To support my science teaching practice I look for information about teaching young children, and about the science content I think is important for the young children in my program. I have a lot of questions about both these areas:

• What resources are up-to-date on the science of how children learn?
• What is the most important science content to teach at the age/grade level I work in?
• Which sources of science content information should I use to make sure I have accurate information?
• Where can a teacher who is just beginning to teach science learn science concepts?
• Are there experiences and investigations developed—and tried with children to see if they are effective—that I can use (with attribution)?

And how do I get answers to these questions!?

The National Science Teaching Association (NSTA) is one of several organizations with many good resources—we just have to dig a little to find them. A productive way to access them is through the NSTA Learning Center as long as you know in general what you are looking for and you do a little research into the NSTA resources before asking for others to provide you with the appropriate resources.

When posting in online forums of any kind, it is helpful to start with refining your request for help and by doing some research to show your professionalism before asking for assistance. 

Refining your request:

Do show that you have a specific area of interest. Include some background in your question, such as the age/grade level you will be working with, what area of science the experience/activity/lesson/inquiry should involve, and what other factors need to be considered (size of the group, any specific needs children have, does literacy or other domain need to be well integrated, available materials, and any concerns you have about classroom management). 

A request for help such as, “I’m looking for a simple science lesson that will engage children in elementary grades and be fun,” may not generate much interest on the NSTA Learning Center forums. It is likely to get the vague response, “Look on Pinterest.” Let’s add the details that make it easy for other educators to respond with information that will be helpful:

“I’m a preservice teacher who is working with a kindergarten class and I want to teach about living organisms. I see in the NGSS Appendix E – Progressions Within the Next Generation Science Standards that “All organisms have external parts that they use to perform daily functions” is the appropriate core idea for this age group. I want help creating an engaging lesson, or series of lessons that are simple to implement yet still meaningful and fun for the lower grades. I will only have 30 minutes each week. Do you have a lesson or can recommend another resource?”

Do some prior research:

For a lesson plan that has already been tried and found to be effective—and has up-to-date science content and student expectations—search the NSTA Learning Center for articles from Science and Children. 

Select “Explore All Resources,” type in the general content of interest (such as “living organisms” or “weather”), and select “Elementary” grade level. Thousands of resources will be listed but do not despair! You can reduce the number of suggested resources by further filtering. Type in the general content of interest again in the new Search window. Try additional filters of “Lesson Plans,” “Journal Articles,” or “User collections,” one at a time to see which filter brings up the most easily accessed resources. Yes, you will probably have hundreds of resources to search though, and that is both the value of the NSTA resources and part of becoming more knowledgeable. 

Now that you have a few articles or books that you think will be helpful, add that information to your post on the NSTA Learning Center forum to show your professionalism:  

“I’m a preservice teacher who is working with a kindergarten class and I want to teach about living organisms. I see in the NGSS Appendix E – Progressions Within the Next Generation Science Standards that “All organisms have external parts that they use to perform daily functions” is the appropriate core idea for this age group. I want help creating an engaging lesson, or series of lessons that are simple to implement yet still meaningful and fun for the lower grades. I will only have 30 minutes each week. Do you have a lesson or can recommend a resource? I found “Early Years: A Lesson on Living Organisms from the 7/1/2019 issue of Science and Children.” Can you recommend a lesson or a resource like this?”

Once you get a resource, use the sets of questions from the NAEYC Early Childhood Science Interest Forum (ECSIF) (Peterson et al 2019) to tell if the suggested experiences/lesson plans/inquiry activities, or others you found on the web, are of high quality. These questions will help you determine if the activities engage children in the practices of science and engineering (NRC 2013), don’t underestimate children’s abilities to learn core science ideas, and provide the necessary time children will need to deeply engage in meaningful scientific questions and engineering problems (which is what makes it fun!). And to avoid craft-only, teacher demonstrations, or prescribed steps for children to follow exactly, which don’t honor or support children’s growing science understandings.

How do you find the information you need? The public library is one of my favorite places to learn more. Share your methods for answering these questions by commenting so others can benefit from your experience!

