Visiting other schools always makes me think about classroom organization, I get new ideas about how to document children’s learning, and gets me thinking about changes I want to implement in my teaching. Changes in weather often lead to changes in activities and we begin favorite spring investigations and look for new ways to explore and record the children’s work. With the warmer weather, children can get wet and not have to change clothes to remain comfortable. So I was happy to see some new ways of documenting water exploration by a four-year-old class in another school.

This school has a Question of the Morning for parents and children to consider together at drop off time, a time of transition that gets its own time slot, not just a moment but a period of time that is planned for. The questions are considered for as long as the child is interested and the responses are recorded by either, or both, child and adult. 

Some of the questions relate to an investigation that the children are pursuing, such as into the properties of water. Sensory tables and tubs, buckets and mud puddles provide experiences with water. Children can find out about the properties of water using tools such as scoops, funnels, droppers, spoons, sieves, cups, sponges, tubes….the list is endless! Don’t forget towels to learn about absorption and to keep the floor from being slippery. Begin with a few and tools can be added and set aside as needed when children begin playing with pouring, flow and containment. Drying off the playground equipment is a “real life” link to this investigation.

Further documentation of children’s thinking has been linked together on lengths of string—a visual of how the ideas are linked around the central idea of “How does water influence your world?” I wish I could have heard the conversation about the meaning of the word “influence.” “How does water influence your world?” So much more active and of consequence than “Where do you see water?”

Using a small amount of water can be just as engaging as pouring from buckets. In this activity inspired by a workshop led by Karen Worth and Jeff Winokur from Wheelock College and EDC, Inc., children make drops and talk about their shape and appearance on different surfaces. Other ways for working with water include holding melting ice, and painting with liquid water!

Manipulating larger amounts of water with tools can lead to creating a system, requiring children to think about cause and effect and how the pieces can go together to meet a goal. Can you suggest some more ways to document this work?

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NSTA’s SciLinks has a searchable database of vetted websites with information, graphics, and lesson plans. These cover topics K-12 in the life, physical and earth sciences as well as health and engineering. The sites are correlated to specific keywords (such as Food Chains, Phases of the Moon, or Magnetic Fields). The data base is available to any teacher.

There are other online collections of more focused resources. Although many of the individual resources have been aligned with specific SciLinks keywords and are included in the database, the entire collection may be of interest to teachers looking for supplements, lesson suggestions, differentiation ideas, enrichment opportunities for students, or to enhance their own knowledge.

These are not simply lists of someone’s favorite websites. These are activities, simulations, and resources created by organizations or institutions as part of an outreach program or related to their projects and research. You can search for sites by grade level and subject area. No fees or paid subscriptions are required, although users may be asked to register. Here are just a few examples:

• TeachEngineering is designed “to make applied science and math come alive through engineering design in K-12 settings.” Concepts in life, earth and physical science are taught, connected, and reinforced through real-life problems or scenarios in student- and teacher-friendly formats. There is also an option to search by NGSS standards. The lessons have been designed by university engineering faculty and teachers. Example: 20/20 Vision for grades 3-5 illustrates the format and design of the lessons. 

• The Royal Society of Chemistry’s (UK)  Learn Chemistry site provide access to thousands of chemistry-related activities, simulations, games, tutorials, handouts, quizzes, journal articles, podcasts, apps, and videos in a searchable format for both teachers and students. Example: The Mole, a bi-monthly E-zine written in student-friendly language

• Middle School Chemistry (from the American Chemical Society) is “a resource of guided, inquiry-based lesson plans that covers basic chemistry concepts along with the process of scientific investigation.” The lessons are written in the 5E model and include background information and student activity sheets. The lessons can be accessed individually or the entire resource can be downloaded as a PDF file. Example: Heat, Temperature, and Conduction illustrates the design and format of the lessons. 

• Kids Health from the Nemours Foundation has health and wellness resources (including information on human body systems) for kids, teens, educators, and parents. These often have a Spanish version and they can be downloaded, printed, or emailed to share with parents or to use in class. Example: The Digestive System has a brief video, an article (also in Spanish), and a quiz. 

