What do you think of the value of extended field trips? What should be considered?
– M., Florida

I love field trips and students often say that they are the highlights of school! Whether it is extended or just a single day, going outside the school gives students a chance to observe or experience things much better than videos or text. You also introduce them to enthusiastic professionals and role-models. However, I always made sure that field trips weren’t just walking around with our hands in our pockets.

Scout out what the field trip is all about and look for hands-on and authentic experiences. Most places will allow teachers to tour their facilities and check things out with no cost. Don’t be afraid to ask for modifications to suit your class – you are the customer and you know what your students need! I always made sure that a field trip wasn’t a completely isolated event. So, I recommend planning some preparatory and follow up activities. Make sure that your field trip fits your curriculum.

There are several things to consider on extended field trips: travel, time and cost. Ask yourself if you can do the same activities in your classroom for less? Can you borrow equipment or have outside people come to your class and run activities? Can you manage taking students out yourself?

I’d also ask the students for their feedback after a field trip. I often passed their comments on to whomever we visited or used the information to make changes myself.

Hope this helps!

Photo Credit: USembassy via Wikimedia Commons

The easy answer to this question is “it depends.” It depends on the reason for providing the experience and the particular materials for young children to use. Of course children often set up their own tinkering experiences using materials at hand and may or may not have a goal in mind. I want all children to have these kinds of open-ended experiences, yes and, also have some guided making experiences to learn about construction techniques they might not discover on their own.

C. Heroman, Webinar: Making and Tinkering with STEM

The National Association for the Education of Young Children’s social media site, “Hello,” has a discussion on the topic of tinkering moderated by Cate Heroman, author of Making and Tinkering with STEM: Solving Design Challenges with Young Children.  Heroman also presented a webinar on the topic.  She adapts the Boston Children’s Museum’s definitions of “tinkering,” “making,” and “engineering.”

The Boston Children’s Museum and the National Grid Massachusetts produced a Tinker Kit: Educators’ Guide  to “inspire you to use everyday materials—scissors, paper, egg cartons, pipe cleaners—to help young children develop the muscles in their hands, practice their fine motor skills, and explore materials to understand how they work.”

The “Making Is Fun but Are They Learning?” video from the research-practice partnership, the California Tinkering Afterschool Network (CTAN), provides guidance on preparing to teach or facilitate children’s making. “Maker educators and facilitators need hands-on opportunities to try and learn through the same making activities that they will later facilitate with young learners. Professional development for making should involve:

• Engaging in discussions about equity
• providing first-hand experiences with Making
• Exploring how to develop a culture of inquiry
• Positioning students as experts, mentors, and coaches”

Read the comment section with responses from Bronwyn Bevan and other presenters for more insight about how Making can support children’s STEM learning and help educators allow “youth to struggle through their questions and come to their own (and therefore owned) understanding.” The youth involved with CTAN were older than the early childhood years but the insights apply to educators working with younger children.

“They are driven to become fluent with STEM concepts and practices in order to succeed in what they themselves want to do.”

“Particularly for educators without formal STEM backgrounds, there is a danger that getting the product “right” and “done” can take precedence over allowing youth to struggle through their questions and come to their own (and therefore owned) understanding. Or in the context of Making, that educators might adopt a step-by-step building approach in which nothing really can go wrong. Everybody gets the same thing right and done at the same time; and so learning is somewhat limited. (We think by the way that there is a place for such step-by-step activities, but as stepping stones for more ambitious, creative, and open-ended work.)” 

The Making as a Strategy for Afterschool STEM Learning Report from CTAN Research-Practice Partnership describes tinkering as “educative Making…organized around Open-Ended Inquiry—learners develop an individual idea or goal for making  something and figure out how to accomplish it.” The report says that tinkering “can provide a concrete purpose and relevance for engaging in STEM concepts and practices” (page 1).  