• What resources are up-to-date on the science of how children learn?
• What is the most important science content to teach at the age/grade level I work in?
• Which sources of science content information should I use to make sure I have accurate information?
• Where can a teacher who is just beginning to teach science learn science concepts?
• Are there experiences and investigations developed—and tried with children to see if they are effective—that I can use (with attribution)?

Resources

NRC. 2013. Next Generation Science Standards: For States, By States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. Peterson, Sherri, and Cindy Hoisington, Peggy Ashbrook, Beth Dykstra Van Meeteren, Rosemary Geiken, Sonia Akiko Yoshizawa, Sandy Chilton and Joseph B. Robinson. 2019. To Pin or Not to Pin? Choosing, Using, and Sharing High-Quality STEM Resources. Young Children. 74(3): 79-85

Appropriations Update

A lot is going on in both chambers of government; let’s start first in the U.S. House of Representatives:  lawmakers last week passed a stopgap spending measure (continuing resolution) that provides continuing appropriations at FY19 levels to federal agencies through November 21, 2019. (A government shutdown would occur on October 1, 2019, the start of FY2020, since none of the 12 regular appropriations bills that fund the federal government for FY2020 have been enacted).

The bill, H.R. 4378 (116), is now before the Senate, which is expected to pass it sometime before the Sept. 30 funding deadline.  This gives leaders in Congress and the White House until before Thanksgiving to come up with funding compromises on key issues, including funding for the border wall.

The extension in funding for FY20 was still necessary despite the bipartisan budget deal, H.R. 3877 (116) that passed in early August.  However, debates in the Senate over a host of issues this month delayed the normal process to pass the FY20 spending bills and necessitated the need for a continuing resolution.

As you will recall from a previous Legislative Update the first House-passed minibus, H.R. 2740 (116), which bundles the text of four of the 12 appropriations bills for FY2020, (Defense, Labor-HHS-Education, Energy-Water and State Foreign-Operations), passed the house on June 19.

In the Senate: Senate appropriators unveiled their education spending bill for FY2020 last week.  The Senate bill largely ignores the cuts the Trump Administration had proposed to education, but it funds many programs at levels lower than the House bill. The Senate bill would provide $71.4 billion in discretionary spending on education, less than the House’s proposed budget of $75.9 billion for the Education Department

In the Senate education bill lawmakers are proposing the Title IVA Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants, which support science and STEM programs, receive a $50 million increase over last year. Title IIA, which funds teacher professional development, would be level funded.

Here is the summary of the proposed education funding in the Senate bill:

• $15.9 billion for Title I Grants to Local Educational Agencies, the same as FY2019.
• $2.1 billion for Title II Supporting Effective Instruction State grants, the same as FY2019
• $1.2 billion for Title IV Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants, a $50 million increase, which supports a wide range of activities including STEM education and school safety activities.
• $12.4 billion for IDEA State Grants to support special education for students with disabilities, the same as FY2019.
• $1.5 billion for Impact Aid, an increase of $25 million.
• $1.2 billion, level with FY2019, for 21^st Century Community Learning Centers to support academic enrichment activities for students before school, after school, and during the summer.
• $460 million for the Charter Schools Program, an increase of $20 million. This includes $7.5 million specifically to expand charter schools in rural areas.
• $105 million for Safe Schools National Activities, an increase of $10 million, which supports evidence-based activities to improve school safety, prevent violence, and improve school climates.
• $60 million in dedicated STEM education funding within the Education Innovation and Research program, the same as FY2019.

Since Congressional leaders are also negotiating the continuing resolution passed in the House to continue funding for the government beyond September 30, it is still unclear when and if further action on this specific education spending legislation will occur.

House Appropriators Hear from NASA and NSF Administrators on STEM Education

Michael Kincaid, Associate Administrator for STEM Engagement, National Aeronautics and Space Administration and Karen Marrongelle, Assistant Director of the National Science Foundation for Education and Human Resources were the two witnesses last week before the House appropriations subcommittee hearing on STEM education in their respective agencies. Both administrators provided a great overview of the STEM education initiatives at NSF and NASA. The subcommittee’s spending bill for fiscal year 2020 proposes to boost the NSF education directorate by 4% to $950 million and the NASA office by 12% to $123 million.

