JoinScaffolding the Practice of Asking Questions and Defining Problems
By Cindy Workosky
Posted on 2018-09-25
With the adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), teachers are wondering how to teach their students to do the science and engineering practices (SEPs). Some SEPs, such as carrying out investigations and analyzing data, are a natural flow from the old science standards. Many, however, are new for both students and teachers. For example, the practice of asking questions and defining problems is something we have not required our students to do before: the questions or problems were already asked or defined for the students to answer. How can we move both our own practice, as well as our students’ thinking, from the canned version of questions and problems to asking their own thoughtful questions about a phenomenon, and defining problems based on a scenario?
As teachers, many of us may believe we need students to be proficient at this skill immediately! But realistically, we need to move slowly when teaching them these new skills so that students can move toward proficiency over time. NGSS implementation will not happen overnight, nor will teachers and students excel at these new skills without ongoing learning and practice. So how do we give students the practice that they need? And what can we do to help them learn these new skills effectively?
Initially, teachers will need to learn the skills required by the SEPs, if they have no experience with them. Training to help teachers learn about the pedagogical shifts required with NGSS implementation is available from NSTA and state science teacher organizations. Once teachers have some experience with these new skills, they can start teaching them to their students. Teachers can leverage their own experiences in practicing and learning the new SEP skills, using similar practices with students that they experienced as learners.
In my classroom, I have used several different methods to help students acquire the skill of asking questions and defining problems. One method I use with my first-year biology students is to scaffold the process for them and provide tools to help them develop their skills. Some scaffolds I have used include modeling the practice, using sentence frames, and asking them guiding questions to lead them to developing their own questions.
For example, at the start of the year, I ask many questions about a phenomenon, modelling good questioning practices. After a while, I start asking the students questions like these: What do you wonder about this? What questions do you still have? What could you do to find out more about this? These questions help focus students on what they still need to answer to solve the problem and help them begin asking their own questions.
Sentence frames—providing students with a few sentence stems to help them begin to generate their own questions—are often helpful. You can generate some stems of your own for each SEP, or use some questions that focus on a given crosscutting concept (CCC). For example, in biology, we are studying ecosystems, so I can prompt with these questions: What are the system’s boundaries? Or how might energy and/or matter flow within this system?
These prompts can help students formulate additional questions to further explore the phenomenon they’re investigating. What other methods might you use to help students become proficient with the SEPs and CCCs?
Heather A. Wygant has been teaching secondary science for 21 years, primarily in high school. She has taught biology, geology, physics, chemistry, oceanography, and AP Environmental Science. She also served as a Teacher on Special Assignment for science and math and helped her district implement the NGSS over the past three years. Now back in the classroom, she is continuing NGSS implementation. Wygant holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in geosciences and a second master’s degree in science education.She is currently pursuing a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction STEM, with a research focus on NGSS implementation.
This article was featured in the September issue of Next Gen Navigator, a monthly e-newsletter from NSTA delivering information, insights, resources, and professional learning opportunities for science educators by science educators on the Next Generation Science Standards and three-dimensional instruction. Click here to sign up to receive the Navigator every month.
Visit NSTA’s NGSS@NSTA Hub for hundreds of vetted classroom resources, professional learning opportunities, publications, ebooks and more; connect with your teacher colleagues on the NGSS listservs (members can sign up here); and join us for discussions around NGSS at an upcoming conference.
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With the adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), teachers are wondering how to teach their students to do the science and engineering practices (SEPs). Some SEPs, such as carrying out investigations and analyzing data, are a natural flow from the old science standards. Many, however, are new for both students and teachers. For example, the practice of asking questions and defining problems is something we have not required our students to do before: the questions or problems were already asked or defined for the students to answer.
Reflections of the sunlight
By Peggy Ashbrook
Posted on 2018-09-21
Connecting with other educators who share my interests and help me expand them is one of the benefits of writing for NSTA’s journal and blog. Guest blogger Tom Lough is a contributor to Science and Children and has taught science and science education classes at many levels. He is now a science education consultant in Round Rock, TX.
Welcome Tom!
Like many, I have unbounded enthusiasm for the 2018 August issue of Science and Children! Well done, NSTA! Did you read the Early Years column, titled “Making Sense of Their World”? Young children soak up their experiences and observations of the world around them, and ask all sorts of questions as they try to put everything together.
The second part of the column reminded me of an activity we are doing with five classrooms at Caldwell Heights Elementary School in Round Rock, TX, observing the apparent motion of the sun. These rooms all have south-facing windows, meaning that the sun shines into each room all year long.
A small craft mirror glued to a south-facing windowsill.
A spot of reflected sunlight on the classroom ceiling.
Instead of observing the sun directly, we are using a small craft mirror glued to a south-facing windowsill to produce a reflection on the classroom ceiling. As soon as the mirror was installed and the spot appeared on the ceiling, the effect was immediate on the children. They were mesmerized by the bright dot. They couldn’t take their eyes away from this new classroom visitor. After a few minutes, someone said, “I think it’s moving!” They were hooked!
If you decide to try this, from this point on you can expect many questions from the children. It is not necessary, or even preferable, to answer them. Rather, invite them to continue their observations and see if they can find their own answers. Encourage journaling, sketching, or photographing as ways to document their observations. Then they can search for patterns more systematically.
There are many advantages to this particular activity. One of the most important ones is safety. There is no need to look directly at the sun. Second is its simplicity. Just glue the mirror in place and step away. No moving parts, no further assembly required. And then there are the many different patterns.
Children will be quick to point out the obvious patterns, including when and where the dot appears and disappears each day, which direction it moves across the ceiling, and the degree to which the sky is cloudy or clear.
As the weeks and months go by, they might notice that the path of the daily movement changes. During the fall months, the path gets farther away from the window, and during the winter/spring months, the path is closer to the window. Older children might figure out that this has something to do with the height of the sun in the sky at different times of the year, which, in turn, is related to the tilt of the earth’s axis. For example, children might choose to photograph the dot each week. It won’t be long before the movement of the path is obvious, especially if the ceiling is patterned or if it has a grid of tiles for easy reference.
Can you spot the mirror on the windowsill and the reflected sunlight on the ceiling?
Within this simple activity is an unexpected level of complexity that can be uncovered with the addition of a simple action by the teacher or other adult. Select a convenient time of day somewhere between 11:00 and 1:00, and use a push pin or piece of tape to mark the location of the dot on the ceiling at that same time once or twice per week. You will need to be consistently punctual about this, down to the minute. Don’t worry, though, because your “little alarm clocks” will remind you! (And use a safe stool or ladder.)