Some additional resources from the California Tinkering Afterschool Network (CTAN) to reflect on as you consider the way you include or plan to include tinkering as part of your educational practice: 

• Equity in Afterschool Resources section 
• “Tinkering as the Context for Equity-Oriented STEM Learning” video and accompanying blog post, Learning and Equity: Tinkering Afterschool Program, about the Tinkering Afterschool Program collaboration between the Exploratorium and Boys & Girls Clubs of San Francisco.

In case you haven’t gotten to it yet, the entire March 2018 issue of Science and Children focused on making. I wrote about honoring children’s capacity to engage in science and engineering practices and design solutions for problems by promoting open-ended making of solutions that arise out of their own experiences.

If you want to get experience tinkering yourself, consider signing up for the Coursera course, “Tinkering Fundamentals: Motion and Mechanisms” by Exploratorium at coursera.org 

How beneficial and effective can inquiry-based learning be at the younger elementary school grades (K-2)? What are some ideas for incorporating this type of learning at this level?
—K., Wyoming

I would argue the only way to teach science to our youngest students is through inquiry! 

Humans were born with innate curiosity and a willingness to experiment. Why not tap into those built-in characteristics and provide students the opportunity to observe, experiment and reach conclusions on topics of their choice?

Make science hands-on and judiciously guide students with questions. Have them record data in interesting ways that include counting, measuring, representing values with icons or pictures, and use language. Don’t underestimate a child’s ability to observe: when he was kindergarten-aged, my son asked me, “Why do sunrises look like rainbows?” I was about to answer that they don’t, but then looked out the window to observe…the full spectrum of colors! Watch for misconceptions that we tend to pick up very early in life. Teach your students observation skills and how to explain things using evidence.

Teach students the safe use of magnifying glasses and have them go outside to look at grass, weeds, trees, insects, wood, metal, concrete, and so on. Create little exploration stations and give them cameras to record what they observe, organize the photos and explain. Don’t have preconceived ideas of what you want from the stations, encourage out-of-the-box thinking. Don’t be afraid that you might not have the answers for them.

Have fun.

Hope this helps!

Last week the U.S. Department of Education published three notices in the Federal Register inviting applications for the Education Innovation and Research Program’s Early-phase, Mid-phase, and Expansion competitions.  A priority for these grants is to improve student achievement or other educational outcomes in one or more of the following areas: science, technology, engineering, math, or computer science.

(As you will recall late last year the President asked the Department of Education to create a priority for STEM and Computer Science in existing discretionary federal grants.)

Also last week the Department hosted a webinar highlighting these grant programs and reviewed the priorities to support STEM and Computer Science education. You can access the recorded webinar here. Read the ED press release here.

The Department is seeking individuals interested in becoming a peer reviewer for these grants.  More information can be found here on the call for peer reviewers posted on the EIR website.

ED Office of Civil Rights Highlights STEM Advanced Course Taking Disparities

A new study released last week from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights reveals stark racial disparities when it comes to students’ access to advanced coursework in STEM subjects.

White students made up nearly half of the 14.6 million students in schools that offered Algebra I in eighth grade and more than half of the students enrolled in Algebra I in eighth grade.

By comparison, black students made up 17 percent of the students in schools that offered the course and just 11 percent of the students enrolled. Latino students made up a quarter of students in schools that offered the course and 18 percent of the students enrolled.

The data also shows that high schools with high percentages of black and Latino students are less likely to offer math and science courses like calculus, physics, chemistry and advanced math.

Read the Department of Education press release, the STEM Course Study pdf, and the Education Week article.

Supporting a Skilled Technical Workforce Focus of Legislation/NSF Grants

The House Science Committee unanimously approved a bipartisan bill that would direct the National Science Foundation to support several new grant programs focused on mentoring, training, and apprenticeships in STEM fields.

 “Innovations in Mentoring, Training, and Apprenticeships Act” would direct the National Science Foundation to issue grants and support research focused on the “skilled technical workforce,” defined as “workers with high school diplomas and two-year technical training or certifications who employ significant levels of STEM knowledge in their jobs.”