From the NSF testimony: NSF programs collectively educate, train, and support discoverers; engage citizen scientists; and foster a well-informed, STEM-literate citizenry to ensure that the country has an exceptionally skilled and diverse STEM workforce that meets today’s needs and is prepared to meet the needs of the future.

From the NASA testimony: To execute our STEM engagement efforts, we leverage our community of talented and dedicated education professionals, and capitalize on our technical workforce, tremendously committed to inspiring and engaging youth and students in STEM. NASA has a portfolio of activities and opportunities dedicated to attracting, engaging and educating students and to support educators and educational institutions across the nation. These range from internships and fellowships, research and development (R&D) opportunities, challenges and competitions, pre-college and 2  college STEM experiences, virtual learning, educator and faculty support, as well as institutional support. In FY2018, over 820,000 students participated in NASA STEM Engagement activities, from Elementary students to Post-Doctoral scholars, and over 180,000 educators participated in NASA professional development activities.

National Science Board Releases Report on Skilled Technical Workforce

The National Science Board has released a report on the skilled technical workforce (STW) that calls attention to the jobs that involve substantial STEM skills but do not require four-year degrees. About 17 million people currently fall within the STW category, according to the report, and the United States is facing a potential shortfall of 3 million workers in the area by 2022. The report calls for dispelling negative perceptions of such roles and illuminating the pathways into this “underappreciated” segment of the U.S. workforce. Read the report here.

U.S. Supreme Court to Hear Arguments in School Choice Case in 2020

Arguments for a school choice case taken up by the Supreme Court earlier this summer won’t happen until 2020.

Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, centers on whether a tax credit scholarship program in Montana violates a state constitutional provision prohibiting the legislature from appropriating public funds to aid religious schools.

The Montana program provides a tax credit to individuals and businesses who donate to private scholarship organizations, which can then use the donations to give scholarships to needy families who want to send their children to private schools.

The Montana Supreme Court struck down the program in December, ruling that the tax credit was allowing the Legislature to “indirectly pay public funds” to religious schools,

School choice supporters see the case as a potential vehicle to overturn so-called Blaine amendments, state constitutional provisions that prevent public funding from going to religious education.

And last but not least, congratulations to NSTA member Tammy Will, who was invited by Rep. Frank Lucas, ranking member of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, to participate in a private, members only panel on Rural STEM education earlier this summer. Check out the video she made for the Science Committee after her meeting with the lawmakers.

Stay tuned, and watch for more updates in future issues of NSTA Express.

Jodi Peterson is the Assistant Executive Director of Communication, Legislative & Public Affairs for the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) and Chair of the STEM Education Coalition. Reach her via e-mail at jpeterson@nsta.org or via Twitter at @stemedadvocate.

The mission of NSTA is to promote excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all.

How would a science teacher intertwine DNA and Mendelian genetics into lessons to younger audiences? Could elementary school teachers introduce this field by having different colored beads on a string to represent DNA and build on from there? How should teachers handle students making inappropriate comments such as “making the perfect human”?
— V ., North Carolina

I think DNA is at the heart of genetics and I don’t see a problem with teaching what DNA is and how it works in earlier grades. It is the method by which all complex living things transfer their traits to the next generation and it has its own language. Just building simple, single-strand DNA (I would use C, T, A, G alphabet beads) we can introduce codons and “read” traits encoded in the nucleic acid language. The complementary, non-coding strand can be introduced as the method by which the body is able to make accurate copies in a simple matching method. I’m sure that you’ll have students quickly making anti-parallel strands, reading codons, and determining which traits are coded on a strand.

We can physically show how cells are able to divide in mitosis and keep the genetic information intact within an individual. It is now a small step to meiosis and watching traits being separated into sex cells. Using beads on two different colors of string to denote chromosomes from two parents, students will discover why there are pairs of analogous chromosomes within cells. You can introduce dominant and recessive traits as analogous chromosomes are reunited during fertilization.

Issues in genetics, like eugenics or gender selection, can lead to powerful discussions in class—I don’t think they should be taboo.

Hope this helps!