• Biointeractive from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) has a searchable collection of free resources for science teachers and students, including animations, short films, lectures, virtual labs, and apps. Example: A search for “Environmental Science” produces 42 resources, including the EarthViewer app.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/treevillage/5107999448/sizes/l/in/photostream/

Food science has come a long way since the days of girls taking home economics and boys taking shop class. The classes in my sons’ middle and high schools are now called family and consumer science, or food technology (and both of the boys have taken at least one semester). For simplicity’s sake I will call all such classes food science, because the ultimate aim is to get your students into a career that will support them, and food science is one such. I have written before about food chemistry, big agriculture, and food biotechnology, all of which inform modern food science curricula.

STEM | Food | Economics

A good STEM unit on food science could be developed in conjunction with an economics teacher. A significant percentage of all food globally is imported. In developing countries, the percentage of imported food increases as the country’s income rises. In 2013, there were 13 countries that were 100% dependent on imports for their grain supplies. Importing food may seem like a good economic choice that frees up land for urbanization and population growth, but it leaves a country vulnerable to natural disasters and political changes outside its borders. Russia is one of the world’s largest grain exporters, and it has banned grain exports several times in the last 10 years. Even developed countries are not immune to external disruptions in food supply. In 2009 the United States imported around 16% of all food consumed by its people. In that same year, the United Kingdom imported 50.5% of all its food.

It is important for all students to have some background in food science, because the importance of safe and reliable food sources cannot be overstated. In the United States, the imported and domestic foods we consume sometimes bring food safety issues. The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is nominally responsible for inspecting all food production facilities that supply food for its people. In 2011, there were approximately 130,000 facilities worldwide that the FDA was responsible for inspecting. Food contaminants include foreign materials, chemicals and pesticides, natural toxins, and metals (primarily arsenic, lead, or mercury).

The most common causes of food poisoning in the United States are four strains of bacteria: E. coli, Salmonella, Campylobacter, and Listeria. Campylobacter is most commonly found in poultry and dairy products. The risk of bacterial contamination is much reduced by pasteurization, which is the primary reason most dairy products are treated with this process. Another common method of reducing bacterial contamination in food is irradiation. Thorough cooking of poultry can reduce the risk of contamination from that source. E. coli is well-known for outbreaks associated with ground meat. Listeria has been the cause of outbreaks in consumers of bean sprouts, and peanut butter was the source of a recent outbreak of Salmonella.

Food scientists check the quality of imported food by random sampling at ports. A listing of some of the routine tests performed on imported food samples can be found here. Domestic food is also subject to random sampling. Some of the global standards for microbiological testing of food can be found here. Many food scientists have a background in microbiology or biochemistry, but there are a number of universities that offer undergraduate or graduate degrees in food safety and testing.

Rising costs of domestic meat and produce are another aspect to the climate change theme explored in last month’s post. The increasing frequency of extreme weather events has effects that are expected to continue to impact food costs in the United States. California’s Central Valley produces a third of all the produce consumed by Americans. Right now, the Central Valley is dealing with the prospect of another year of record drought. Farmers are expected to shift their production from animal feed crops to high-value crops like fruits and vegetables. Although this may forestall large increases in produce costs, it will increase the cost of meat. Add in the 2013 drought in the midwestern United States, and beef costs are now as much as 90% higher than they were in 2009.

Do the Math

The math in food choices is a useful topic to explore. An interesting breakdown of the cost of a fast-food burger versus a homemade burger can be found here. Because fast-food burgers benefit from economies of scale, the dollar cost of eating out versus making it at home may be almost the same. But there are intangible costs and benefits to consider, such as the time involved in cooking, which could be spent with your family if you have that time to spend. Eating a home-cooked meal can undoubtedly be less expensive than a fast-food meal, even if it’s not the same meal you would get at a restaurant. The unfortunate reality is that it is not by any means faster, nor in most cases is it better for you. This is why it is important to increase awareness about cooking healthy, fast meals at home. The outreach program called The Food Lab for Kids is a good model for how to do this.

There is increasing evidence for an inverse relationship between the number of meals cooked at home and the obesity rate. There is also a growing environmental movement toward knowing where your food comes from and eating as much locally produced food as possible. Some researchers are also studying how changes in diet affect the gut microbiome. This research has important implications, because evidence is emerging that the gut microbiome plays an important role in human health. In my own opinion, learning to prepare some simple, balanced meals for yourself, from fresh ingredients, should be a life skill everyone has.