The legislation would also authorize $5 million per year over four years for grants to community colleges to “develop or improve” associate degree and certificate programs in high-demand STEM fields and $2.5 million per year over four years for grants to support universities that partner with employers “that commit to offering apprenticeships, internships, research opportunities, or applied learning experiences” to students pursuing four-year STEM degrees.

Read more on the bill here.

50-State Comparison of State Policies on School Leaders Now Available

Research shows that school leadership has one of the greatest impacts on student learning. States have developed policies, grounded in school leadership standards, to strengthen and increase the number of quality school leaders through traditional and alternative routes to preparation and certification. This new 50-State Comparison from the Education Commission of the States includes four data points for preparation, and three for certification and licensure. Explore how your state—and how all states—approach specific school leadership policies.

ESSA Federal Funding for Science/STEM Education in Your School or District

And finally, districts nationwide are planning right now how to use the increased federal funds available from the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) for FY2018. Is science and STEM education part of your district plan? Join me for this May 3 web seminar, more information and register 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.

Follow NSTA

This week in education news, using cars to teach science and math principles was the original STEM; rural school districts across Mississippi and around the country call on retired teachers to return to the classroom; California county offices of education are investing in engineering labs, science camps, mobile classrooms and other initiatives to help rural students compete with their urban counterparts; Boeing held its first Washington STEM Day, celebrating students who have made commitments to pursue careers in the STEM fields; a new report from NCTM calls for major changes to high school mathematics; the U.S. Department of Education announces new STEM education grant opportunities; and programs centered around getting kids outside to explore are few and far between.

STEM Education Revs Its Engines

Mechanics can make at least $60,000 per year. That’s why schools have started fine-tuning their automotive tech programs to make them ideal vehicles for STEM instruction. Using automobiles to teach science and math principles was the original STEM, says Trish Serratore, president of the ASE Education Foundation, which works to prepare the auto service workforce. “Educators have been teaching math and science principles in auto and technology classes since the get-go.” Read the article featured in District Administration.

Flurry Of Bills Take On Teacher Housing And STEM Access

The fate of bills to fund teacher housing initiatives, universal preschool and educator preparation in STEM will be up for discussion in the California’s lower house. Among the other bills slated for debate at the Assembly Education Committee hearing, one would expand dual enrollment partnerships between community colleges and charter schools, and a separate bill would do the same for private schools. Read the article featured in K-12 Daily.

Former Educators Answer Call To Return To School

Hymethia W. Thompson was happily retired after 46 years as an educator when she saw a television news conference last summer that changed her life. The interim school superintendent of Jackson, Mississippi, where Thompson lives, issued a plea to retired teachers to come back. The Jackson Public School District was experiencing a shortage of certified teachers and there was a desperate need for qualified former instructors. Read the article featured in The Hechinger Report.

Rural Schools Find Ways To Bring Science Innovations Closer To Home

In an effort to bring the latest innovations in science education to students in some of the most remote parts of California, some county offices of education are investing in engineering labs, science camps, mobile classrooms and other initiatives to help rural students compete with their urban counterparts. Read the article featured in EdSource.

How The 5E Model Makes Science Meaningful For Bilingual Students

As a first generation Mexican-American, I know how difficult it is to be in a classroom where everyone speaks a language that’s different from yours. My family moved from Mexico to the United States the day after my Quinceañera (15th birthday party). I was shocked at the difference it made moving just 25 miles away. Read the article featured in EdSurge.

Inaugural Washington STEM Signing Day Celebrates Students Reaching For The Stars

Just like signing days for athletes, the inaugural Washington STEM Signing Day celebrated high school seniors from across the state as they made their commitments to some of the state and country’s top technical schools, colleges, and universities. During a ceremony attended by family members, elected officials, school and community leaders, 49 students signed “letters of intent” confirming their plans to pursue careers in STEM fields ranging from bioengineering, to animal science, to aeronautical engineering. Read the article by Boeing.