Image by Zephyris via Wikimedia

Guest blog post by Jen Brown-Whale

An experienced cat herder has the knowledge and skill that comes with time and practice so that the management of their feline flock is not so much like, well, you know, herding cats. What may seem like an impossible task to the inexperienced, is a smooth and efficient operation to the master cat herder. What I am trying to say is, you cannot just throw out to your Elementary students a compelling photo or video portraying a phenomenon and expect learning to occur organically from a strictly freerange exploration of the given phenomenon. We are educators, professionals, practitioners of a craft and we must be intentional with our choices. Just as with any other subject or time in the history of science education, the most significant student learning results from intentional planning, putting our skills and knowledge to work.

I am not and will not claim to be an expert on the use of phenomena to drive instruction in the Early Childhood or Elementary Science classroom. Throughout and at the end of this post, you can find links to a variety of resources from experts.  However, I do offer the perspective of an educator who has wrestled with the challenges of incorporating phenomena with fidelity into Elementary Science curriculum both at the unit and lesson level.

Concerns and questions I have heard, or have expressed myself:

“Where do I start? How do I select a phenomenon?”

Plan ahead. What are your standards, or what three dimensions do you want students to work with? Choose a phenomenon that will inspire a learning sequence that reaches the necessary standards, or selected Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) three dimensions. The phenomenon doesn’t need to directly portray or address every single standard, or dimension covered in a unit or lesson, it just needs to be related. It should be something that students need to figure out, using the science learning that will occur throughout the lesson or unit. To be clear, a phenomenon is NOT a hook! It is not a one-time motivator, or engagement. Ted Willard, NSTA, once described that, “Anchor phenomena are not an end, they are a means to an end. The end being that students have a purpose that is meaningful to them for what they are doing.” The goal is for instruction to be designed so intentionally that students should be able to recognize and, even better, articulate their understanding of the connection between what they are learning and the anchor and/or lesson level phenomenon. 

“Once I choose a phenomenon and share it with students, do I just let them go? Let them self-select their learning path and explore?

That sounds like it has the potential to be a lot like herding cats, right? Remember, a phenomenon is not simply a hook or engagement. Lesson or unit phenomena are an integral part of a carefully planned and facilitated learning sequence. When a phenomenon is presented, students should be given the opportunity to engage with the phenomenon by asking questions. Educators can then skillfully incorporate those questions into the lessons already crafted. As the learning progresses, students should continually be given opportunities to revisit the phenomenon and their questions, making revisions and being supported in recognizing connections.

“What if my students’ questions do not get at what I need to teach, what if I cannot use their questions to connect to the intended sequence of learning?”

You already know the answer to this one! After experiencing a phenomenon your students are going to ask the “right” questions, the “wrong” questions and everything in between and outside of that! Yes, they are going to ask creative and/or irrelevant questions, but they are also going to ask questions that you, as a practitioner, can skillfully connect to. Please be comfortable with that fact that not all student questions will be addressed. As Aaron Mueller in his July blogpost and Next Gen Navigator article describes, you can support students in also accepting this by first building a culture in which their ideas and questions are respected. Record student questions on chart paper and allow the list to be a living document. You may choose to use a charting strategy such as KLEWS, OWL, or KWL. Leave the list posted throughout the year and return to it as discussions relate, revising the questions and/or adding new questions. Allow students to add to the chart as they generate new questions on their own. The list of questions, including the seemingly silly or irrelevant questions can become valuable insight into your students’ interests and could inspire text selection for the classroom library or the creation of a center.  

“What if my students can’t connect with the phenomenon being presented?”

You are right. A phenomenon needs to be relevant to students. How can you connect to the life experience of your students with the phenomena you choose? If selecting a lesson or a unit that proposes a phenomenon not familiar within the context of your students’ community or everyday life, think about how you can make it “real” for them. Ideally, phenomenon in the Elementary Science classroom should be capable of being directly experienced or investigated by all students. Can your students see, feel, and/or touch what it is they are figuring out? The Grade 2: Why is Our Corn Changing? unit posted by Achieve as a quality example accounts for this direct experience for all students by using actual harvest corn during the lessons. 

“I want to select the perfect phenomenon. How do I find something that is super spectacular so it really engages my students?”

