This past summer, NSTA member Naomi Beverly participated in the Mickelson ExxonMobil Teachers Academy. Since then, Beverly says that she has gone to the NSTA website and the NSTA Learning Center almost every day to participate in discussions with other science teachers, research lesson plan ideas, and increase her science content knowledge. Beverly, who teaches science to third-grade special education students, calls her NSTA membership and access to the NSTA Learning Center a “blessing.” “I get high-quality professional development at my own pace,” she says.

Beverly: I access the Learning Center so much. I enjoy using the SciPacks, SciGuides, and the Science Objects. Those are really helpful to me, because my undergraduate degree was not in education. So, I’m missing a lot of science content. I received a master’s degree in special education and the science content support I receive from NSTA allows me to properly teach science to my students. Otherwise, how could I help out some of the lowest-performing kids with the greatest needs when I don’t have a solid content base?? Through my NSTA membership, I can study the science content and fill in any gaps in my understanding.

I find quality lesson plans with tons of activities in the Learning Center. So, I don’t have to rattle my brain and try to recreate the wheel. A lot of the activities are hands-on, as well, which is so important when teaching students with special needs. Some of them fall below grade-level in reading, so they really benefit from participating in interactive activities and visual simulations that engage them. NSTA provides those activities.

For instance, I have used content from the Science Object, “Science of Food Safety: Understanding the Cell’s Importance” in my classroom. The module includes a really cool simulation that I show my students on how quickly bacteria can replicate. Just seeing that simulation and having that interactive experience is valuable to them. Now, if I ask those students “How long does it take a bacterium to replicate?” they know the answer and remember that simulation.

We’re focusing on habitats right now. Ocean habitats, for example, include plankton and other organisms that can be too abstract for my third-grade students with special needs to understand at first. They don’t have the vocabulary and the real-world experience. Showing them something interactive on the computer, though, helps. I’m going to incorporate what I’ve learned in the Coral Reef Ecosystems SciPack in my class. My students will be able to see what happens to the health of a reef when conditions change (for example, if the reef isn’t getting enough sunlight). Those sort of simulations that expose students to science and vocabulary are really valuable.

(Note from NSTA: “Science for All” is a key goal of science education. NSTA provides strategies and resources for making science accessible for all students. Not a member of NSTA? Learn more about how to join.)

Jennifer Henderson is our guest blogger for this series. Before launching her freelance career as a writer/editor, Jennifer was Managing Editor of The Science Teacher, NSTA’s peer-reviewed journal for high school science teachers.

I need suggestions on encouraging students to tell me when they don’t understand something. I ask my classes if they need any help, but no one seems to have any questions. The next day, it’s as if they never heard of the topic before! —A. from Nevada

Questions are good, but sometimes people don’t have questions or concerns until later, after they’ve “digested” the material and try to recall, use, or apply it. I did a workshop with another instructor on a technology tool for teachers and administrators. The workshop was hands-on and based on the needs of the participants. The workshop seemed to go well, and the participants gave it high ratings. But there were very few questions.

My co-instructor called me a few days later. The help desk was now getting questions from the participants. She was very upset because she thought she had done an ineffective job. I reassured her that we had done a good job during the workshop, but once the participants were on their own, they realized their knowledge was a little shaky. Or their confidence disappeared without support standing right next to them. Or they ran into unforeseen glitches. My colleague had been very supportive and so the participants felt comfortable contacting the helpdesk. I suggested that if the participants did not see the value of the tool, they would have given up.

The same is true in our classrooms. Teachers often say “Any questions? Good.” When there are no questions, the teacher assumes that everyone understands. You could rephrase your questions to provide a context or focus, such as, “Any questions about the difference between eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells?” Give the class a few seconds of wait time to think about their learning and formulate their questions. Model the type of questions the students could ask or how they could check their understanding: “When I was first learning this, I didn’t understand that…” “Tell me one thing you learned and one thing you’re still confused about.”

Is your classroom a “safe” place for them to ask questions? Do students know how to ask for assistance? Is asking considered a sign of weakness? Are students embarrassed to ask questions? No matter how trivial the question or comment, never belittle it, reply with sarcasm, or allow other students to laugh at it. I had a student who thought she would hurt my feelings if she didn’t understand something right away! (I told her that I liked questions —they helped me become a better teacher.) Having a way to submit questions anonymously may help (a slip of paper, a tweet, or an e-mail note).

Don’t wait until the end of the lesson or test time to discover what students are struggling with. Frequent formative assessments—bellringers, tickets out the door, brief quizzes, responses via clickers or white boards, and thumbs up—may also help students reflect on what they know or don’t know and give you some concrete feedback on their understanding during each lesson.

