October’s K–12 journals from the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) highlight unique trends in science eduction.
Science and Children, for elementary educators, hones in on one of the major shifts in the Next Generation Science Standards—the significant focus on engineering. This issue provides several approaches that can be used to support elementary students as they delineate problems, design solutions, and optimize their design solutions. Check out this free article to get a sense of the issue: Wacky Weather.
Science Scope, for middle level and junior high school science teachers, takes on the misconceptions students have about waves and electromagnetic radiation. To make sure you and your students are on the same wavelength when confronting these concepts, check out the collection of activities in this month’s issue. We’re sure they’ll spread the full spectrum of light on the world of waves. The following free article Reflecting Understanding: Using Lab Stations to Teach Image Formation is available from the issue.
The Science Teacher, NSTA’s high school level journal, clarifies how the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) establish performance expectations for students that integrate three important dimensions—science and engineering practices, disciplinary core ideas, and crosscutting concepts—and incorporate important concepts of engineering. Maintaining a teachable number of core ideas was clearly a priority for the NGSS writers. For example, only eight high school level performance expectations directly relate to chemistry. Teachers can help students reach expectations by using the core ideas with a variety of instructional practices. This issue brings together several articles on chemistry that will help science teachers meet the challenges of today’s classroom. This month’s free article All Screwed Up can be accessed online.

One of Apple’s more recent releases may cause problems in your classroom: You and your students will be fighting over it to see who can create the splashiest electronic books! Given Apple’s remarkable success with its iPad, the company has moved even further into the education market with electronic books that can be read on these popular devices— and now, anyone can “write” books for the iPad, which can exploit the tablet’s many multimedia and sense-jarring capabilities. Apple’s iBooks Author application (app) is a free piece of software that allows you to create multi-touch textbooks that use, among many other things, video, interactive photo galleries, voiceovers, diagrams and tables, and 3-D objects. You will have to author your book on a Mac computer loaded with the appropriate operating system; however, you can then download your creation to any or all of the iPads in your school that have the most recent version of iBooks (currently 3.0) installed.

Using this combination of tools to create books about science topics or lab exercises, you or your student can develop digital books that others can load onto their own devices for studying and sharing. You can also project the books during lessons year after year or offer them to parents to help their children do homework exercises. While these books are likely to be the hit of the school, they can only be enjoyed on an iPad (and not other electronic readers), and they won’t play on iPods or iPhones. Beyond these limitations, you and your students are likely to view yourselves as combinations of Ernest Hemingway, Lady Gaga, and Steven Spielberg! Since Apple’s motive for this development is to join the growing business of electronic textbook development, textbooks created by iBooks Author may only be sold if they are accepted and distributed by Apple; however, teachers have a more realistic option of releasing their work locally and without any paperwork if the book is distributed for free. This means that you can join the party now, sidestepping issues of cost and copyright contracts while keeping all of the creative energies in your school building. To leap into this exciting fray, your Mac operating system needs to be OS X 10.6.6 or higher. You can then download the latest version of the Apple iBooks Author app (currently version 2.0) for free from the Apple store.

To begin a project, you are likely going to want to create your text before you start designing the book in iBooks Author; given that you simply “pour” text into the various portions of your book, you will also want your chosen visuals and other interactive elements to be ready to use. Similarly, if you want to insert a series of photos or one or more slide-show presentations, these should be created in advance. Your work area will appear much like the one shown in Figure 1.

If you are familiar with Mac iWorks, Apple’s productivity suite, you will feel right at home using iBooks Author. As with other iWorks programs, you begin with a choice of six templates, from which you can create attractively formatted e-books, or you can generate your own. To create simple books, either the Basic template or the Modern Type template will serve you well. However, for a richer array of design features, iBooks Author offers three templates, Editorial, Contemporary, and Craft, all of which include several opportunities for including photos or visual images that add a “wow” factor to your book. Alternatively, you can create your own custom template, which could include your school’s signature layout; that template can then be used in the future if you or your colleagues want to publish more books. After selecting your template, you can begin the fun work of filling in the pages with the text that you or your students have created for this purpose. It is as simple as clicking and pasting.

