Looking for lessons that align with NGSS? Teaching NGSS-Aligned Lessons in Science Classrooms has several examples that illustrate three-dimensional learning.

Science & Children – Vocabulary in Context

Editor’s Note: Making Sense of Science Terms: “Making sense of science terms requires selection of appropriate words, identification of strategies that help children connect with the words, and repetitive experiences over time to develop complete word knowledge. How is that accomplished? Through intervention by a teacher who uses a variety of strategies…” such as those in this month’s featured articles.

The lessons described in the articles have a chart showing connections with the NGSS, and many include classroom materials and illustrations of student work.

• From “Plants Don’t Eat” to “Plants Are Producers” has an in-depth description of a project for young students that supports their understanding of science concepts while learning and using new vocabulary.
• Through storytelling, games, discussion, and crafts (and technology) as described in Swimming in New Vocabulary, young students experience a continuum of vocabulary activities in identification, application, and assessment.
• Vocabulary and data recording can be integral par of science notebooks. The authors of More Than Data elaborate on how notebooks can be vital and authentic components of science learning. The article includes examples of students’ notebook pages.
• A Cucurbit Ripe for Building Vocabulary describes a classroom project in which students carried out an investigation in food production (growing and harvesting cucumbers) and learned botanical vocabulary in context.
• “Adaptation” is more than a word. With the 5E lesson outlined in The Case of Polar Bears, students have hands-on and visual experiences to help them understand the concept.
• The Early Years: The Building Blocks of Language has suggestions for exposing children to new words and for developing a shared vocabulary as they explore with blocks and shapes.
• “Meet the Saurus” as students enjoy The Poetry of Science: Words, Words, Words
• Young students may have heard the word “amphibian,” but teachers can determine their misconceptions and misinformation with Formative Assessment Probes: Vocabulary in Context: What Is an Amphibian?
• Teaching Teachers: Is It Worth It? Can I Do It? showcases a professional development program that addresses the usefulness of word walls and five steps for planning and implementing them.

These monthly columns continue to provide background knowledge and classroom ideas:

• Teaching Through Trade Books: Inventions Take Center Stage
• Methods and Strategies: Time to Change
• Engineering Encounters: Chemical Reaction Vehicles
• Science 101: Why Aren’t There Magnetic Charges?
• Science 102: Haunted Face

For more on the content that provides a context for projects and strategies described in this issue, see the SciLinks topics Adaptations of Animals, Amphibians, Chemical Reactions, Dinosaurs, Food Chains, Magnetic Poles, Magnetism, Pendulums, Plant Growth, Plants as Food, Static Electricity

Continue for The Science Teacher and Science Scope

The Science Teacher – Forensic Science

Editor’s Corner: Forensics: Solving Mysteries With Science: “Forensics activities involve careful observation, logical reasoning, and evidence-based argumentation–important skills for our students to develop….The forensic sciences–used around the world to resolve civil disputes, enforce criminal laws and government regulations, and protect public health—can provide a career pathway for our students.” (Career of the Month: Forensic Entomologist)

Articles in this issue that describe lessons include a helpful sidebar (“At a Glance”) documenting the big idea, essential pre-knowledge, time, and cost; many follow a 5E format. The lessons also include connections with the NGSS, and many include examples of student work and classroom materials.

• In the 5E unit Secrets of a Mass Grave, students gather, interpret, and draw conclusions from remains in a simulated mass grave.
• Gravity Can Do What? builds on students’ understanding of how energy is produced and the advantages of producing energy without fossil fuels.
• Investigate the relationship between climate change and the spread of invasive species with the resources in The Green Room: Species That Benefit From Climate Change.
• The authors of Idea Bank: Document a Crime Scene With Smartphone Apps suggest starting with a smaller “crime scene” to help students learn to analyze, photograph, and document using apps.
• The lesson in Digital Forensics also focuses on smartphones with the issues of password security, cellular metadata, digital forensics, and collecting and analyzing evidence in a simulated situation.            
• The Science of Little Boy illustrates how students use modeling to construct an evidence-based explanation for how fission releases radiation and how radiation affects the human body.
• Help students learn the value of collaboration with the ideas in Working As a Team.