Over the course of the school year, the marks on the ceiling will trace out part of a pattern called the analemma, which is the apparent path of the sun in the sky as seen at the same time each day for a year. (To trace the full analemma, someone would have to come in during the summer months to continue marking the dot position at the appointed time.)
The analemma is a pattern that has been known for hundreds of years, and was printed in the middle of the Pacific Ocean on globes some time ago (see photo). Shadows of outside objects outdoors, such as the school flagpole, could also be used to generate an analemma.
Who knew that something as simple as gluing a mirror to a window sill could produce such a wide range of effects and invite so many questions?
Note that if you do decide to trace the analemma, be alert to when Daylight Savings Time comes and goes. We suggest keeping the same observation time, so that the children can see the curious effect of the change in path. In other words, if you had selected 11:30 AM as your “dot time” prior to the time change, continue using 11:30 AM after the change, even though the sun will be in a different location.
Resources
An example of the type of mirror, https://www.joann.com/big-value-mirrors-1-inch-round-25-pc/10232692.html
Lough, T., & Vanover, C. (2014, October). Find your School’s Analemma. Science and Children, 52(2): 55-59.
Connecting with other educators who share my interests and help me expand them is one of the benefits of writing for NSTA’s journal and blog. Guest blogger Tom Lough is a contributor to Science and Children and has taught science and science education classes at many levels. He is now a science education consultant in Round Rock, TX.
Welcome Tom!
Ed News: Igniting Students’ STEM Interest Begins With Education Their Teachers
By Kate Falk
Posted on 2018-09-21
This week in education news, Missouri Senate passes STEM awareness legislation; NSF awards 5 diversity grants under its new INCLUDES initiative; U.S. Congress pledges $71.5 billion in education funding for fiscal 2019; new framework developed to help define high-quality project-based learning; Arizona program instructs teachers on how to bring more engaging STEM lessons into their classrooms; and NSTA president discusses her ideas on science literacy and education at the World Conference on Science Literacy in Beijing.
Alternative Sentencing Courts, STEM Awareness Program Pass Senate
Legislation that expands alternative treatment courts and STEM education was finally passed by the Senate and sent to the governor. Many jobs that require training in STEM subjects — science, technology, engineering and math — are not being filled because schools are not training enough people, said Sen. Doug Libla, R-Poplar Bluff. Read the article featured in The Missourian.
What NSF’s New Diversity Grants Say About Attempts To Help Minority Students
Ted Hodapp has spent the past 5 years helping boost the number of minority students pursuing U.S. graduate degrees in physics. But Hodapp, who works on education and diversity issues at the American Physical Society in College Park, Maryland, knows the society’s Bridge Program will at best make only a small dent in the nationwide dearth of blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans working in all science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. He wanted an opportunity to show that Bridge’s approach—which starts by encouraging graduate schools to de-emphasize scores on the standardized GRE entrance exam in the student selection process—could work in other STEM disciplines and, in doing so, promote the value of diversity in U.S. higher education. Read the article featured in Science magazine.
Science Fair’ Documentary Makes Its Own Statement About Young Science Whizzes
That other film, “Science Fair,” produced by the National Geographic Society, opens in one New York City theater Friday and in other cities throughout the fall. “Science Fair,” directed by Cristina Constantini and Darren Foster, follows several groups around to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, meeting them in their home states or countries, watching as they nervously prepare to explain their projects to the judges and interact awkwardly with their peers, and waiting for the payoff—the awards presentations. Read the article featured in Education Week.
Appropriations Bill Sets Aside Over $71B For Ed, But Is It Enough?
A group of lawmakers from the U.S. House and Senate finalized a massive appropriations bill Thursday that would pledge $71.5 billion in education funding for fiscal 2019. But as school districts wait for President Donald Trump to sign the bill into law, many struggle, especially in the face of a new school year, to fund the bare necessities. Read the article featured in Education DIVE.
Defining High-Quality Project-Based Learning
A growing number of educators around the world believe that project-based learning (PBL) is an important instructional approach that allows students to master academic skills and content knowledge, develop skills necessary for future success, and build the personal agency needed to tackle life’s and the world’s challenges. Many districts are either already using PBL or are on the verge of using this approach in classrooms. Educators can find a wealth of resources on how to plan for and get started with PBL, but until recently, there were far fewer resources on what the outcome of high-quality student experiences ought to look like. Read the article featured in eSchool News.
Igniting Students’ STEM Interest Begins With Education Their Teachers
A program in the Arizona Science Center trains teachers how to bring more engaging STEM lessons to their classrooms. When 3rd grade STEM teacher Amanda Roum went to camp this summer, instead of playing games and learning archery, she developed a science curriculum. And after five days at the Arizona Science Center in Phoenix, she took that curriculum, along with the materials she needed, back to her classroom at the Tartesso Elementary School in Buckeye, Arizona — just in time for school to start in August. Read the article featured in Education DIVE.
World Conference On Science Literacy In Beijing: Talk By Christine Anne Royce
Christine Anne Royce, President of the US National Science Teachers Association, talks about her ideas on science literacy and education during the World Conference on Science Literacy in Beijing. Listen to her interview with China Daily.
Beyond STEM: Why AI Demands Higher-Level Skills
There is plenty of discussion about the need for STEM skills as the gateway to employment opportunities (and for employers, staffing requirements) in the artificial intelligence-enhanced economy ahead. But emphasizing STEM skills may not be enough — there needs to be a greater emphasis on the way people interact with each other and manage their workplace challenges. Shirley Malcom, for one, sees a need to recalibrate the educational system to not only teach STEM, but also lead and succeed in digital organizations. Malcom, head of education and human resources programs of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, says creating a workforce ready for the challenges of an AI and digital future requires teaching people to think differently. Read the article featured in Forbes magazine.
Cash-Strapped Teachers Are Getting Up Early To Tutor Students In China
Newhouse is one of the more than 60,000 American and Canadian tutors who work for VIPKid, a Beijing-based online English-tutoring company. Frustrated with their salaries and looking for second jobs they can work around school hours, some U.S. teachers have turned to teaching Chinese students online for a source of additional income. Peak tutoring times in China line up with early-morning hours on the East Coast and in the Midwest. Read the article featured in Education Week.
Stay tuned for next week’s top education news stories.
The Communication, Legislative & Public Affairs (CLPA) team strives to keep NSTA members, teachers, science education leaders, and the general public informed about NSTA programs, products, and services and key science education issues and legislation. In the association’s role as the national voice for science education, its CLPA team actively promotes NSTA’s positions on science education issues and communicates key NSTA messages to essential audiences.
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Small problems
By Gabe Kraljevic
Posted on 2018-09-21
I will be student teaching in a school with small classes – between 6 and 12 students. I find this to be challenging. Any suggestions or advice?
