as an integral part of learning, not a mandated add-on.
But on to the other positive wows! The February edition of Learning and Leading with Technology (from the International Society for Technology in Education) has a neat article on how two high school science teachers are using iPods in their classes to share graphics, podcasts (many of which the students create), and class materials. The article is available online to members of ISTE, but perhaps your tech director of another colleague is a member. Or if you email me or reply to this post, I’ll send you the email of one of the authors. (I was pleased to see that their school is just down the road from me).
The January edition of Learning and Leading describes a tool for helping students to plan and prepare reports (essays, slides as in PowerPoints, or video/multimedia). Although there is a brief article about this tool (available electronically to ISTE members), you can go right to the Research Project Calculator website and poke around. I would use this tool to model the process for my students, since I found that even in high school (and in the grad classes I taught), students need guidance in organization and time management. A great feature of this tool is the way that the students can email the resources and scheduler to themselves and also receive email reminders about the milestone dates. These emails link directly back to the website and its resources. There is even a self-evaluation section for the students to reflect on the process and the quality of their work. The teacher resources include rubrics and print handouts to assist students and to inform the library media staff about the projects. An interesting action research project would be to have some classes use this tool while others use a traditional approach.

I totally agree with the editor of TST this month, concerning the status of the earth sciences in many of our high schools. Many years ago when I was in high school (and when dinosaurs roamed the earth, as my students would say), I started my science courses with biology, followed by chemistry, physics, and a fourth year biology elective. Earth science was not even in the course catalog – so much for the good ol’ days! Are things different now? What is the current status of the earth sciences in your high schools? What topics are included in a typical earth science course: Geology? Meteorology? Astronomy? Ecology? Oceanography? Paleontology?
When I got to college, I had to take some earth science electives, and my eyes (and mind) were opened up. I was really tempted to morph my chemistry major into one of the earth sciences, but I compromised by adopting the earth sciences as a lifelong avocation. Most of my knowledge of the earth sciences results from readings, a few grad courses, and self-study at museums and parks. And with the Internet, I’m able to keep learning at a rapid pace!
Have you ever tried any of NSTA’s Science Objects? These free online content courses take about 1-2 hours to complete. I’m a big fan of (yes, you guessed it) the earth science ones, and right now I’m working on the Plate Tectonics offerings. It’s a great way to get acquainted (or re-acquainted) with this essential content. There are other Objects for the physical and life sciences, too. And best of all, they’re designed for those of us (elementary, middle school, or high school) who might not have a lot of formal background in these content areas, but who want to learn more about these topics.
Using a search engine to find websites on earth science topics can be frustrating, especially when a topic has thousands of “hits.” If you need information or teaching ideas, don’t forget to go to SciLinks . Enter a search term and get suggested websites focused on just that topic. Here are some of my personal favorites:

• Windows to the Universe examines our planet, the solar system, and the universe. The text is written at several levels and the graphics are spectacular. A Spanish version is available, too. The site was recently updated to include information on climate change and the polar regions, as noted in the article in this month’s issue “International Polar Year in the Classroom.”
• Meteorology from the University of Illinois is a comprehensive site. I’d be tempted to use this instead of a textbook! I’m a little concerned about last update in 1999, but the basic info is good, and some information is dated later than 1999.
• You can take a virtual field trip to the Grand Canyon to explore the rock strata and geologic formations.
• I cringe when I see “demonstrations” of volcanoes using vinegar and baking soda. While this is a nice example of a chemical reaction, it does not represent the forces that create volcanoes. Why not visit sites such as Volcano Hazards Program of the U.S. Geological Survey or How Volcanoes Work for information and lesson ideas on a topic that most students find fascinating.
• Earthquakes are another interesting topic. Faultline from the Exploratorium Museum and Earthquake Hazards Program of the U.S. Geological Society are good sources. Earthquakes for Kids is good for younger or less experienced students (ignore the games and puzzles – who needs find-a-words and coloring pages when there’s so many interesting things on this site!)
• The University of California Museum of Paleontology is a treasure of information and activities on the fossil record.
• The Hubble Site – Explore Astronomy site is a good resource for astronomy. And the NASA Quest site has online projects for students.
• NSTA also has activities related to the earth sciences: Astronomy with a Stick and Day Into Night