These monthly columns continue to provide background knowledge and classroom ideas:

• Science 2.0: Use 3D Printers to Teach Design Thinking
• Focus on Physics: Elementary Electricity in a Nutshell
• Right to the Source: The History of Fingerprinting

For more on the content that provides a context for projects and strategies described in this issue, see the SciLinks topics Anthropology, Biomolecules, Changes in Climate, Electrical Circuits, Electricity, Fingerprints, Fission, Forensic Science, Forensics, Fossil Fuels, Gravity, Insects, Invasive Species, Nuclear Reactions, Ohm’s Law, Paleontology, Radiation Effects on Humans, Skeletal System

Science Scope – Informal Learning

From the Editor’s Desk: Sparking the “Need to Know”: Informal learning “…which often occurs outside the confines of a classroom, can be classified as “need to know” learning. It is very powerful because it is driven by authentic questions and our own innate curiosity…. interest-driven learning can be fostered by connecting students to an online or physical community and allowing students to create products that demonstrate their learning as creators and producers of knowledge.”

The lessons described in the articles include connections with the NGSS and many include classroom resources and illustrations of student work.

• Inquiry Into Action: Ecosystems and Animals suggests pre- and post-activities to provide a learning context for a zoo visit.
• Building Bee Houses: Designing and Constructing Solitary Bee Houses for Scientific Investigations focuses on integrating the design process with a real-life study of insect pollination. The article includes photos of the student designs.
• Take a plant unit to a new dimension. Out in the Field: Learning About Plant Diversity uses a place-based learning unit as a context for students to learn about their own surroundings.
• Integrating Technology: Weather Versus Climate and Teachers’s Toolkit: How to Start a STEM Club illustrate how extra-curricular and co-curricular activities can become informal learning opportunities.
• With the investigation in Citizen Science: Where the Wildlife Are, students use camera traps to contribute to a worldwide study sponsored by the Smithsonian.
• Field trips provide students with learning experiences beyond the classroom Science For All: Planning and Preparing Your Students With Special Needs For Field Trips has ideas for making field trips valuable for all students.

These monthly columns continue to provide background knowledge and classroom ideas:

• Disequilibrium: Exploring Buoyancy and Density with Cartesian Divers
• Listserv Roundup: Technology tools for a paperless classroom
• Teacher To Teacher: Teaching With Learning Cycles and Storylines
• Scope on the Skies: Measuring the Universe

For more on the content that provides a context for projects and strategies described in this issue, see the SciLinks topics Biodiversity, Buoyancy, Cartesian Diver, Density, Ecosystems/Adaptations, Honeybees, Luminosity, Mammals, Parallax, Plant Growth, Pollination, Weather and Climate

What if you could challenge your third grade students to design the train of the future? The exciting new book Transportation in the Future, Grade 3: STEM Road Map for Elementary School shows students how to do just that.

Through interdisciplinary lessons that combine science, social studies, English language arts, and mathematics, Transportation in the Future encourages students to think, question, and design in a hands-on learning environment.

Students will learn about U.S. geography and explore the role that trains have played in the development of the U.S. They will learn how trains work, and discuss the questions train engineers must address. They will also learn about magnetic levitation (maglev) trains and apply their new knowledge in the Maglevacation Train Challenge, where they will work collaboratively using engineering design processes to create prototype trains that could safely carry passengers.

“[The book] highlights two major aspects of engineering design—problem scoping and solution generation—and six specific components of working toward a design: define the problem, learn about the problem, plan a solution, try the solution, test the solution, decide whether the solution is good enough,” the authors state.

Students will learn how to read a map and distinguish features such as rivers, mountains, and oceans, as well as locate a destination and calculate distances. They will further use their mathematic skills to calculate train speeds and time intervals.

The lesson plans include essential questions, content standards, key vocabulary, reading texts, links to videos and online resources, and maps. Through the in-depth and interdisciplinary modules, students will learn to use their enthusiasm, creativity, and imagination while engaging in rigorous STEM instruction that feels real.

“One of the most important factors in determining whether humans will have a positive future is innovation. Innovation is the driving force behind progress, which helps create possibilities that did not exist before,” the authors state in the opening chapter. “Students should consider how their innovation might affect progress and use their STEM thinking to change current human burdens to benefits.”

Transportation in the Future is part of the STEM Road Map Curriculum Series. The series aligns with the Next Generation Science Standards, the Common Core State Standards, and the Framework for 21st Century Learning. The series was developed by a team of STEM educators from across the U.S., who desired to infuse real-world learning contexts and authentic problem-solving pedagogy into K-12 classrooms.

How interesting would your students find the idea of creating solutions that can actually help people in the real world? Would it make school more fun? If you think so, then check out Transportation in the Future, Grade 3: STEM Road Map for Elementary School edited by Carla C. Johnson, Janet B. Walton, and Erin Peters-Burton in the NSTA Store.

This book is also available as an e-book.