— M., Kansas
I have had a few small classes in my career and I found them to be great opportunities to delve deeply into topics, conduct some very interesting projects, and become a really cohesive group. I also discovered I could monitor and coach students much more effectively. The small class size helped me be more of a mentor than a teacher.
On a practical level, you can perform labs and experiments requiring elaborate or expensive supplies that would be impractical or even impossible with a bigger group. Larger projects are easier to manage and student presentations take less time overall. Coordinating field trips was not as cumbersome and I could take smaller classes to places that couldn’t accommodate larger numbers. Grading reports and other work was considerably less onerous. Because of the smaller scale, I was able to try some really innovative and new things with fewer headaches.
Surprisingly, we had better conversations and discussions. I thought my larger classes had good discussions, but as I reflect on it I believe it was the more extroverted students who would always participate and many students would simply listen. In the smaller classes, it was easier to coax quieter students to participate—there was no where to hide!
Attempt to view your smaller classes as opportunities to try some cool things.
Hope this helps!
I will be student teaching in a school with small classes – between 6 and 12 students. I find this to be challenging. Any suggestions or advice?
— M., Kansas
Legislative Update
Can Schools Use Federal Funds for Guns and Firearms Training?
By Jodi Peterson
Posted on 2018-09-19
A huge controversy over whether districts and states can use funds from the new federal education law to purchase guns and pay for firearms training is still ongoing, weeks after the issue first surfaced in an article published in the New York Times.
Earlier this summer two states asked the Department of Education if it was allowable to use the Every Student Succeeds Act ESSA Title IVA (Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants) grant funds to train and arm school marshals. The flexible block grant program under Title IVA Part authorizes activities in three broad areas:
- Providing students with a well-rounded education (e.g., college and career counseling, STEM, music and arts, civics, IB/AP, computer science)
- Supporting safe and healthy students (e.g., comprehensive school mental health, drug and violence prevention, training on trauma-informed practices, health and physical education) and
- Supporting the effective use of technology (e.g., professional development, blended and personalized learning, and devices). More on how Title iVA can be used for STEM education here.
A few weeks ago, Education Secretary DeVos indicated she would not take a position as to whether districts could use federal funding in ESSA for purchasing guns and providing firearms training saying that Congress—not the Administration—had to specify if Title IVA grant funds could be used for these purposes.
A letter from 44 Senate Democrats and a letter from 170 House Democrats have urged the Ed Secretary to expressly prohibit states or school districts from using federal funds to buy guns.
NSTA joined a number of other education groups on a September 19 letter calling on Secretary DeVos to clarify that Title IV-A funds should be used for their original intent and cites examples that support gun-free campuses in current law that “clearly shows that the Administration’s proposal is counter to congressional intent. “
A September 17 letter from a coalition of than 100 civil rights groups calls on Secretary DeVos to “immediately publicly clarify that ESSA funds cannot be used for weapons.”
Stay tuned.
FY 2019 Spending Bill Includes Gains for Education
On September 18 the Senate passed the final version of the FY2019 education appropriations bill that rejects the Administration’s request to eliminate key K-12 education programs and instead includes an increase in federal spending for education programs in FY2019.
The Labor, HHS, and Education FY2019 is part of a “mini-bus” bill that was paired with the Department of Defense spending bill and attached to a short tem continuing resolution (CR) that will fund other federal programs until December 7 (after the midterm elections).
The House will vote on the bill next week and then send the spending package to President Trump for his signature.
The Education Department overall would receive an additional $581 million compared to the current fiscal year funding.
The Title IV-A (the Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grant) under ESSA, which can be used by districts and states to fund STEM programs, will receive $1.17 billion, a $70 million increase over last year.
Title I funding was increased by $125 million and special education funding under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act was increased by $87 million to $12.4 billion.
Funding for charter schools was increased by $40 million, bringing the overall level to $440 million.
The Perkins Career and Technical Education program, received a $70 million increase up to $1.3 billion, and afterschool programs in Title IVB 21st Century Community Learning Centers received a slight increase of approximately $10 million for FY2019.
Read the bill here and check out the AIP budget tracker for STEM education here.
And finally,
NSTA joined other scientific associations to support University of Oklahoma meteorologist Kelvin Droegemeier’s nomination in the Senate to lead the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. The letter states “The President faces a wide range of domestic and international challenges, from protecting national and energy security, to ensuring U.S. economic competitiveness, curing diseases, bolstering agriculture and responding to natural disasters. These challenges share one thing in common: the need for scientific knowledge and technological expertise to address them successfully.” Read the letter here and more on the nominee here.
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.
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A huge controversy over whether districts and states can use funds from the new federal education law to purchase guns and pay for firearms training is still ongoing, weeks after the issue first surfaced in an article published in the New York Times.
Problem-Based Learning: An Essential Tool in Each K-12 Science Educator’s Toolkit
By Carole Hayward
Posted on 2018-09-19
Problem-based learning (PBL) is a strategy that is tailor made for teaching science. Under the PBL framework, students actively drive the learning process, one that takes them through rich and authentic, but incompletely defined, scenarios. This educational approach requires students to collaborate with others to analyze the problem that’s presented, ask questions, propose hypotheses, identify the information needed to solve the problem, and seek related information via literature searches and scientific investigations.
Implementing PBL for the classroom, however, can be challenging for science educators as curriculum resources are hard to find. That’s one of the reasons why veteran science educators Tom McConnell, Joyce Parker, and Janet Eberhardt teamed up to write Problem-Based Learning in the Physical Science Classroom. This book first takes readers through the overall PBL structure and discusses how it can be applied to the K-12 classroom. Then the authors share a collection of PBL problems which were developed by content experts who participated in the PBL Project for Teachers, a National Science Foundation –created professional development opportunity that used the PBL framework to help science educators develop a deeper understanding of science concepts across eight different content strands.
The authors also ensured that the problems they included are useful to science educators by including information that aligns the objectives and learning outcomes for each problem with the NGSS—and can be taught to learners with differing levels of prior knowledge.
The book’s chapters are arranged as follows:
- Chapter 1 discusses why PBL should be an essential tool in each teacher’s teaching toolbox. The authors provide background on how PBL was developed, how it works across a range of disciplines, and the basic framework for a PBL lesson.
- Chapter 2 covers the alignment of the PBL problems and the analytical framework of the NGSS.
- Chapter 3 takes science educators through strategies for facilitating the PBL lessons.
- Chapter 4 shares tips on how teachers can group students, manage information, and assess student learning throughout the process.
- Chapters 5-8 present designed and tested problems (describing motion, forces and motion, engineering energy transformations, or engineering, electricity and magnetism), show the NGSS alignment, and provide teacher and student resources about the science concept and the problem.