High Schoolers Should Take 4 Years Of Leaner, More Relevant Math, Teachers’ Group Says

High school math classes should be broadened to focus on goals beyond college and careers, including teaching the math students will need to be literate participants in civic life. Educators should ensure that all students master a core set of “essential concepts” through four years of math coursetaking. And the classes should be detracked, to prevent students of color from winding up in dead-end math pathways, says an expansive new report from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Read the article featured in Education Week.

Down On The Farm, These Chicago High School Students Get A Unique Public Education

The Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences is a public school that is set on a working farm. It offers its diverse population of students an education that prepares them for college as well as a career in agriculture. As its website says, this school is the only one of its kind in the Midwest and a model for others around the country. It is one of eight schools from around the country that were selected in the 2017 “Schools of Opportunity” project, which recognizes public high schools that work to close opportunity gaps by creating learning environments that reach every student. Read the article featured in The Washington Post.

U.S. Department Of Education Announces STEM, Computer Science Education Grant Opportunities

The U.S. Department of Education is now accepting applications for two fiscal year 2018 grant competitions that support the Presidential Memorandum on increasing access to high quality STEM and Computer Science (CS) education. The $75 million competition for Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED) program and the $120 million Education Innovation and Research (EIR) program include priorities for STEM/CS and are designed to further expand access to underserved communities and support educators in these fields. Read the U.S. Department of Education press release.

The Perks Of A Play-In-The-Mud Educational Philosophy

Most American kids don’t spend large chunks of their day catching salamanders and poking sticks into piles of fox poop. In a nation moving toward greater standardization of its public-education system, programs centered around getting kids outside to explore aren’t normal. Read the article featured in The Atlantic.

Oklahoma Teachers Move Science Lessons Outside And Away From Textbooks

The state’s market for engineering and technology jobs is growing, but the test scores of Oklahoma students lag behind national averages on science and math test scores. Researchers say one way to fix this gap is training science educators to do more than teach the facts — and to think beyond the textbook. Read the article by StateImpact Oklahoma.

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.

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

Follow NSTA

I had eagerly anticipated a session at the NSTA National Conference in Atlanta called How Do We Make NGSS Storylines Work by Pushing Students to Go Deeper?—presented by Michael Novak and Brian Reiser—and I was not alone: Attendees filled the room to overflowing. I was fortunate to have worked with Novak and Reiser when I was a science coordinator in Vermont, and I was excited to learn more at their session. I was not disappointed. My understanding of how storylines can deepen student understanding of science continues to grow, and this session was valuable because it further enhanced my knowledge.

Teachers are starving for quality resources, and Novak and Reiser inspired them to write their own 3-D lessons and suggested resources for doing so. They began with the basics of coherent storylines and how they differ from what most of us have always done: In the past, teachers just chose their favorite activities, which didn’t always help students make sense of the concept. Coherent storylines have a certain flow and a purpose for each learning experience.

The presenters described an interesting tool that included five questions they use to develop storylines for NGSS learning, and provided examples. I could hear many oohs and ahs around the room, and attendees asking one another questions and reflecting on their instructional approaches and how they could change.

The slide below is my favorite because it shows empathy for the stages where many educators are in their own transition to NGSS and encourages a can-do attitude. (download all the slides here)

Notice that text on the left of the slide states “Model so far.” This language encourages educators to understand that taking a risk is okay: take a risk and try it. It is desirable to use this model and maybe make it even better.

I learned a new word in NGSS science thinking at this session: —problematizing. I believe that when we are problematizing, we are asking students to apply their learning to a new and different situation. By doing so, we give them an opportunity to bolster their understanding and/or ask new questions. 

Fellow NGSS Squadsters Liza Rickey and Meg Richards also shared some insights about the session.