With that task complete, you will see the menu bar, which allows you to manipulate the text and add electronic text features such as callouts, shapes, and even data tables and charts from your lab exercises (see Figure 2).

You will soon discover how the software accommodates your insertions by flowing text around each addition. These additions can include photos, some of which fit neatly into template holding points, or you can drag and drop them into any location you choose. You are likely to find yourself experimenting with all sorts of variations in appearance; the changes are all done on the fly as your whim dictates. In no time, you will find your chapter taking shape, and you can then use the Add Pages feature to create a new chapter or section in the book.

The glitzy elements of your creation are likely to come from the Widgets feature, which brings even greater interactivity and visual splash to the reading experience. Widgets allows you to create energy-charged elements within the book, using the following star performers: Gallery, Media, Review, Keynote, Interactive Image, 3-D, and HTML (see Figure 3).

For example, if you have developed your own photo collections related to particular teaching units, you can use the Gallery option to insert a series of photographs that readers navigate by using their fingers to sweep through the image sequence, each with its own caption; for the student, the experience is much like viewing a photo album. Similarly, videos and YouTube clips, as well as audio clips, can be included in your book by using the Media widget, which can provide an option for students who require a scaffold to their reading experience. The only caveat here is that you must be sure that the videos are first converted into Apple’s preferred formats of M4V for video and M4A for audio (which can be done in iTunes). Using another Widget option, you can insert an entire slide presentation imported directly from Apple’s Keynote program, and your readers can move through each of the slides at their own pace as an optional part of their reading.

Two other Widgets that are particularly powerful for enticing young readers are the Interactive Image and the 3-D options. The Interactive Image feature enables you to produce “zoomable” visual images, which readers touch to zoom in for inspection at closer range. This same feature allows you to add labeled points to the image so that the reader can tap a label to view its complete description; a label can be made as large as you wish to make it, and it is easy to navigate from label to label. These capabilities are the dream of a frustrated teacher of lab activities.

Additionally, if you feel that a 2-D image is insufficient to convey your point, you can include a 3-D image that the reader will be able to rotate in various directions. To use the 3-D widget tool, you must have access to 3-D images. The SketchUp 3-D Warehouse (www. sketchup.com/products/3D-warehouse) is a great online archive of free 3-D images that you can insert into your new iBook. Once you have located the image you want to use, you’ll need to save the file in the COLLADADAE format using the drop-down “Download Image” menu. Once saved, the image is ready to be imported into your iBook. You can monitor your progress as you build your book by having your iPad connected to your Mac with the usual iPad USB connector cable. To double-check the appearance of your book on the iPad as you work on the Mac, click on the Preview button. When you have completed your masterpiece, you can hand off the finished product to the iPad. Similarly, you can pass your book to other students’ iPads through iTunes. Additionally, for those students who do not have an iPad, you can give your manuscript to them by creating a PDF version; however, the interactivity will be lost with this last option.

Your teacher’s instinct will appreciate that the good news continues when students are viewing your work on the iPad itself; there are additional academically useful options built into iBooks, Apple’s electronic reader app. For example, students can access an array of options that appear when they tap on a word: Define, Highlight, Note, or Search. The Define feature gives students the definition of a word as well as option to search the web or Wikipedia for a more detailed explanation. The Highlight feature allows students to highlight important terms or concepts using a variety of colors as they read, and just as students might like to use sticky notes as they read paper books, the Note option gives students the ability to jot down ideas or questions. Once notes are added, the text is marked with a small sticky note in the margin and the notes are saved for future reference. Finally, should students need to find a particular term or phrase, they can use the Search feature to zip through the book, including the media sections, for places where it appears. Taking it as a given that teachers would need to concern themselves with testing their students’ understanding of what they have read, the Apple designers have included another widget that allows you to insert a quiz anywhere in your creation. Called a Review, this option allows you to enter multiple-choice questions anywhere in the body of the text; by clicking on this icon, a box containing the multiple-choice quiz is inserted at a point of your choosing. If you like, you can have the quiz expand to a full-screen view. You write the question, create the answer options, and then select the correct answer, and you can create as many questions as you like. Note that you can also create variations that science teachers will love: questions can be built around an inserted image (of lab slides, for example), and questions can be crafted around the task of labeling specific points in an image (of zygotes, for example). A summary of students’ correct responses is provided onscreen.