The authors readily acknowledge there are far more science problems that the 14 that they present in this book that would make excellent PBL topics. That’s why they included a final chapter, one that shares strategies for teachers to write their own PBL lessons and offer tips for creating problems that are “rich, engaging, and ideal for addressing the standards you need to teach.”
This book is the third volume in NSTA’s PBL series, the first of which presented life science problems and the second volume that offered problems specifically written for teaching Earth and space science.
“There is a lot to like about this text,” said Peggy Ertmer, professor emeritus of Learning Design and Technology at Purdue University, and founding editor of the Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning. “Implementing PBL is difficult for teachers, and few curriculum guides are available to support their efforts. This book fills that gap by providing the kinds of strategies and examples teachers need to facilitate open-ended inquiry in science classrooms.”
Read the free sample chapter, “Facilitating Problem-Based Learning,” to understand how to help students: function in a self-directed classroom; establish discussion guidelines and procedures, launch the problem, and generate hypotheses; develop a plan for gathering information; and share what they found. Teachers are given helpful information on how to assess their students’ learning and how to use the assessment results to respond to student needs.
This book is also available as an e-book. It’s also available as part of a set of three books: Problem-Based Learning in the Earth and Space, Life Science, and the Physical Science Classroom, K-12.
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Problem-based learning (PBL) is a strategy that is tailor made for teaching science. Under the PBL framework, students actively drive the learning process, one that takes them through rich and authentic, but incompletely defined, scenarios.
Ideas and inspiration from NSTA’s September 2018 K-12 journals
By Mary Bigelow
Posted on 2018-09-18
Whether you’re looking for ideas on systems thinking, adding strategies to your teaching repertoire, or creativity in science, this month’s K-12 journals have it all. Regardless of what grade level or subject you teach, check out all three journals. As you skim through the article titles and description, you may find ideas for lessons that would be interesting your students or the inspiration to adapt a lesson to your heeds or create/share your own.
NSTA members, as always, have access to the articles in all journals! Click on the links to read or add to your library.
Science Scope – Earth Systems
From the Editor’s Desk: Earth: The Ultimate Recycler “…I’ve found students don’t always easily comprehend the importance or the mechanisms behind geoscience processes. Even something as simple as the water cycle is fraught with misunderstanding as students tend to harbor ideas that range from thinking that the water coming from various sources in their house differs in terms of its potability, to thinking that the water from a water bottle has never been part of the water cycle.”
Articles in this issue that describe lessons (many of which use the 5E model) include a helpful sidebar documenting the big idea, essential pre-knowledge, time, safety issues, and cost. The lessons also include connections with the NGSS.
- Classroom-Scale Experiments in System-Scale Modeling With Application to the Global Cycle of Water and Energy shows how to connect modeling with experimentation, using energy flow in the water cycle as a context.
- Expand students’ knowledge and experiences of plate tectonics. Getting Beneath the Surface has a series of five activities that model how plate move.
- Students are interested in weather and weather patterns. The unit documented in When Air Masses Collide! Incorporates seven “investigations” (the last is a culminating assessment) on predicting the weather based on several variables.
- From the layers of the Grand Canyon to the hoodoos of Bryce Canyon, our National Parks have fascinating rock formations. The lesson in National Parks Investigation integrates learning about types of rocks and the rock cycle with exposure to the resources of the National Park system.
- Integrating Technology: Using Science and Technology to Protect Urban Water Sources involves students in an investigation of urban water quality. The authors share a graphic organizer/worksheet for students to compare data on two cities.
- Classic Lessons 2.0: Where Did the Leaves Go? updates a traditional lesson into a 5E investigation on how leaves decompose. The article includes examples of student work and suggestions for implementation.
- Teacher To Teacher: Using Phenomena to Drive Student Questions incorporates student questions and misconceptions about flooding in urban areas.
- Turn cloud gazing into Citizen Science: Cloudy With a Chance of “Cirrus” Science, using a NASA app.
- Graphs summarize and present data. If your students need a refresher on graphing,, Interdisciplinary Ideas: Data Literacy 101 has suggestions on choosing effective graphs for a variety of purposes and types of data.
- Scope on the Skies: Ozone: The Protective Layer Above Us has a refresher on the effects of ozone on climate.
These monthly columns continue to provide background knowledge and classroom ideas:
- Disequilibrium: The Connection Between Weather and Air Masses
- Science For All: Creating a Culturally Responsive Middle School Science Classroom
- Teacher’s Toolkit: Community Connections: Involving family in homework.
For more on the content that provides a context for projects and strategies described in this issue, see the SciLinks topics Air Masses, Biotic/Abiotic Factors, Clouds, Decomposers, Ecosystems, Flooding and Society, Floods, Greenhouse Effect, Ozone, Phases of Matter, Plate Tectonics, Rock Classification, Rock Cycle, UV Index, Tornadoes, U.S. National Parks, Water Cycle, Water Quality, Watersheds, Weather, Weather Forecasting
Keep reading for The Science Teacher and Science & Children.
The Science Teacher – Creative Thinking
Editor’s Corner: Creative Science “Problem- and project-based learning, authentic engineering tasks, and student-centered inquiry can all involve students in creative, complex problem-solving and design. And, Job security increasingly requires imagination and creativity. As routine tasks become digitized and automated, successful workers will be those who imagine and create. “
The lessons described in the articles include a chart showing connections with the NGSS. The graphics are especially helpful in understanding the activities and in providing ideas for your own investigations.
- Earth’s Energy Budget focuses on the relationships between energy, greenhouse gases, aerosols, and temperature. The article includes a description of the Energy Budget Model and samples of student explanations.
- Learning Biology Through Molecular Storytelling uses a storytelling approach along with data from the Protein Data Bank (URL provided) to help students connect the shapes of biomolecules with their functions.
- In The Bold Fold activity, students create protein models while studying transcription, translation, and protein folding. The authors include their research on student learning using this model.
- There are stories in every data set. Data Jams has advice on using a model to improve students’ data literacy, analyze scientific research, and share their findings. The authors share their experiences and include photographs of student projects.
- Infographics are another form of story telling. Creative Visual Representation shows how students can synthesize data sources to support a claim in a visual format. The examples provided show infographics as alternatives to research papers, in poster sessions, and as reinforcement.
- In addition to Focus on Physics: Making Sense of Distribution Curves, the author includes action research on the distribution of grades as a context/example.
- Artists can apply their talents in science, as described in Career of the Month: Medical Artist.