If you’d like to incorporate some food science lessons in your classes, some good experiments for high school students can be found here, broken out by whether they have a chemistry or biology focus. A collection of food-themed science fair projects can be found here.

Produced by the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), science writer Becky Stewart contributes monthly to the Science and STEM Classroom e-newsletter, a forum for ideas and resources that middle and high school teachers need to support science, technology, engineering, and math curricula. If you enjoy these blog posts, follow Becky Stewart on Twitter (@ramenbecky). Fans of the old version of The STEM Classroom e-newsletter can find the archives here.

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Hong Kong International School teacher Wendy Smith’s MaKey MaKey Circuits lesson is part of a Programming and Electronics unit, one of two new science units she has created for the fourth grade this year, says Gene Cheh, associate principal. To culminate the unit, Smith organized the school’s first-ever Maker Showcase, a celebration event in which students presented their final projects to peers, faculty, parents, “and even high school students. The event has since started conversations with other divisions of the school to capitalize on the interests and success of students,” Cheh reports. He adds that Smith has been instrumental in establishing an after-school Makers Club, as well as evening and weekend events that give students and their families a chance to come to the school “to play, explore, and tinker with a host of creation stations.”

“As our school has embraced an inquiry approach to learning, Mrs. Smith has offered her expertise to our greater school community. She works with our school leadership team to plan faculty meetings, leads discussions, and hosts observations in her [class]room as she models our desired teaching methods. As a learner, she also works with her colleagues and observes their classes so that she may better hone her skills,” relates Ronald Roukema, upper primary school principal.

NSTA Press authors Catherine Oates-Bockenstedt and Michael Oates, a daughter-father team, have collaborated on a second edition of Earth Science Success: 55 Tablet-Ready, Notebook-Based Lessons. The book provides a one-year curriculum with 55 classroom-proven lessons designed to follow the disciplinary core ideas for middle school Earth and space science from the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).

Intended for teachers of grades 5-9, Earth Science Success emphasizes hands-on, sequential experiences through which students discover important science concepts lab by lab and develop critical-thinking skills. The first edition of the book focused more on the rationale for implementing the curriculum and the wisdom of using composition notebooks, this second edition focuses a special lens on the lessons themselves. The 55 lesson plans enable teachers to use electronic tablets, such as iPads, with best practice, field-tested methods.

Each of the labs is organized to follow a pattern of active involvement by students. Students are continually asked to search for evidence using a three-step discovery approach. The three steps are: anticipation, evidence collection, and analysis. Anticipation involves reflection on observations and a problem statement, recall of previous knowledge about the topic, discussion of misconceptions, and definition of concepts. Evidence collection includes hands-on laboratory investigation techniques. Analysis requires confirmation or rejection of results, reporting the findings, and drawing conclusions about the observations.

The book is organized into seven sections:

• Process of Science and Engineering Design
• Earth’s Place in the Solar System and the Universe
• Earth’s Surface Processes
• History of Planet Earth
• Earth’s Interior Systems
• Earth’s Weather
• Human Impacts on Earth Systems

The hope is that students will form good habits about testing and controlling all possible variables in their experiments whenever they are collecting evidence. They should be able to identify the manipulated, measured, and controlled variables in each experiment. Results should be reliable and valid. And students should set up controls, as a basis of comparison, so they can determine the actual charges in their data. This pattern of active involvement by students is followed throughout Earth Science Success.

The authors understand how busy a classroom science teacher is, and they know that successful strategies include those that save you time and promote skillful organization. Both composition notebooks and electronic tablets offer tremendous opportunities in this regard.

Why are notebooks, both electronic and nonelectronic, so valuable? One of the most important reasons is that students are able to organize, reflect upon, and achieve at higher levels. Students tend to have fewer missing assignments, and “no name” papers are a thing of the past. Tablets enable connections to internet research, word-processing capabilities, real-time data, and access to rich video vignettes to expand learning. The tablet and composition notebooks are also great resources to use at parent/teacher conferences.

This book is also available as an e-book.