Richards had a different view of what problematizing is. It’s determining how to push students to dig deeper, to want to know more.

Rickey was also intrigued by the concept of problematizing and notes that sometimes it’s appropriate to introduce a new phenomenon or question to students who might not have been on driving question board. I agree. Helping students do this might be as simple as asking them for other examples of the phenomenon in their lives, while at other times, teachers might need to introduce a similar situation to help students comprehend the ideas. By doing this, students will think beyond the phenomena themselves and begin to realize why this concept is important beyond the classroom.

After talking with Richards, it was obvious to me that her biggest revelation was the power of student questions. She explained, “I knew wonder drove investigation, but I never thought about it also being the driver of the actual instruction of materials as well (i.e., kids using a microscope). I’m interested in seeing this in action, and even more excited to try it out myself.”

One of my epiphanies is recognizing that yes, students need to know how to use the tools of science to move their learning forward, but that can be accomplished by fostering and eliciting student questions about the tool rather than the teacher providing the answers as had been done in the past.

It’s important to ask questions as we engage in the productive struggle of learning this new way of thinking about science instruction. Novak and Reiser modeled that and invited participants to ask their own questions. Richards had many. The following is a visualization of her questions as a driving question board, with a driving question and many investigable questions that support it.

Her questions

“How can I/we start storylining in our classrooms efficiently and effectively?”

• In having student questions drive investigation, what happens to the questions that aren’t answered?
• How does one ensure students still feel valued?
• What do you do with the disengaged kiddo who “has no questions”?
• How does differentiation work in this model, and what does the grade book (ick!) look like?
• How do you involve and educate parents about the shifting methodology of instruction?
• How can we help students with effective instruction while also preparing them for the current inevitable college instructional strategies?

Do you see it the way I do? Maybe your visualization is different. Please share your thoughts about this.

I want to thank Liza Rickey and Meg Richards for their thoughtful responses to my question.

I have been developing NGSS curriculum for a while now, but Novak’s and Reiser’s work continues to advance my thinking. I now have a few questions of my own. How much time does it take to build storylines this way? How much time during the school day should be allocated for this type of learning?

I welcome your thoughts, ideas, and questions about this topic. Please share in the comment section below.

Kathy Renfrew is field editor of the Next Gen Navigator. She is a science specialist and instructional coach as well as an NGSS@NSTA curator and online adviser in the NSTA Learning Center. She is a regular science blogger for The Teaching Channel and Middleweb. You can always find her seeking out new learning on Twitter and other social media. Her Twitter handle is @krsciencelady. Kathy previously taught grades 4 through 6 in a self-contained classroom for more than 30 years. She served as a state science supervisor in Vermont for eight years. She is a National Board Certified Teacher and a 2000 recipient of the elementary Presidential Award for Excellence in Science Teaching. 

This article was featured in the April 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 read more from the April issue. 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.

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

Future NSTA Conferences

2018 STEM Forum & Expo

• Philadelphia July 11–13

Dive into Three-Dimensional Instruction Workshop

• Philadelphia, July 14–15

2018 Area Conferences

• Reno, October 11–13
• National Harbor (MD), November 15–17
• Charlotte, Nov. 29-Dec. 1

2019 National Conference

• St. Louis, April 11-14, 2019

Follow NSTA

The crosscutting concepts have great potential to help students connect their learning across grade levels and science disciplines, but they can easily become the forgotten “third dimension.” Last May, we wrote about developing a set of graphic organizers that help make the crosscutting concepts explicit for students and scaffold their thinking as students apply the crosscutting concepts to scientific phenomena. At the recent NSTA National Conference in Atlanta, we were excited to share the experiences of middle school teachers who piloted the graphic organizers with their students. You can find our presentation materials on the Conferences section of NSTA’s website (search any of our last names), or click here. In the following paragraphs, each teacher shares a brief reflection on her experience.

Sixth-Grade Earth Science—Ducks Overboard (Systems and System Models) by Jessica Caldwell.