These monthly columns continue to provide background knowledge and classroom ideas: Right to the Source: Coloring the Russian Empire One Photograph at a Time
For more on the content that provides a context for projects and strategies described in this issue, see the SciLinks topics Biomolecules, Blackbody Radiation, Climate Change, Communication Skills, DNA, Energy in the Atmosphere, Eukaryotic Cell Structures, Graphing Data, Organelles, Proteins, Sickle Cell Disease, Transcription, Translation, UV Index
Science & Children – Teaching Strategies
Editor’s Note: Finding a Way — With so much going on in the classroom, above and below the surface, a teacher needs to have a wheelbarrow full of strategies to help deal with the expected and not-so-expected events.
The lessons described in the articles have a chart showing connections with the NGSS. Many are based on the 5E (or 7E) model and include classroom materials, illustrations of student work, and photographs of students engaged in the activities.
- Don’t get turned off by the title! Killing Two Birds With One Stone describes ways to integrate reading/writing with science through interactive notebooks. Samples of student pages are included.
- Science Is “RAD” also addresses notebooking, including strategies for helping students with disabilities or who need additional support. (RAD is a mnenomic for Record-Analyze-Develop an Explanation as a writing strategy).
- Asking questions about meaningful issues can involve elementary students. Debate, Dialogue, and Democracy Through Science! incorporates the Socioscientific Issues framework to increase students’ “science content knowledge, understanding of the nature of science, quality of argumentation abilities, and characteristics for global citizenship, including empathy and perspective taking” The sample lesson shows students learning about the characteristics and value of wetlands using hands-on activities and trade books.
- Engaging in Argumentation shows how argumentation and the 5E model can be integrated, including suggestions for students who are English Language Learners. A useful diagram illustrates the integration, along with graphic organizers and photos of student work.
- Testing Oil Spill Cleanup Methods Ethically incorporates engineering practices and discussion about ethics as students design strategies to clean up an oil spill.
- Engineering Encounters: The Soda Can Crusher Challenge also involves students in the engineering design process.
- The author of The Early Years: Begin With Open Exploration where students “acquire hands-on knowledge of what they know and begin to wonder, think, and raise questions.” The included lesson Exploring Isopods has an example of this open exploration.
- In addition to recommending trade books, Teaching Through Trade Books: Biological Diversity: In the Present and in the Past has lessons on Honing Into Habitats (K-2) and Looking at Living Fossils (3-5).
- Methods and Strategies: Hiding in Plain Sight also addresses integrating literacy and 5E science lessons through trade books.
These monthly columns continue to provide background knowledge and classroom ideas:
- Teaching Teachers: Seeing the Struggle and Reaping the Rewards — A Pathway for Beginning to Explore the Next Generation Science Standards
- The Poetry of Science: Teaching Strategies
- Science 101: How Can I Make Science Fun and Have Students Learn More By Using Phenomenon-Based Learning? (a Background Booster for teachers on electric circuits, magnets, speed and motion)
For more on the content that provides a context for projects and strategies described in this issue, see the SciLinks topics Biodiversity, Buoyancy, Electric Current, Fishes, Food Chains, Forces and Motion, Fossils, Habitats, Insects, Magnets, Plant Growth, Reading and Writing in Science, Water Quality, Wetlands
Whether you’re looking for ideas on systems thinking, adding strategies to your teaching repertoire, or creativity in science, this month’s K-12 journals have it all. Regardless of what grade level or subject you teach, check out all three journals. As you skim through the article titles and description, you may find ideas for lessons that would be interesting your students or the inspiration to adapt a lesson to your heeds or create/share your own.
NSTA members, as always, have access to the articles in all journals! Click on the links to read or add to your library.
Isopods—your favorite animal? Children are fascinated
By Peggy Ashbrook
Posted on 2018-09-18
What you call these small animals probably depends on where you grew up. Pillbug, sowbug, roly-poly, woodlice, potato bug, cochinilla, slater, and Armadillidium vulgare are some of the names I’ve heard for my favorite animal, the isopod. What kind of animal is it? To answer this question begin by making close observations, taking comfort in knowing that they will not scratch, bite, or sting you, and they don’t smell bad and are not sticky. And they are relatively sturdy animals that can be handled without damaging them, and the common land species are plentiful in many places so are not endangered. Avoid touching other invertebrates such as spiders, bees, and centipedes because they may bite or sting. And wash your hands after handling the isopods, just in case.
Searching for isopods, observing their behavior, and where they are found introduces children to a kind of animal that likes damp places. Reading about them, creating a container habitat, and caring for the isopods provides young children with multiple occasions to observe their body structure and learn that they are different from familiar animals such as worms, caterpillars and butterflies, fish, birds, and pet dogs in many ways. Children build on their prior experiences each time they are engaged with a science concept. Using a simple hand lens will reveal small details. Taking and enlarging digital photographs is also a good way to see small body parts.
Any enclosed habitat becomes soiled over time and needs to be refreshed. Children delight in misting the container with water and adding leaves. Your isopods will need some fresh soil and decaying vegetable matter, preferably from the area where you found them.
I wrote about the value of children’s open exploration of phenomenon and materials in the Early Years column in the September 2018 Science and Children. The activity page, “Exploring Isopods,” gives beginning instructions for implementing this open exploration. Learn more about open exploration in the Young Scientist books. See other articles in Science and Children about learning through observing isopods by searching on the “Your Elementary Classroom” page or in the NSTA Learning Center for “isopod.” I’m not the only educator who likes these animals!
Online there are scientific studies about these cute animals and an International Symposium on Terrestrial Isopod Biology. Here are two online sites that have additional information for children and educators. How will your children share what they learn through observation?
Featured Creatures, Entomology and Nematology Department, University of Florida.
http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/MISC/Armadillidium_vulgare.htm
BioKids, Kids’ Inquiry of Diverse Species
http://www.biokids.umich.edu/critters/Armadillidium_vulgare/
What you call these small animals probably depends on where you grew up. Pillbug, sowbug, roly-poly, woodlice, potato bug, cochinilla, slater, and Armadillidium vulgare are some of the names I’ve heard for my favorite animal, the isopod. What kind of animal is it? To answer this question begin by making close observations, taking comfort in knowing that they will not scratch, bite, or sting you, and they don’t smell bad and are not sticky.
Feature
Place-Based Education
Connecting to STEM Learning Experiences
Connected Science Learning July-September 2018 (Volume 1, Issue 7)
By Sarah Waters, Brandon Schroeder, and Tracy D'Augustino
The Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative (GLSI) is a statewide network in Michigan that promotes rigorous place-based education experiences for K–12 students. This article focuses on the Northeast Michigan GLSI (NEMIGLSI)—one of nine regional GLSI hubs—and uses case studies to illustrate how PBE can accomplish Great Lakes Literacy goals (Fortner and Manzo 2011) and provide environmental science, technology, engineering, and math (E-STEM) opportunities. Facilitated by Michigan State University Extension, Michigan Sea Grant, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, and other leadership partners, the NEMIGLSI network empowers youth to be valued partners in protecting our Great Lakes and natural resources through hands-on learning in and with their rural communities.