Take a deep breath, and a big step back. Keep it simple in the Elementary grades; keep it simple and make it relevant. I frequently remind the educators with whom I work, “As adults, we often forget what we once did not know.” This reminder was inspired by Dr. Heidi Schweingruber’s discussion of children as “universal novices” during her December 2016 opening keynote at the Ready at Five School Readiness Symposium. Keep in mind that you may have students in your second grade classroom that have never seen a mountain, or a beach. You may have fourth grade students that are not even aware of the native plants and animals in their own backyards or neighborhoods. As adults, because we know about or are at least aware of far more, we may take for granted being in the moment of discovery and slowing down to articulate connections. We may overlook how big of a deal some of the “simple” things are for our youngest learners. Especially in the early Elementary grades, our classrooms may be providing some students with the very first exposure to many ideas or concepts that we, as adults, consider everyday or common knowledge. As educators we are present to support our students in building understanding, in developing the capacity to recognize, interpret and transfer the interrelationships of the world around them.   

Your inner disruptor may be starting to ask, considering the above concerns, “Is phenomena driven science instruction at the Elementary level really necessary, or is this just a gimmick? Is student sensemaking to drive learning really aligned to the research regarding high quality science education, or is it just the newest craze?” 

In the very beginning – the second chapter – of A Framework for K-12 Science Education from the National Academies of Sciences the driving principles of the report are presented. The first being “all children are born investigators.” Within the explanation of the report’s first foundational perspective, the concepts of phenomena driven instruction and student sensemaking at the Elementary level are discussed:

“Thus, before they even enter school, children have developed their own ideas about the physical, biological, and social worlds and how they work. By listening to and taking these ideas seriously, educators can build on what children already know and can do. Such initial ideas may be more or less cohesive and sometimes may be incorrect. However, some of children’s early intuitions about the world can be used as a foundation to build remarkable understanding, even in the earliest grades…The implication of these findings for the framework is that building progressively more sophisticated explanations of natural phenomena is central throughout grades K-5, as opposed to focusing only on description in the early grades and leaving explanation to the later grades.”  (p25)

Additionally, the presence of a phenomena or problem that supports student sensemaking to drive learning is, in fact, the very first criteria of the Achieve EQuIP Rubric for Science Lessons & Units. The EQuIP Rubric provides a standard by which to measure how well lessons and units are designed for the NGSS. A phenomenon, or problem presents an opportunity for students to figure out. Figuring out creates a need to learn, it motivates students to progress through the learning sequence. Specific indicators within the rubric’s first criterion include:

• Making sense of phenomena and/or designing solutions to a problem drive student learning.
• Student questions and prior experiences related to the phenomenon or problem motivate sense‐making and/or problem solving
• The focus of the lesson is to support students in making sense of phenomena and/or designing solutions to problems.

Do you not care for the EQuIP rubric? Too wordy? Phenomena plays a central role in the Achieve Lesson Screener as well. 

The above is to say that student sensemaking is essential to NGSS aligned and designed units and lessons. Students make sense of, they figure out a carefully selected phenomena or problem. This approach is a key shift in perspective of high quality science education, even at the Elementary level. Whether we are a NGSS state or district, as educators, we are charged with transitioning our instruction to methods that not only allow for three-dimensional student learning, but also for figuring out as well. Like the professional cat herder, We have the skills to masterfully orchestrate a seemingly organic learning experience for our students, so let’s go plan!

Additional Resources about selecting and using phenomena:

• The NSTA Learning Center
  • Instructionally Productive Phenomena Collection
  • Phenomena Collection
• The Next Generation Science Standards, Phenomena
  • A three-page PDF
  • Video with Brian Reiser
• STEM Teaching Tools #28, a one-page PDF about selecting high quality anchor phenomena

Jen Brown-Whale serves as the Elementary Science Resource Teacher for the Howard County Public School System in Maryland, where she supports K-5 educators through curriculum development and professional learning. She is a member of the Achieve Science Peer Review Panel, and recently became a member of the NSTA Committee on Preschool-Elementary Science Teaching. Find her on Twitter @ElemSci_JenBW

Citation:National Research Council 2012. A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/13165.