Several articles have addressed the topic with implications for teachers:

• Students’ Help-Seeking Strategies Offer Clues for Educators
• Middle-Class Children Learn to Be Squeaky Wheels
• Working-Class Kids Ask Fewer Questions In Class, And Here’s Why

Photo:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/rongyos/2686415336/

Yes, my name is Teshia Birts, and I’m an #NSTAGroupie—I have been for four years now.

I became an #NSTAGroupie when I joined the NSTA staff as Senior Manager of Chapter and Associated Group Relations back in October, 2010. I was immediately hooked because that was just in time to go to my first NSTA conference, where I met some of the most creative and interesting people I know.  The network I began to build at my first conference was strengthened and enhanced as I worked with NSTA’s nearly 300 component organizations (state/province chapters, associated groups, and student chapters).  And now my role has evolved, as I recently accepted the role of Senior Director of Membership Development and Chapter Relations where I will continue to work with chapters and associated groups, and will add member development and engagement to my list of responsibilities.

This is an awesome opportunity for me—I have loved science since I was a child and studied mechanical engineering during my undergraduate studies.  This was in large part due to the outstanding science teachers who fed my curiosity.  I am now honored to count many NSTA members among my friends, and I am eager to continue to support this important profession.

NSTA’s role has always been to provide that support, and that won’t change. But we do have exciting new plans in store to connect with our members, so we can learn how best to serve YOU!  We also want to facilitate members engaging and connecting with one another.  We know our members (and science teachers in general) love to share – they write articles in our four peer-reviewed journals; they share ideas, challenges and solutions on our 17 topic-driven listservs; they network during our five conferences; and those are just some of the ways they network and learn from one another.

Networking and learning bring me back to the experiences that made me an NSTA groupie in the first place—and much of that began at our conferences.  And  at those conferences, I haven’t seen many ‘selfies’;  science teachers want to share and NSTA wants to as well, by getting to know you up close and personally.

So, in that spirit I am announcing a ‘groupie’ contest for our fall conference season!  Starting with our Richmond Area Conference on Science Education (taking place October 16-18), and continuing at our Orlando (November 6-8) and Long Beach (December 4-6) conferences, we will hold a Twitter contest using the hash tag #NSTAGroupie. Conference attendees who tweet a photo of themselves (preferably as part of a group) with the hash tag will be entered into a contest to win great prizes, including airline vouchers, NSTA gear, and gift certificates. For more information about the contest visit the NSTA Twitter Contest page. 

This will be the first of many ways I’ll be trying to connect you with the faces at NSTA, and we hope to see lots of your faces, too! I am so excited about my new role with NSTA and will be communicating with our members more over the coming months (and years).  I also look forward to hearing from you; please do not hesitate to reach out to me.  My contact information is listed below.

Teshia Birts, CAE
Senior Director, Membership  Development and Chapter Relations
e-mail: tbirts72@gmail.com
Twitter: @teshiabirts

Official Washington has slowed to a crawl with the midterm election just weeks away and the possible power shift in the U.S. Senate. This Ed Week blog has a great take on what’s ahead for education if the Republicans take control of the Senate.

In the House, the message that many parents and educators are tired of over-testing students has been received. Lawmakers recently introduced a bill that speaks to a growing bipartisan consensus around reducing federal testing requirements.  The Tackling Excessive Standardized Testing (TEST) Act, introduced last week and supported by the American Federation of Teachers, would allow states to choose an alternative testing regimen for students in grades 3 through 8.  The bill focuses only on math and reading and does not include science testing.  Read more.

Meanwhile last week, Vice President Joe Biden announced $450 million would be going to over 270 community colleges nationwide for CTE training grants, many focusing on STEM.

And finally, a new report from the Education Commission of the States captures a snapshot of where states currently stand in regard to the Common Core State Standards (CSSS). Read more.

Jodi Peterson is the Assistant Executive Director, Communications, Legislative, and Public Affairs at the National Science Teachers Association; and the Chair of the STEM Education Coalition

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

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Patterns,  arguing from evidence, and ecosystem ecology—these are the themes of the October 2014 science education journals published by the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA). Each issue is filled with articles written by science educators who’ve tested their ideas in the classroom. So take some time to enjoy the fall weather, and cozy up to the inspired ideas below. Explore conservation of matter in life sciences, learn how to find your school’s analemma, put new life in an old lesson, and more!

Science and Children

Establishing an understanding of patterns is important in childhood development. This issue of S&C is filled with ideas and resources you can use to help students make connections and understand the relationships that cause patterns.