Credit: NEMIGLSI
A focus on place-based education
Place-based education (PBE) is a process that connects students with their local environment by addressing real community issues while meeting education requirements. As an instructional strategy. Meaningful PBE brings together three things in a meaningful way: (1) student achievement, (2) environmental protection and stewardship, and (3) community vitality. PBE can provide experiences that are relevant to students’ lives and local context, offering students the opportunity to gain and apply knowledge through firsthand experiences and collaborative work with others in community. The NEMIGLSI network plays an important role in these projects by:
- facilitating school–community partnerships,
- providing sustained professional development for educators and community partners, and
- directly supporting innovative, collaborative, student-driven PBE projects.
NEMIGLSI network’s educational strategy is framed in national place- and community-based literature, research, and best practices (Smith and Sobel 2010; Woodhouse and Knapp 2000; Yoder 2012; Demarest 2015).
Credit: NEMIGLSI
Credit: NEMIGLSI
Connecting citizen science and place-based education
We overlay PBE learning strategies with applied STEM experiences (Schroeder et al. 2016), thus positioning youth as leaders and contributors among a diversity of projects and opportunities. Some of these include citizen science experiences, in which members of the public collect data for use by scientists. These activities allow students to contribute to research, monitoring, and a better understanding of our natural resources. Citizen science programs also often feature simple protocols for registering, implementing, and reporting research and findings, making them both teacher- and family-friendly. In northeast Michigan, teachers, 4-H educators, and informal educators (e.g., museums, visitor centers) have collaborated since 2007 on citizen science STEM learning using the PBE framework by partnering through the NEMIGLSI network. Many of these regional, national, or global citizen science projects (such as Adopt-a-Beach, Monarch Watch, and iNaturalist) were unknown in northeast Michigan until NEMIGLSI network students took on the projects. Local student involvement often inspired other schools and community groups to get involved. For example, there are now many new Adopt-a-Beach sites in northeast Michigan, a new trend resulting from student-inspired projects. In this way, students are leaders in inspiring these citizen science values and opportunities among our northeast Michigan schools and communities.
A wealth of existing citizen science projects, such as the Alliance for the Great Lakess Adopt-a-Beach program, University of Kansas’ Monarch Watch, and the online iNaturalist biodiversity mapping project, have been adopted by classrooms across our NEMIGLSI network because they also align with classroom learning or school improvement goals. These existing projects can be used as standalone opportunities or together with PBE projects designed by students with their teacher. For example, one network school started a pollinator garden project on its campus and during the planning phase, they began using Monarch Watch with kindergarten classes. Combining Monarch Watch with garden explorations around the community allowed the school to meet Next Generation Science Standard K-LS1-1: Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive (NGSS Lead States 2013).
Our network and partnerships are less focused on promoting specific projects with schools, and more about encouraging schools and educators to seek citizen science project opportunities that align with school learning goals; connect youth with the Great Lakes science community; serve a value in the local community context; and are exciting, meaningful, and engaging for the youth.
Students have locally conserved Lake Huron’s biodiversity, mapped threatened and endangered species habitats, restored native fisheries, monitored vernal pools, preserved cultural resources, and cleaned up marine debris alongside Great Lakes scientists and natural resource professionals. These projects helped students address critical Great Lakes and local environmental issues—and at the same time, students learned important content as part of their regular school curriculum. Many of these projects were launched as a result of citizen science connections that schools and educators have made with the Great Lakes science community, and they have rather organically grown into afterschool and informal education opportunities.
Evaluation of our efforts
Our network used an evaluative case study to highlight how PBE strategies can foster environmental stewardship and civic engagement among youth (Gallay et al. 2016). In responding to the questions, “What did you most value about the project?” and “Anything else you would like us to know concerning your opinions about the stewardship project, or learning about the environment, or how the stewardship project affected you personally?” many students referenced the human community (n = 87; 32%); that is, people or members of the public who would benefit from their work. One student stated, “The thing I most valued is the fact that the beach is going to be clean for this summer, that way more people will enjoy it.” Students also mentioned benefits to the environmental commons (natural resources accessible to all members of a society and held in common, such as air and water) and nonhuman species (n = 75; 27%). For example, one student said, “What I valued most about our stewardship project was the fact that we helped the environment and now it is cleaner for the wildlife.” Another 20% (n = 56) of the responses referred, in general, to making a difference through their actions without specifying human or nonhuman species as beneficiaries, such as the student who wrote, “Knowing the water is clean, that is what makes me happy or proud” (Gallay et al. 2016).
A Michigan Sea Grant evaluation report, Place-Based Education: Engagement From the Student Perspective (Rote, Schroeder, and Augustino 2015), documents that our students value PBE experiences because they are hands-on, engaging, community-connected, career-oriented, and fun. In the open-ended written surveys administered to students, “fun” was the most common answer to the questions “Why should students take this science class?” and “Why did you choose to take this class?” Without being prompted or offered options, 32.69% to 37.65% of students used the word “fun” as they answered these questions.”
Rote et al. (2015) later explained that “fun” became a catchphrase for activities and projects that were both meaningful and actively engaged in “doing.” This concept of “doing” signifies more than just hands-on activities; it means actively engaging students’ bodies and minds in a purpose-driven endeavor. In analyzing the data, we determined that students describe something as “fun” when the three goals of place-based education—student achievement, environmental protection and stewardship, and community vitality—come together in a meaningful way. “Fun” for place-based education means actively doing something, with purpose, in the community. In terms of hands-on learning, a sixth-grade student compared her place-based class to her previous science class. She said, “In science last year, we never went on a field trip. We just did boring science and we hated it. But this year we actually get to do hands-on activities and it’s so fun” (Rote, Schroeder, and Augustino 2015).
Advice from years of our PBE work
Over the years, the evaluation of our efforts has resulted in the following seven pieces of advice, which can help others get started with place-based education:
- Explore a wide variety of locally relevant citizen science options through a place-based education lens.
- Start simple and grow into opportunities.
- Feature youth voices.
- Look to your community partners for potential projects.
- Seek out educational values in the data your students collected.
- Gain a global perspective through your local findings.
- Raise interest and awareness about regional (such as Great Lakes) issues through public outreach. Share your projects and findings with your community.
1. Explore options
PBE frames questions in the context of local, environmental, and community needs. There are two main approaches to designing and implementing a PBE project. The first approach begins without an identified issue. Either in the classroom or after school, students brainstorm local problems by reading local newspapers and community social sites, looking for areas of concern. They can also ask local civic groups or public land managers about the issues they have already identified. This approach allows youth to learn about the different organizations and agencies that support their community. Once a list of issues is developed, teachers need to look for connections to their educational requirements.