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As the need for skilled science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) workers grows, schools and districts nationwide are revamping or expanding their Career and Technical Education (CTE) STEM courses and curricula. “A lot of schools have been doing CTE for years, [but now] there’s a push for everyone to do it,” says Stephanie Haas, CTE teacher at CORE Butte Charter School in Chico, California. “In California, there’s a push for students to be both career-ready and college-ready…It’s more about the skills [employers need],” she contends.

While CORE Butte already offers CTE courses in STEM-related subjects like information technology and agriculture, “we are currently setting up a medical CTE pathway that will start next year…[W]e will be offering medical biology, medical anatomy [and] physiology, global health, special health projects (vaccinations), and health care career explorations. We plan on using HASPI (San Diego’s Health and Science Pipeline Initiative; www.haspi.org) medical science lab curriculum to help focus the application of our science courses on the medical/health field,” she relates.

“With the [nation’s] constantly growing and aging population, medical [staffing] needs are huge,” Haas asserts. “A lot of kids think the only medical careers are [as a] doctor or nurse, but there are other career paths they don’t know about, [such as] pharmacy technician or phlebotomist,” she points out. “We’ll [also] cover mental health, surgeries, [and other medical topics]…[Vaccination] is a hot topic now.

“Students will research the topics, then be exposed to the argumentation process,” she explains. “[Students will be asked] what discourse [they will] have. What will they say based on their research and the evidence? We’re already doing a lot of this in our classes; we’re just adding the career aspect in the pathway.”

At CORE Butte, “some CTE classes are like college classes…Some students are doing independent study,” Haas reports. “Students want to learn [the material] because it means something to them [career-wise]…It gives kids that buy-in.”

One challenge with CTE is that “career pathways don’t always fall in with No Child Left Behind and testing,” she observes. Fortunately, the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and Common Core State Standards (CCSS) “offer more justification for career pathways,” she maintains. “CTE is a way to get to the NGSS.”

John Vreyens, science and CTE teacher at Chino Valley High School in Chino Valley, Arizona, agrees. “Our CTE standards are more like the NGSS standards than our state science standards. It’s more about performing a task than knowing a litany of facts. My CTE course (biotechnology) informs me on the way I really should be teaching my biology course.”

Giving Students More Choices

At Bremerton High School in Bremerton, Washington, “our ninth-grade science course is called STEM 9. We have it identified through our state as a CTE course, but our kids get science credit for it, rather than CTE credit. It meets all of the CTE requirements for leadership [and] employability, and [supports] NGSS and CCSS for [English language arts] and math,” says Emily Wise, one of Bremerton’s STEM 9 teachers.

“We encourage all ninth graders to take it,” and most do, notes Wise. “If students are enrolled in geometry [in ninth grade, instead of algebra], they can go directly into biology [as ninth graders], but they miss a year’s background in science.” STEM 9 also provides chemistry and physics background, which gives students an advantage. “They’ve had PBL (Project-Based Learning); [they] can delegate tasks and accomplish projects better than those who skip STEM 9…It helps a lot. I can see the difference in my chemistry students,” she relates. 

“We’ve looked at the differences between CTE and traditional STEM courses a lot. We looked at 21st-century skills, rubrics, and requirements from the CTE department,” she recalls. For example, she and her colleagues considered “employability skills: How [could we] grade that? We do a lot of career exploration as well: What do people in STEM careers [actually] do?”

Wise believes “measuring students’ growth over time is easy with the [NGSS] science and engineering practices.” For example, teachers can consider “how good are [students] at tasks like writing a conclusion?”

“We also offer three other elective science/CTE courses for [grades 10–12]: Biotechnology, AP Environmental Science [APES], and Environmental Technology and Design. All of these classes can be taken as elective science or for CTE credits, depending on students’ credit needs and their post–high school pathway plans. This offers students flexibility in their science coursework, but also offers the 21st-century skills of a CTE class,” she contends.

“[The] CTE [designation] doesn’t necessarily mean the courses have no rigor. Our CTE classes are very rigorous,” asserts Briana Faxon, who teaches STEM 9 and APES at Bremerton. Her assertion is borne out in the description of the APES course: “AP Environmental Science is a rigorous and demanding course…In order to be successful, students should be highly motivated, a skilled reader, a critical thinker, and a problem solver.”