The sale of iPads continues to soar at an astonishing rate, and Apple has become an enormous market force. Not only are lots of families buying iPads, approximately 1.5 million of the devices are estimated to be in use in schools today. Clearly, Apple is envisioning a much wider use of electronic texts in schools, but it also has its eye on establishing a place in the textbook market with less expensive, more feature-rich textbooks. And you can have a piece of the action! Imagine students studying from books that they and you have created together, and imagine the collection of electronic textbooks that you can develop for subsequent years’ students.

I’m a second-year teacher at a small elementary school. I was poking around the supply closet and found several unopened science kits.  Last year, I did some basic science activities that I did while student teaching, but this year, I’d like to do more. Would these kits be helpful? What do I need to know about them?
—Conrad, South Bend, Indiana
I’m glad you’re expanding your lessons to incorporate more science investigations. Science kits are published by many companies and individuals and address a variety of topics. They can be helpful for teachers who do not have a lot of background experience in science topics–either in the content itself or in designing and implementing inquiry-based activities.
I’d ask your colleagues or department chair what they know about them. And then, go ahead and open the boxes! Take a look at the descriptions and the teacher’s guides and check out information on the publisher’s website. Most kits focus on a theme or topic (e.g., the human body, matter and energy, weather). Determine which topics and lessons align with your curriculum goals. The kits I’m familiar with contain several lessons and are designed to be used as a unit of instruction at specific grade levels (e.g., K-2, 3-5, 6-8).
In addition to a teacher’s guide, the kits should also include student handouts and basic materials the students need for the activities. The activities should promote processes such as observing, questioning, hypothesizing, predicting, investigating (including planning, conducting, measuring, gathering data, controlling variables, interpreting, and drawing conclusions), and communicating. If the kits are just a collection of materials for demonstrations or replication (sometimes referred to as “cookbook” activities), you’ll need to go beyond showing students how to follow directions and supplement the activities with additional strategies in the processes mentioned above.

The kits should also have assessment suggestions, rubrics, timelines for implementation, suggestions for interdisciplinary connections, and components for reading, writing, and mathematics. Using kits should be an integral part of your science program, not an add-on, so be sure to allow time for all of the activities (anywhere from a few weeks to an entire marking period may be needed). The kits I’m familiar with do not have rigid scripts, so the teacher can adapt the activities to the needs and interests of the students.
When schools purchase kits, there is often an option for teacher training/professional development in using them. But unfortunately, you didn’t have that opportunity. If the publisher has a website, use it to learn more about the topics and the materials. Take advantage of any online forums or Frequently Asked Questions.
I worked with a fourth-grade teacher who used a kit focused on the anatomy and physiology of the human skeletal and muscular systems. When I observed her classes, the students made models of the human arm, using craft sticks and rubber bands. But this wasn’t just an arts-and-crafts replica. The students then used their models to explore the relationship between muscles, bones, and ligaments. When a group asked, “What would happen if the rubber bands were shorter?” the teacher asked what they thought would happen and encouraged them to change their model to see what did happen. As students worked, she distributed (without comment) pictures of animal skeletons. When the students looked at bird and bat wings, the arms of humans and apes, and the legs of frogs, horses, and cats, you could see light bulbs go off over their heads. “Wow, look how these are all alike!” “So that’s what the bones in a Buffalo wing are.” “The bones in our arms and legs are similar.” The teacher did not have to tell the students about homologous structures—the students saw them and came up with their own examples.  Several students looked up and learned the names of the bones, even though that was not an essential goal of the unit.
Another consideration is to inventory and replenish any materials in the kit before you store it again. You’ll be all ready for the next time.
This can be a great opportunity to get inquiry science into your classrooms. Just remember: although inquiry-based science often involves hands-on activities, not all hands-on activities are inquiry-based.
 