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In regions where trees drop their leaves in fall, this big change draws children’s attention to the existence of seasonal changes. More subtle changes and incremental changes, such as more or less rain and slowly dropping or rising air temperatures may not be noticed unless we support children’s awareness by having them make and record weather measurements. In some education programs, if it is October, it is time to teach a unit about fall changes to the environment even if no noticeable change has happened, and in January, snow precipitation may be celebrated with books and crafts, even if the thermometer reads 65ºF.

“Can I get a ‘like’?”

Seasonal changes and weather measurement can be part of learning about patterns, one of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) Crosscutting Concepts and an important math concept. Crosscutting concepts can help students better understand core ideas in science and engineering. 

1. Patterns. Observed patterns of forms and events guide organization and classification, and they prompt questions about relationships and the factors that influence them.

In NGSS Appendix G-Crosscutting Concepts, it is noted that it makes sense to begin developing an understanding of a natural phenomenon by observing and characterizing the phenomenon in terms of patterns (page 2). 

The NGSS Kindergarten Earth’s Systems performance expectation K-ESS2-1. states:

“Students who demonstrate understanding can: Use and share observations of local weather conditions to describe patterns over time.”

Children making observations might notice:

• The temperature has been getting lower, colder, since summer.
• When it rains the sky is cloudy. 

Understanding our own local environment provides a frame of reference when learning about other places with different kinds of weather, flora, and fauna. How can we appreciate how dry a desert is, or how wet a rainforest is, if we don’t know how much rainfall our locality gets in a typical month or year?

Collecting weather data can be as simple as keeping and posting a calendar poster of the daily weather as reported by children each morning or after recess: sunny, rainy, windy, cloudy, snowy and any combination of those conditions. Don’t wait for it to be time for the “Weather Unit”—start today so your children can collect enough weather data to recognize a change in the pattern when it happens. (See The Early Years columns, October 2015 “About the Weather,” and “The Wonders of Weather.”)

 A Tree is Nice by Janice May Udry and illustrated by Marc Simont celebrates trees. “Befriending” a nearby tree is one way to observe both obvious and subtle seasonal changes. What kinds of structures do the leaves have? When do new buds form and how big are they relative to a child’s pinky fingernail? How big are they the next time you make observations? What does the bark of this tree look and feel like? Are seeds hanging on the tree or on the ground surrounding it? Are any of the seeds sprouting? So many ways to mark seasonal changes!

I have been thinking about getting a thermal imaging camera. Specifically, an attachment for an iPhone that allows it to do thermal imaging. If you had one in your classroom, what would you use it for?  – R., Alaska

This is a great idea! Having a hands-on device to explore phenomena beyond our senses is an excellent tool for a science class. When I think of using thermal imaging technology (and I would include infrared thermometers) the following comes to mind:

Convection/Conduction: Set up an ambient temperature aquarium and turn on the heater. Track the convection over time through photos or time-lapse video. Heat or cool different materials and rank them in terms of conduction. Experiment with surface area, fans, colors, and their effects on heating and cooling.

Homeotherms vs. Poikilotherms: compare the body temperatures of “hot-blooded” and “cold-blooded” animals at different ambient temperatures.

Temperature gradients: Many students don’t really grasp what a gradient is. Have them graph temperature vs. distance for a variety of radiant heat sources.

Heat of vaporization: Students will discover that the temperature of boiling water is constant. This is where an infrared thermometer is excellent to use. Point it at a beaker of boiling water. The glass (measured from the side) will register 400+ °C while the water (measured from the top) will be at 100°C.

Hypo- and hyperthermia (within reason!). Have students over- and underdress for outside and map their temperature patterns and changes. Compare this to a dog. Most mammals handle hypothermia and hyperthermia differently than humans.

Engineering: Have students design insulated containers that keep a beverage warm for the longest possible time. Thermal images will allow them to assess and modify their creations.

Hope this helps!

Photo credit: By NASA/IPAC [Public domain]

Oregon State University’s Summer Veterinary Experience informs academically talented high school students from underrepresented populations about diverse career options in veterinary medicine. PHOTO COURTESY OF OSU COLLEGE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE

Veterinary schools at universities around the country are offering programs for students interested in veterinary medicine and informing them about careers in the field. Oregon State University’s (OSU) Summer Veterinary Experience, for example, lets academically talented high school students from underrepresented populations “see the diversity of experiences you can have as a veterinarian; [there are] more options than just private practice,” says Tess Collins, admissions coordinator for OSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine. “Veterinarians are dentists, surgeons, anesthesiologists,” and students participating in the six-day program learn about “the complexity and variety of veterinary research,” she relates. “It’s a more immersive experience than what they have in school, typically.”