Most students who take APES “have earned their science credits already…[This year, only] five out of 25 students are taking [APES] for CTE credit,” she reports. “I get valedictorians in my class, along with [students headed for] community college and potential dropouts…It’s sometimes frustrating, and sometimes rewarding. They learn from one another, and learn we all have to work together. It feels like it levels the playing field in a good way.”

“We try to pull in so many different projects so [the courses] can appeal to [a wide range of students’] interests,” says Faxon. “We’re constantly changing our projects. We have the flexibility to do that,” she explains. When the teachers need help, “we have an advisory board for our STEM CTE courses that includes science and engineering professionals. They provide their expertise to us.”

And though students take the AP test in May, APES continues through June, so Faxon has time to assign a career research project. The project helps because in college, “if they change majors, they are familiar with other careers in science fields,” she contends.

“Our district CTE director is also our district science director, and she has been instrumental in bringing these courses to our high school, and has been very supportive of our science teachers as we work to integrate science and CTE in order to better prepare our students for college and careers. The work has been challenging, and we are far from done, but I really enjoy being able to promote both our science program and our CTE courses because I firmly believe in them,” Wise maintains.

“Emily and I [tell students], ‘Here are the college skills you need.’ [We want the] doors to be open to any career students want to pursue, and that they’ll have the skills they need,” Faxon asserts.

Integrating Science in CTE Courses

Ed Engelman teaches integrated science in seven of 12 CTE courses offered by the Delaware-Chenango-Madison-Otsego Board of Cooperative Educational Services (DCMO BOCES) in New York. He co-teaches with the CTE instructors of such courses as Auto Technology, Security and Law Enforcement, and Carpentry and Building Construction. “Eight school districts send juniors and seniors [to DCMO BOCES] for half a day…This [arrangement] is very different from the self-contained technical high school model,” he explains, and the courses are “quite different from the courses taught in [students’] home schools.”

Every five years, the courses “go through the recertification process. We map the curriculum and show that the students are receiving 108 hours of science over two years,” he reports. “Credits are awarded by the sending districts,” he adds.

The number of CTE courses has grown somewhat in recent years because “students are looking for meaningful experiences. There are many students who learn better by doing, especially kinesthetic learners. [CTE] appeals to those students,” he contends.

“Many CTE students feel [traditional] courses and testing aren’t real. Repairing a car or creating graphic arts posters is real work; it produces a real product,” he observes. In the Visual Communications and Graphic Design course, for example, students photograph macroinvertebrates and create identification cards for them that will be used by various organizations. “Even though some of the students don’t like insects, they know the cards will be used,” he maintains.

Second-year students are exposed to a real-world work setting by a short-term placement or job shadowing experience. Engelman believes many students would not graduate without CTE courses because they “act as a motivator like sports does. [The students] do well in school because they like the hands-on experience.”

In addition, CTE can be “a place for kids with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) to succeed” because in CTE courses, “they’re moving about, and more active.”

Most of the students ultimately enroll in college because a high school diploma is no longer sufficient for many careers, Engelman points out. For example, automobiles “are much more complex than they used to be. Everything is just so much more wired,” he remarks.

“The more motivated, or those who want better-paying jobs, go to two- or four-year schools afterward,” he reports. He believes the CTE students have an advantage over their more traditional peers because they “have a better idea of what they’re getting into, a better all-around feel for it” as a result of their hands-on experiences.

This article originally appeared in the April 2015 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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On Thursday April 16, 2015, on a unanimous vote of 22-0, the Senate HELP Committee approved a bipartisan bill that rewrites the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (No Child Left Behind). This means the bill will go to the Senate floor for final consideration, although floor time has not yet been scheduled.

During Senate markup of the bill, known as the Every Child Achieves Act, 60 amendments were debated, 21 amendments offered and withdrawn, 29 amendments were passed, and 8 amendments failed. See the list of amendments here. Most of the amendments were adopted via voice vote with little controversy or withdrawn out of respect for maintaining the bipartisan nature of the legislation.