I have been teaching science for seven years in rural northeast Georgia, which probably has more chickens than people. For my lesson about ocean currents, I incorporated the rubber ducks overboard phenomenon. In 1992, thousands of ducks went overboard in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and have been washing ashore worldwide. Students explored this by reading made-up text messages from around the world to get the longitude and latitude, then plotting where the ducks were found.

Next, we read about ocean currents and made an overlay of the currents on a transparency. This made it easy for students to see if the currents had affected where the ducks travelled. To include some crosscutting-concepts as the lesson concluded, we incorporated a graphic organizer about systems and system models. The system explored was the ocean system. With this organizer, students were able to make connections between the transfer of energy and how it made currents possible.

Using the graphic organizer really helped make this accessible for my students, not just a tool for the teacher. We continue to use these graphic organizers to pinpoint crosscutting concepts and synthesize our learning. I have also seen a change in my students writing of CER responses because they have solidified their ideas in the graphic organizer.

Seventh-Grade Life Science—The Great Oyster Mystery (Stability and Change) by Katrina Holt

The Great Oyster Mystery phenomenon required students to explore how an ecosystem’s balance can be affected by abiotic and biotic factors. Students investigated the phenomenon of oyster decline in Texas estuaries due to a change in salinity. They examined various graphs (oyster population, salinity of water, and precipitation) to determine what affected the stability of the estuary ecosystem. The crosscutting concept that relates most to this topic is stability and change.

The graphic organizers allow the students to “see” the crosscutting concept and how it applies to the phenomenon. Not only does using the graphic organizer assist the teacher in explicitly teaching the crosscutting concepts, it also helps the students understand the phenomenon better. Since the students were required to write a CER explaining how abiotic factors and biotic factors affect the ecosystem’s balance, the graphic organizer also worked as a pre-writing activity that allowed them to organize the important evidence they found.

Eighth-Grade Physical Science—Food Coloring Frenzy (Cause and Effect) by Meganne Skinner

In the eighth-grade content, we used the cause-and-effect graphic organizer to show how temperature affects particle movement. Students were able to see that something was happening “under the surface” of the water, ice water, and boiling water that helped determine how quickly food coloring was dispersed throughout each beaker of water. From this activity and the use of the graphic organizer, I was able to grasp student thinking and reasoning about the idea of “cause and effect” and how that related to particle motion. We did this together as a class the first time, and by the time we returned to the graphic organizer later in the year, they understood how to think more deeply about the content and the crosscutting concepts!

Have you tried any of the graphic organizers in your classroom?

We heard from a couple of our session participants that they had used the graphic organizers in their classrooms or in professional learning. If you have tried our graphic organizers, we would love to hear your feedback. If you have used other strategies to support your students in understanding and using the crosscutting concepts, we would love to hear about those, too.  Please comment on this blog post with your ideas and insights.

Authors

• Amy Peacock is K–8 Science Curriculum Coordinator for the Clarke County School District in Athens, Georgia.
• Jeremy Peacock is the Director of 6–12 Science at Northeast Georgia Regional Education Service Agency in Winterville, Georgia.
• Jessica Caldwell teaches sixth-grade Earth science at Oglethorpe County Middle School in Crawford, Georgia.
• Katrina Holt teaches seventh-grade life science at Commerce Middle School in Commerce, Georgia
• Meganne Skinner teaches eighth-grade physical science at Hilsman Middle School in Athens, Georgia.

This article was featured in the April 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 read more from the April issue. 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.

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

Future NSTA Conferences

2018 STEM Forum & Expo

• Philadelphia July 11–13

Dive into Three-Dimensional Instruction Workshop

• Philadelphia, July 14–15

2018 Area Conferences

• Reno, October 11–13
• National Harbor (MD), November 15–17
• Charlotte, Nov. 29-Dec. 1

2019 National Conference

• St. Louis, April 11-14, 2019

Follow NSTA