The program also provides a way for students to experience “what being a veterinary student [at OSU’s Corvallis campus] would be like,” Collins explains. In its first year, 10 Oregon students participated; last year, 24 students— including several from outside Oregon—were chosen from nearly 100 applicants. “Most students have pretty good grades and are motivated to do well in science courses,” she adds.

“We want the program to be hands-on and have a small-group feel,” Collins observes. Veterinary student mentors choose the program’s activities, which this year included doing electrocardiograms and physical examinations on dogs, she explains.

The students spend three to four days conducting lab research with OSU’s biomedical research staff, exploring “intense topics, such as the immune responses of cheetah and elk, feline injection site sarcomas, and examining the genotypes of litters of mice and determining [those of] the parents using [polymerase chain reaction],” says Collins. They also practice 21st-century skills such as “how to work together, communicate, and make presentations.”

To ascertain the program’s success, Collins says she does “an e-mail check-in every year, and typically those who respond [comprise] about half of the group.” A recent check-in showed “100% were pursuing undergraduate education; 90% were still interested in veterinary medicine; and the rest were still science-minded,” she reports.

Strong Student Interest

Purdue University’s week-long summer residential Junior and Senior Boiler Vet Camps draw about 500 applicants for the two camps, including students from outside Indiana and from Europe, according to Jim Weisman, Clinical Associate Professor in Purdue’s College of Veterinary Medicine and director of the camps. “We take about half from Indiana and half from outside Indiana,” he reports. Of a cohort of students who participated two years ago, “nearly 90% were interested in veterinary medicine as a career path,” he recalls.

Eighth and ninth graders can attend Junior Boiler Vet Camp, which presents “a broad overview of areas of veterinary medicine and lots of hands-on activities,” Weisman observes. Activities include dissecting a cow’s, dog’s or horse’s heart; watching a veterinary pathologist perform a necropsy; practicing hands-on skills and techniques used by food animal veterinarians and veterinary technicians, such as administering oral medication; and working with School of Veterinary Medicine faculty on a real medical case, determining the appropriate treatment, and giving a presentation about it “as if they were doctors” to their families, he explains.

High school sophomores, juniors, and seniors qualify for Senior Boiler Vet Camp, “a more focused experience on the dog model, [in which] camp dogs get medical attention, and students learn what a small animal veterinarian does,” Weisman relates. Student groups are assigned a dog, then learn about its behavior and training; see how to do a physical exam—then do one on their dog; study parasites and examine their dog for them; and hear about spaying or castration of a dog, then do the procedure on a cadaver dog.

“We want to expose [students] to options in STEM [science, technology, engineering, and math] fields, even if they decide not to become a veterinarian,” he maintains. “We build upon what we hope they’re learning in science in school.”

Using Animal Artifacts

University of California, Davis’s School of Veterinary Medicine’s Veterinary Medicine Extension takes a different approach with its Animal Ambassadors science education outreach program for grades 3–5. Instead of live animals; hands-on materials like rubber foot molds, plaster tooth casts, and imitation animal coats are used in classrooms and informal education venues, eliminating the need to bring live animals to schools or for students to travel to places with live animals. 

“We use artifacts to provide a longer intervention over multiple weeks that is very inquiry-based and allows students to explore the animal kingdom in depth,” says Martin Smith, cooperative extension specialist. He notes that students in urban areas “don’t see many animals, but they can learn about them and about veterinary science through an artifact-based program.”

Plaster tooth casts, for example, can show students “the size and shape of teeth and what they do” for herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores, Smith explains. “As an extension activity, students can make animal masks showing the teeth of different animals and wear them in a skit. This reinforces concepts and brings in the arts and other subjects,” he contends.

The curriculum also delves into “non-vocal indications” of animals’ emotions and behavior, such as “showing or not showing their teeth,” Smith relates. In a game, students match pictures of animals displaying various emotional states with the correct emotion: A smiling dog is actually an angry dog, for example. “Students describe what the animal is trying to communicate and why,” which has important implications for students’ safety, he explains. “We try to go beyond the activity and have real-world connections for authentic learning.”

After participating, students’ drawings of Self-Animal Perceptions showed “the program improved students’ relationships with animals,” Smith reports, and “students use more vocabulary and make more observations” after exposure to the curriculum. Because group activities emphasize “skills such as teamwork and communication, students’ [abilities in these areas] improve,” he maintains. And “in elementary classrooms, students asked a lot about veterinary school.”

This article originally appeared in the November 2017 issue of NSTA Reports, the member newspaper of the National Science Teachers Association. Each month, NSTA members receive NSTA Reports, featuring news on science education, the association, and more. Not a member? Learn how NSTA can help you become the best science teacher you can be.

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

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