PBE is only sustainable in a school setting when it connects with state- and district-required learning to ensure support from administrators. When the list has been reduced to concerns that connect to the required learning, return the list to students. PBE is most effective when it is youth-driven. Ask students to explore potential solutions to the problem or opportunities to be a part of the research.
In the second approach, the teacher or a community partner has already identified an issue, such as trash on the beach, invasive species, or habitat health. This method is often best suited for younger students and afterschool opportunities. Depending on students’ age, teachers may introduce the problem along with the solution or encourage youth to discover the solution through strategic questioning and research.
Photo credit: NEMIGLSI.
Case study
A Michigan Natural Features Inventory researcher expressed a need for citizen help in looking for suitable habitat for the threatened Hines emerald dragonfly. The request was passed along by the Department of Natural Resources to a teacher and then to a local 4-H club, which took on this citizen science project of searching the park and documenting potential habitat for this threatened species.
Credit: NEMIGLSI
2. Start simple and grow into opportunities
Established programs can be a great way to get started with a PBE project. These monitoring efforts can lead to future in-depth studies and opportunities. In these cases, citizen science protocols are typically already in place, so less work is needed to connect your students to the effort. You just need to identify an area of interest and see whether there are citizen science opportunities available. Some established programs include iNaturalist, the Great Backyard Bird Count, and Monarch Watch. Additional projects can be found on the SciStarter website.
Case study
Many PBE and citizen science projects arise from an individual or group’s interest in and knowledge of an existing opportunity. An Alpena middle school teacher and 150 students started with the established Adopt-a-Beach clean-up, an existing citizen science program coordinated by the Alliance for the Great Lakes. Students identified the ultimate goal of stopping marine debris from ever being a problem in the first place, and began by removing debris from local beachfront parks and recording the type and weight of litter they found. The collected data were added to the Alliance for the Great Lakes database, and mapped to reveal locations with common litter problems across the Great Lakes. Excited by the efforts of the middle school students, other local youth formed an afterschool club through 4-H and began a local public awareness campaign about the issue of marine debris.
The Alpena middle school teacher faced a common problem in middle and high schools—limited time and a large number of students. The Adopt-a-Beach program was a great way for her to engage all of her students and provide them with opportunities to collect data and participate in rich scientific conversations back in the classroom. This teacher used the data to discuss the movement of water along the coast and through the city, the impact of humans on both the land and water, and changes to the land due to human activity and water movement.
Credit: NEMIGLSI
3. Feature youth voices
Establish and document a clear role for students in exploring, selecting or designing, and locally delivering the citizen science project. In 2012 Jon Yoder (a former teacher) authored Connecting Classrooms to the Community, which includes examples and lessons to get youth and their communities involved in exploring issues and selecting projects relevant to their local place and community. Examples of youth voice can be found throughout the PBE efforts detailed in this article.
Case study
Through the Alpena middle school Adopt-A-Beach cleanup and data analysis, students discovered that a large percentage of the trash on beaches was composed of cigarette butts. Outraged by this discovery, students asserted their voice by enlisting the help of their teacher to reach out to their city council and mayor. During a city council meeting, students reported the problem using their data. They also suggested solutions, such as putting cigarette receptacles at the city beaches. The mayor later visited students in their classroom to report that not only was the city going to purchase the suggested receptacles, but it had also passed an ordinance making it illegal to smoke on the city beaches.
4. Look to your community partners for potential projects
Both teachers and informal educators in the NEMIGLSI network recognize that local, organically developed projects can guide great citizen science experiences. They often identify local scientific research or restoration efforts within their community to get started. Students are often found working alongside a diversity of research and resource experts, supporting existing projects or even receiving support for their own youth initiative or research project. Regardless of the research or investigative project, youth are valued as citizen science contributors and are well-supported by a network of locally present science and research experts—a tremendous science career exploration and mentorship value.
Case study
Students began exploring their local public lands after connecting with researchers and volunteers from the Michigan Natural Features Inventory (MNFI). One MNFI project, Vernal Pool Patrol, focuses on monitoring and identifying vernal pools. Classrooms in AuGres, Roscommon, and Alpena, Michigan, have been able to identify vernal pools on their school grounds or in walkable public areas near their schools, and 4-H clubs have taken on vernal pool monitoring further afield in local state parks. In both cases, students fulfill a monitoring protocol with the help of volunteers and agency partner staff in the spring and fall each year, contributing their local data to the statewide MNFI database.
Credit: NOAA, Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary
5. Seek out the educational values in the data your students collected
Typically, participants in established citizen science programs report findings to a researcher or organizational partner leading the citizen science project or to an online database; but science learning need not end there. Supporting student analysis and communication about the data they collect is a great way to immerse students in the process of science. This may also enhance inquiry-based learning opportunities about locally relevant natural resource topics and issues.
Case study
When several teachers at Au Gres-Sims school, part of the NEMIGLSI PBE network, decided they wanted to take on a citizen science project that could extend over multiple years, help the local environment, and generate data to use in the classroom, they looked to community partners to take students to a nearby island preserve struggling with an influx of invasive species. Huron Pines and Saginaw Valley State University became lead partners, with Huron Pines aiding in the controlling of the invasive species and Saginaw Valley analyzing genetic diversity from specimens collected by students. Now, three years into the project, students continue to identify, map, and measure invasive species, sharing this information with their partners. Students also discuss the data they collect, graphing and comparing the data each year with past years to determine the effectiveness of the controls used by Huron Pines. Learning to identify invasive species and native threatened species has provided a springboard for additional classroom learning opportunities.
Credit: NEMIGLSI
6. Gain a global perspective and connections through your local findings.
Citizen science participants, by definition, are part of a collaborative project with professional scientists. Although many projects have a large-scale focus, they depend on reliable local data. Youth can focus on a global-scale issue by collecting data locally through statewide and regional partners and programs.
Case study
In recent years, population levels for monarch butterflies have dropped immensely, causing serious concern for both biologists and butterfly lovers alike. To monitor and track their migration, scientists work with schools and community members to promote a citizen science tagging effort. Youth from Alcona Elementary School mark butterflies using a very small identifying sticker, and then they record data related to each butterfly. Butterflies are then released to continue their migration to Mexico. When the marked butterflies are recaptured, scientists can learn a great deal about survival, population health, and migration patterns. This citizen science project led by Monarch Watch also offers a hands-on educational opportunity to learn about monarch butterfly habitats, life cycles, and migratory patterns—while contributing to science.