I’m pleased to note that the Franken-Kirk-Murray STEM amendment, which restores STEM programs to the federal education bill, was adopted by a vote of 12-10 during consideration of the bill. The amendment language stipulates that each state receive formula-based funding to support partnerships between local schools, businesses, universities, and non-profit organizations to improve student learning in the critical STEM subjects. Each state would choose how to spend and prioritize these funds, which can support a wide range of STEM activities from in-depth teacher training, to engineering design competitions, to improving the diversity of the STEM workforce. This is a huge win for the STEM education community. See More Details on Franken-Kirk-Murray STEM Funding Amendment.

NSTA was very active in advocating for this amendment. We also spearheaded a letter with the STEM Coalition to Senate HELP Committee leaders urging support for STEM education as an ESEA priority. The letter was signed by a diverse array of more than 90 local, state, and national organizations that includes teacher and education groups, and professional and civic societies, and major corporations. Read the letter here.

Three amendments also to note, now part of the bill: An amendment from Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C. would alter the Title II funding formula so that it’s based 80 percent on poverty and 20 percent on population.

An amendment by Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., would allow states to use federal funds to audit the number and quality of tests and eliminate any they deem ineffective or of low-quality. The same provision was adopted in the House ESEA bill.

There were also a number of amendments relating to Title I portability introduced then withdrawn, that would allow funding for low-income students to follow those students to the public or private school of their choice. It is expected that these amendments, and amendments to strengthen the accountability system, will be offered during floor debate in the Senate.

My April 10 blog post outlines most of what is in the Every Child Achieves Act and you can read more about the mark up in this Education Week blog. Hill staffers are now incorporating amendment language into the bill, and we will bring you the final product when it is released and news on when/if this bill will reach the Senate floor.

Stay tuned and look for upcoming issues of NSTA Express for the latest information on developments in Washington, DC.

Jodi Peterson is Assistant Executive Director of Legislative Affairs for the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) and Chair of the STEM Education Coalition. e-mail Jodi at jpeterson@nsta.org; follow her on Twitter at @stemedadvocate.

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Scientists Christian Tomasetti and Bert Vogelstein published an article in the journal Science, “Variation in cancer risk among tissues can be explained by the number of stem cell divisions” (Science, January 2, 2015, p 78). The discussion this article engendered provides an excellent teaching tool for teachers to showcase how scientific debate takes place among members of the scientific community with the goal to elevate the quality of a body of knowledge and how it is different from the way the popular press reports on and communicates this work.

The amount and range of news coverage this research article received was remarkable. Most of the popular press, unfortunately, reported a simplified version of the story citing the statement that two-thirds of cancers are caused by chance and not by genetic or environmental factors without noting that that the authors explicitly stated that a number of the most commonly occurring cancers were not included in their study. Few of the news accounts reported that the original article addressed variation in cancer risk but not absolute cancer risk, therefore misleading readers that most cancers are due to ‘bad luck.’ The Guardian ran a story, “Bad luck, bad journalism and cancer rates,” that tried to clarify the science for the popular media and provided a simple account of the actual work while chastising colleagues in the news business.

In contrast to often poorly reasoned discussion in the popular press, members of the science community weighed in with criticism as well. Authors of six letters in the journal Science raised a number of mathematical and procedural questions about the work. Many of them were also as concerned with how people would interpret the results as they were with identifying errors. For example, the letter by Ashford, et al., begins “The report […] is dangerously misleading….” And in a subsequent blog post, one of the authors writes, “Our letter to the editor of Science not only challenges the misstatements of the reports that most cancers are due to ‘bad luck’, but points out that such misstatements dangerously undermine successful efforts to prevent cancers.”

In their response to the letters, Tomasetti and Vogelstein address each of the technical points either directly or by referring to the Supplementary Materials published online by Science. They also offer their views on the non-scientific aspects of the criticism. I encourage you to read the letters as well as the response.

The communications surrounding this very interesting and possibly important scientific paper can make for a very rich discussion about the differences between rhetorical argument that can be found in the mainstream press and blogosphere and the evidence-based argument included in the letters and response. It’s vital that we help our students understand the difference between the two.

Dr. David L. Evans is the Executive Director of the National Science Teachers Association. Reach him at devans@nsta.org or via Twitter @devans_NSTA.

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