Featured articles (please note, only those marked “free” are available to nonmembers without a fee):

• A Pattern in the Sky
• A SeQRet Treasure Hunt
• Free – Art and the Cosmic Connection
• Free – Editor’s Note: Crosscutting Concepts: Patterns
• Find Your School’s Analemma
• Modeling Water Filtration
• Full Table of Contents

Science Scope

Knowing how to argue from evidence when attributing an observed phenomenon to a specific cause is an essential skill for any scientist. We hope the articles found in this issue will help teach your students to accurately identify and explain cause-and-effect relationships, both inside and outside the classroom.

Featured articles (please note, only those marked “free” are available to nonmembers without a fee):

• Conservation of Matter in the Life Sciences
• Free – Editor’s Roundtable: Cause and Effect
• Generating, Evaluating, and Modifying Scientific Models Using Projected Computer Simulations
• Free – Lakes Alive!
• Model Synergy: Combining Classic Modeling Practices and Digital Simulations to Augment Deeper Conceptual Understanding
• Students Modeling Molecule Movement Through Science Theater
• Teaching Electromagnetic Waves Used in Communication Technologies
• Full Table of Contents

The Science Teacher

There can be no argument about the importance of ecosystem ecology to the modern science curriculum. Interdisciplinary by nature, the field involves chemistry, physics, biology, and Earth science and core ideas like energy, matter and its interactions, biodiversity, Earth’s systems and their related human impacts, and engineering solutions. The intricate interactions involved in even the simplest ecosystems can help students understand the messiness of science and the complex functioning of natural systems, fluxes, and reservoirs. Furthermore, the future of our planet depends on understanding and protecting vulnerable ecosystems.

Featured articles (please note, only those marked “free” are available to nonmembers without a fee):

• Adapting to the Environment
• Free – Calculating Biodiversity in the Real World
• Free – Editor’s Corner: Ecosystems on the Brink
• Next Generation Botany
• Putting New Life in an Old Lesson
• Scientists at Work
• Full Table of Contents

Get these journals in your mailbox as well as your inbox—become an NSTA member!

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

Follow NSTA

 

 

I’ve been reading the literature on the value of play in learning. I do give my students unstructured activity time in science class, but I’m not sure they’re getting anything out of it. For example, I gave each group of students a board and several toy cars. They began playing with them, and when I later asked what they learned or discovered about motion, the silence was deafening! I know they had fun “playing” with the cars, but I wanted them to learn something, too. How can I make this a better experience?

—D., Idaho

Unfortunately, some students (and adults) look at fun and learning as mutually exclusive: If we’re learning, it can’t be fun, and if we’re having fun, we can’t be learning.

This dichotomy was illustrated in an action research study conducted by a colleague. He asked his students to list the most fun things they did in class. The fifth-graders mentioned science activities, role-playing, word games, drawing, working with their peers, computer simulations, and more. He then asked what class activities best helped them learn. He assumed the answers would be the same, although ranked in a different order depending on the student. He was surprised when most of the students said worksheets and tests. When he discussed these results with his students, they mentioned that the worksheets and tests were graded and they had to stay in at recess if they missed one. They concluded that these were more important than the “fun” activities since they were used to calculate their grades as a summary of their “learning.” Reflecting on the results, the teacher concluded he needed to be more explicit in describing the learning goals of the activities and debrief more with the students on what they learned or discovered.

Exploration (I prefer this term to “playing”) is an important part of science, regardless of the age of the students. It provides open-ended opportunities without the concern of finding a single correct answer. It provides students with common experiences and helps the teacher identify misconceptions. During the rest of the lesson, students can build on these experiences, although the teacher may have to remind students of what they did. For students who are used to being told exactly what to do and how to do it, this can be a new and perhaps frustrating experience as they wonder, “But what are we supposed to do?”

During the activity, circulate through the class, observe their explorations and ask questions about what they are thinking. (You’ll also want to be sure they’re focused and working safely). Encourage students to describe what happens in their notebooks. Afterward, instead of asking generically what they learned, use more focused discussion-starters such as What happened when…? What was different? Did that happen to everyone? What surprised you? What else could we explore? I wonder what would happen if…? If you had more time, what else would you do?

I encourage you to look at the BSCS 5E Instructional Model, in which Exploration is one of the phases, along with Engagement, Explanation, Elaboration, and Evaluation.  Within the context of this model, exploration becomes an integral and essential part of the lesson.

NSTA’s K-12 journals have many examples of lessons that follow this model.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fontplaydotcom/504443770/