Credit: NEMIGLSI
7. Raise interest and awareness through public outreach
Through these PBE projects, students raise awareness among the public about complex issues. Community members and media often take note when students get involved. This connection offers a great opportunity for youth to communicate about topics or issues important to them.
Case study
After reading about invasive species in the Great Lakes, Ella White Elementary school students traveled to their local river to investigate what different invasive species might be present. As a part of this effort, students used nets to trawl for microplastics, a human-made “invader,” and interpreted their results in the classroom. Surprised by the plastic fibers they found in the water, students wanted to share this information with their community by developing a film about the issue and solutions to the problem.
Before filmmaking, students researched the topic of marine debris and found that microplastics are a problem in both our Great Lakes and oceans. Students consulted with fisheries and microplastics experts to verify their findings. Next, students outlined the film’s goals and created a storyboard. Students also crafted props, recorded audio, and captured video footage.
The Northeast Michigan Earth Day Bag Project, an effort through which third-, fourth-, and fifth-graders learn about the harms of and solutions to single-use plastics pollution in our Great Lakes and oceans, used the film as an educational tool. After watching Plastics 101 and discussing the information, students across northeast Michigan decorated paper bags with conservation messages, which were distributed to customers at local grocery stores on Earth Day. These collective efforts allowed students’ findings about plastics in their local river to be shared across a wide audience.
Credit: NEMIGLSI
Guiding principles for place-based stewardship education
To support these ongoing educational efforts in northeast Michigan and other state network hubs, the GLSI, with support from the Great Lakes Fishery Trust, developed a PBE framework, including guiding principles and a rubric to help guide teachers, partners, and students in efforts that often use citizen science as a tool for learning. These new Guiding Principles for Exemplary Place-Based Stewardship Education include a set of principles codeveloped by the GLSI hubs, with support from the U.S. Environmental Protect Agency, and reviewed by six national experts. The principles are now being enacted by all GLSI hubs across the urban–rural spectrum. The principles and other knowledge products associated with them, along with the work supported by the NEMIGLSI and other GLSI hubs, help describe and bring to life a pedagogical strategy and evidence-based best practices that can powerfully engage and develop students as knowledgeable, effective partners in Great Lakes stewardship.
PBE offers a framework through which students can contribute to real-world, meaningful citizen science efforts through their learning and leadership at school and after school in their communities. PBE and citizen science are grounded in STEM learning. The opportunities shared here were selected from a wide variety of efforts from a regional network of teachers and informal educators that describe a place-based education strategy that lies not in the details of a specific citizen science project, but rather in the instructional process and school–community partnerships. This is all centered on engaging youth, through their learning, in environmental stewardship projects that are real and relevant in their local context. In this way, a variety of potential citizen science partners and projects are made available to educators and students, allowing choice and flexibility in projects that are exciting, age-appropriate, and a good fit for targeted learning goals. Citizen science opportunities are a great way to get everyone involved.
Sarah Waters (sarah.a.waters@noaa.gov) is education and outreach coordinator at the Thunder Bay Marine Sanctuary in Alpena, Michigan. Brandon Schroeder (schroe45@anr.msu.edu) is a Sea Grant extension educator in Northeast Michigan with Michigan State University Extension. Tracy D’Augustino (daugustt@anr.msu.edu) is a science educator with Michigan State University Extension.
Ed News: Climate Change Is Not Up For Debate.
By Kate Falk
Posted on 2018-09-14
This week in education news, West Virginia hasn’t externally tested whether the SAT test’s “Analysis in Science” section actually measures what students are learning in their science classrooms; New Teacher Center unveils new coaching standards; teachers face barriers to using data in the classroom, including a lack of time and training to put data to work for students; and national teachers group confront climate denial.
WV Hasn’t Externally Tested SAT’s Alignment To State’s Science Standards
The West Virginia Department of Education hasn’t yet had an external, independent study done of whether the SAT test’s “Analysis in Science” section actually measures what Mountain State students are learning in their science classrooms. The department, nevertheless, plans to report SAT science scores to the federal government, at least for last school year. Read the article featured in the Charleston Gazette-Mail.
New Teacher Center Releases Instructional Coaching Standards
The Santa Cruz, California-based New Teacher Center has released standards for instructional coaching programs and practices that are intended to improve teacher effectiveness, support teacher leadership, and create more equitable learning experiences for students. Read the brief featured in Education DIVE.
Climate Change Is Not Up For Debate. Why Do So Many Teachers Act Like It Is?
Is it hot enough for you? Five of the hottest years on record have occurred in the last eight years. It’s not just temperature. This summer, the Mendocino Complex Fire became the largest in recorded California history. From simple increases in temperatures to complex feedback effects on ocean currents, weather patterns, and hydrological cycles, the consequences of human-driven climate change are no longer distant theoretical threats, but the subject of near-daily headline news. And yet far too many students are still not learning about this urgent problem in their science classrooms. Read the commentary featured in Education Week.
Survey: More Than Half Of Teachers Say They Don’t Have Enough Time To Dig Into Data
More than 90% of teachers report using data — test scores, graduation and absenteeism rates, and behavior in the classroom — to understand how their students are progressing, according to the Data Quality Campaign’s (DQC) first-ever survey of teachers’ views on data. But the results, released Wednesday, also show that more than half of the 762 K-12 teachers responding — 57% — say they don’t have enough time during the school day to dig into students’ data, and more than 40% placed most of the responsibility for creating time to work with data on principals and district leaders. Read the brief featured in Education DIVE.
National Teachers Group Confronts Climate Denial: Keep The Politics Out Of Science Class
In response to what it sees as increasing efforts to undermine the teaching of climate science, the nation’s largest science teachers association took the unusual step Thursday of issuing a formal position statement in support of climate science education. Read the article featured on Inside Climate News.
Teach Like It’s Summer School All Year Long
Middle school teachers in southern Wisconsin’s Janesville School District spent the summer giving kids opportunities to learn while doing. They gave them real-world problems to solve, they sent them outside to explore, they prioritized hands-on projects. In this modern summer school, where more students enroll for the enrichment opportunities than to make up credits, teachers have a greater incentive to make learning fun. Read the article featured in The Hechinger Report.
Hope Brown can make $60 donating plasma from her blood cells twice in one week, and a little more if she sells some of her clothes at a consignment store. It’s usually just enough to cover an electric bill or a car payment. This financial juggling is now a part of her everyday life—something she never expected almost two decades ago when she earned a master’s degree in secondary education and became a high school history teacher. Brown often works from 5 a.m. to 4 p.m. at her school in Versailles, Ky., then goes to a second job manning the metal detectors and wrangling rowdy guests at Lexington’s Rupp Arena. With her husband, she also runs a historical tour company for extra money. Read the article featured in TIME.
Stay tuned for next week’s top education news stories.
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