Articles such as those in this month’s Science Teacher are a wealth of information. I downloaded the software mentioned in “Connecting Students to Seismic Waves” – what fun! I was shaking the table to see the graph change! The activities website mentioned in this article and in “Redefining Earthquakes” look authentic and interesting.
The article “Modes of Inquiry” reinterates that earth science should not be constrained by a focus on THE scientific method. This article describes several types of inquiry used by scientists and is another piece on why a single method of inquiry isn’t always possible (or appropriate). Another article on this topic was in the December Science and Children .
“Investigating the Earth and Its Environment” describes how one school district realigned its curriculum and created a new kind of earth science course. The authors are very honest in their description of the amount of work it took and some snags they had to deal with. But I wish I could have taken a course like this in high school!

“Are you teaching today or are the students just doing a lab or taking a test?” I used to dread this question from a former principal when he wanted to observe a class. He was implying that the only classroom activity worth observing was when I was lecturing (which did not happen very often) or leading a large group activity. But I fooled him! One time I asked him to observe during a performance assessment. To his credit, he came to appreciate that the most important thing that happens in the classroom is not just the teacher’s performance, but rather what the students are learning.
And how do we know what the students are learning? We can wait until the yearly state exams (assuming that science is one of them), we can give our own final or end-of-course exam, or we can create/use unit tests. These summative assessments are fine, but they don’t tell us which students are having problems or have developed misconceptions during the course or unit. And by then it could be too late to go back and reteach. Formative assessments, on the other hand, can provide “just-in-time” information on what students know or can do. These include traditional quizzes and assignments, but can also include informal “thumbs up” questions, journal entries, or bell-ringer activities.
Many students see assessments (or “tests” as we used to call them) as something that happens to them in order for teachers to assign grade at the end of a marking period. Perhaps we haven’t done a very good job of identifying the purposes of assessment. In his research on effective instruction, Robert Marzano found that setting goals and providing feedback to be essential. Another issue in student learning is the type of feedback we provide on assessment tasks. If all the students see are red checkmarks, circles around words that are misspelled, and a “grade” at the top of the page, it’s no wonder that they crumple the paper or stuff it into a notebook without paying much attention to it. If you would like more information on what informative feedback looks like, an article in the December/January Educational Leadership has a great article on “Feedback That Fits.”
Rubrics are another way to provide useful feedback to students. This month’s issue of Science Scope has examples of rubrics to use for student presentations and student writing. Going to the SciLinks site and searching on the keyword “assessment” leads to a set of websites. Many of these relate to reading and writing in science, but there are some great resources on rubrics:

• Ideas and Rubrics is provided by the Chicago Public Schools with examples and ideas.
• Formative Assessment Probes from a 2005 issue of Science Scope.
• Rubric Generator has lots of suggestions for rubrics that can be adapted.

A site that science teachers should take a serious look at is PALS (Performance Assessment Links in Science). There are dozens of performance assessment tasks, organized by standard, grade level, and topic. Each one references one or more of the National Science Education Standards (yes, every state has its own science standards, but many of these can be found in a paraphrased version in the NSES documents). Each assessment includes a detailed description for the teacher, a student handout with places to record data and observations, a scoring rubric, and the results of any formal validation. But the best part is there are examples of actual student work at each of the rubric levels. Wouldn’t it be interesting for a department or grade level to choose several of these to use throughout the year to assess (and discuss) student performance? And they’re already created for you to use! The November issue of the Science Teacher and the November 26 blog have resources for starting and using study groups. Students can use this reflecive process, too. The article “Reflecting on the Test” describes some strategies for helping students become co-owners of the learning process. At first, my students were not receptive to this type of self-reflection. After all, this put some responsibility back on them. I had to do a lot of modeling and be persistent, but in order for students to become lifelong learners, they cannot always depend on a teacher for feedback.
As a sidebar, if you’re not familiar with WebQuests, such as described in the article “Cell City WebQuest,” take a look at the WebQuest site from San Diego State University, where the concept originated. You can search their database by grade and subject, or you can get started on creating one of your own. Each of these has an assessment component, including a rubric.