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Press Release

Call for Submissions: The 2020-21 Shell Science Teaching Award

$10,000 Cash Prize and All-Expense Paid Trip to Attend a Future NSTA National Conference to be Awarded for Exemplary Science Teaching

 

The Human Body: The Appendix

By Becky Stewart

Posted on 2020-10-27

 

In Memoriam: Uri Haber-Schaim

By Debra Shapiro

Posted on 2020-10-26

 

From the Field: Events and Opportunities, October 27, 2020

By Debra Shapiro

From the Field: Events and Opportunities, October 27, 2020

Download and read a sample chapter from this book to learn more.
 The authors of this book have been in your shoes. These experienced science teachers know what it’s like to work with students who struggle to understand their science texts. Once Upon a Physical Science Book came about because they couldn’t find a resource that shows how to integrate reading, writing, and physical science—so they wrote one themselves.
Download and read a sample chapter from this book to learn more.
 The authors of this book have been in your shoes. These experienced science teachers know what it’s like to work with students who struggle to understand their science texts. Once Upon a Physical Science Book came about because they couldn’t find a resource that shows how to integrate reading, writing, and physical science—so they wrote one themselves.
 

Press Release

New NSTA Book Helps Middle School Students Improve Their Skills in Both Physical Science and Reading

Archive: Teacher Tip Tuesday: Taking Familiar Digital Tools to the Next Level: Padlet and Jamboard, December 8, 2020

Whether in teaching and learning in a classroom or virtual space, digital tools can be leveraged as a means for students to share ideas, evaluate competing ideas, and give and receive critique. This month’s focus is Padlet and Jamboard. Explore how to take familiar tools like these to the next level and share your next-level ideas with others!

Whether in teaching and learning in a classroom or virtual space, digital tools can be leveraged as a means for students to share ideas, evaluate competing ideas, and give and receive critique. This month’s focus is Padlet and Jamboard. Explore how to take familiar tools like these to the next level and share your next-level ideas with others!

Whether in teaching and learning in a classroom or virtual space, digital tools can be leveraged as a means for students to share ideas, evaluate competing ideas, and give and receive critique. This month’s focus is Padlet and Jamboard. Explore how to take familiar tools like these to the next level and share your next-level ideas with others!

Whether in teaching and learning in a classroom or virtual space, digital tools can be leveraged as a means for students to share ideas, evaluate competing ideas, and give and receive critique. This month’s focus is Padlet and Jamboard. Explore how to take familiar tools like these to the next level and share your next-level ideas with others!

 

research and teaching

Comparison of Student Success Between High-Clicker and Low-Clicker Frequency in a Large-Enrollment Introductory Biology Course

Journal of College Science Teaching—November/December 2020 (Volume 50, Issue 2)

By Lauren Shea, Chantale Bégin, Christopher Osovitz, and Luanna Prevost

Active-learning approaches have recently been broadly promoted on many campuses, but research is limited on how varying levels of interaction impact student success. The aim of this study was to compare student success between two sections of an introductory biology course that used classroom response systems (i.e., clickers), but were taught with different clicker frequencies: highly interactive with a high number of clicker questions and lecture-focused with low-clicker frequency. Students in the section with a high-clicker frequency had 15.2% greater learning gains (calculated based on pre- and postassessment scores) than students in the low-clicker frequency section. Postsemester evaluations showed that students found the low-clicker frequency classroom more interesting, however both sections ranked similarly in how students believed the class helped them understand the material. A better understanding of how clicker frequency impacts student success will allow instructors to use this technology more efficiently in courses. 

 

Active-learning approaches have recently been broadly promoted on many campuses, but research is limited on how varying levels of interaction impact student success. The aim of this study was to compare student success between two sections of an introductory biology course that used classroom response systems (i.e., clickers), but were taught with different clicker frequencies: highly interactive with a high number of clicker questions and lecture-focused with low-clicker frequency.
Active-learning approaches have recently been broadly promoted on many campuses, but research is limited on how varying levels of interaction impact student success. The aim of this study was to compare student success between two sections of an introductory biology course that used classroom response systems (i.e., clickers), but were taught with different clicker frequencies: highly interactive with a high number of clicker questions and lecture-focused with low-clicker frequency.
 

research and teaching

Peer Review and Response

Supporting Improved Writing Skills in Environmental Chemistry

Journal of College Science Teaching—November/December 2020 (Volume 50, Issue 2)

By Dulani Samarasekara, Todd Mlsna, and Deb Mlsna

Students in an upper-division Environmental Chemistry course used peer review and response to reviewer comments to improve their writing skills. The process employed an anonymous and timed in-class Peer Review Format. In addition to editing peer papers, students were tasked to create a Response to Reviewer Comments document, which the authors used to mimic the peer-review process required for scientific publication. The Response to Reviewer Comments document was designed to have students think critically about their writing and defend their choices with respect to peer edits. Results of essay quality and student surveys are presented here. Student writing assignments improved with this process; however, more support is needed to encourage students to critically think about their own writing. 

 

Students in an upper-division Environmental Chemistry course used peer review and response to reviewer comments to improve their writing skills. The process employed an anonymous and timed in-class Peer Review Format. In addition to editing peer papers, students were tasked to create a Response to Reviewer Comments document, which the authors used to mimic the peer-review process required for scientific publication. The Response to Reviewer Comments document was designed to have students think critically about their writing and defend their choices with respect to peer edits.
Students in an upper-division Environmental Chemistry course used peer review and response to reviewer comments to improve their writing skills. The process employed an anonymous and timed in-class Peer Review Format. In addition to editing peer papers, students were tasked to create a Response to Reviewer Comments document, which the authors used to mimic the peer-review process required for scientific publication. The Response to Reviewer Comments document was designed to have students think critically about their writing and defend their choices with respect to peer edits.
 

research and teaching

Student-Driven Research in the First Year

Building Science Skills and Creating Community

Journal of College Science Teaching—November/December 2020 (Volume 50, Issue 2)

By Christina Cianfrani, Sarah Hews, and Christene DeJong

We designed the Integrated Sciences First-Year Program (ISFP) to introduce students to the nature and process of science early in their academic career, help them develop skills and competencies, and create an intellectual community of learners to foster belonging within science. Using their inherent curiosity, we designed active learning environments where students were provided with enough scaffolding to guide their efforts, but enough freedom to engage in authentic research and experience both success and failure while taking academic risks. We found that student-driven inquiry projects, formal and informal mentoring experiences, and engagement with a larger scientific community constituted the key program elements that enabled us to meet our goals, while better preparing students to design and complete their college majors and capstone projects and engage with the broader scientific community. While we implemented the ISFP as a three-part series during students’ first year of college, the lessons we learned are widely applicable and can be applied to individual courses as well as within courses across a science curriculum.

 

We designed the Integrated Sciences First-Year Program (ISFP) to introduce students to the nature and process of science early in their academic career, help them develop skills and competencies, and create an intellectual community of learners to foster belonging within science. Using their inherent curiosity, we designed active learning environments where students were provided with enough scaffolding to guide their efforts, but enough freedom to engage in authentic research and experience both success and failure while taking academic risks.
We designed the Integrated Sciences First-Year Program (ISFP) to introduce students to the nature and process of science early in their academic career, help them develop skills and competencies, and create an intellectual community of learners to foster belonging within science. Using their inherent curiosity, we designed active learning environments where students were provided with enough scaffolding to guide their efforts, but enough freedom to engage in authentic research and experience both success and failure while taking academic risks.
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