Photo: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7007/6799976179_7f6b4eecb4_q.jpg
 

Do you have advice on assessments that would be helpful for sharing with my mentee, a new teacher?
—Shirley, Lexington, Kentucky
Assessing student learning can (and should) include more than final tests. The process has components before, during, and at the end of the unit of instruction. You might find my archived posts with questions on assessments helpful:
Assessment at the beginning of a unit—Finding out what students know (or don’t know)

• Overcoming misconceptions Every year my students come to class with the idea that it’s colder in the winter because the earth is farther away from the sun. Where did they get this idea?
• What do students already know?  Last year, I started giving pretests at the beginning of each unit. The students were upset because they didn’t know many of the answers, even though I explained I didn’t expect them to know everything and the pretest wouldn’t count as a grade. Are there other ways to find out what students know about a topic?

Assessment during the unit –- Helping students monitor their own learning, in addition to formative assessments

• Asking for help  During class, students seem to understand the concepts. However, they don’t do well on the tests. I offer extra help before and after school and at lunch, but few students take advantage of it. I’m a first-year biology teacher, so I’d appreciate some suggestions on how to encourage students to ask questions or seek help when they need it.
• Student self-evaluation: How am I doing?   My middle school students frequently ask me “Is this right?” or “What should I do now?” How can I help them become more self-reliant?

Assessment at the end of a unit—Going beyond multiple-choice questions

• Using essay questions   I want to use more essay-type questions on my unit assessments, but with 150 students I feel swamped trying to grade all of the papers and provide feedback. Any suggestions for making this a good learning process?
• Rubrics   I’m trying to use more projects and open-ended assessments this year, but I’m getting bogged down with grading them. I know I should use rubrics, but it’s hard to create them for every assignment. Any suggestions for streamlining this process?

And providing meaningful feedback to students is another component of assessment. Our department chair is encouraging us to add comments to student writing assignments. This sounds time-consuming; I have more than 100 students in my Earth science classes. Would students even read my comments on lab reports or term papers?
Above all, I’d emphasize to your mentee that assessment is more than coming up with numbers to average into a grade. Using a variety of assessment strategies can help both the students and the teacher determine to what extent the learning goals are being met.
 
Photo:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/fontplaydotcom/504443770/
 
 

I’ve been a longtime fan of Understanding Science from the University of California Museum of Paleontology at Berkeley. It’s a comprehensive resource for learning more about the processes of science as used in the real world. The processes of science are represented as fluid and iterative, showing that science does not follow a structured recipe. The three main components of the website are Understanding Science 101, a “primer on the nature and process of science.” Another link leads to Teaching Resources, with grade-specific suggestions. And the Resource Library has sections on misconceptions and case studies as well as links to articles, tutorials, and interactives. If the first unit in your science textbook describes “THE” scientific method as a traditional, rigid flowchart, head to this site right away.
This is similar in design to Berkeley’s Evolution 101 website, another treasure of lessons and resources for K-12
As they say on TV informercials – But wait! There’s more…
How Science Works has been adapted as an online course for middle- and high-school science educators to “broaden their own knowledge and understanding and to use with students, the course weaves together activities, videos, and classroom-ready materials into a primer on the process of science that includes exploration and discovery, testing ideas, community feedback and peer review, and benefits and outcomes.” The course is free and downloadable for iOS devices from iTunes.
I’ve downloaded the course to my iPad (but you’ll need an Internet connection to access the videos and documents). The course has many similarities to the website, but it is designed as a focused learning tool. Each “lesson” includes an overview and links to the videos and articles related to the topic. At key places, the user is invited to reflect or describe their learning, using either the built-in notes or another personal journal or notebook. And there is a section on the connections between the NGSS and the course topics.
I could see this being used for independent study or by a study group (either in-person or online). And it’s FREE.

Check out this month’s most popular books, e-books, and children’s science trade books! Click over to our NSTA Recommends Catalog app to see what’s new. Between now and October 31, 2013, save $10 off your order of $40 or more of NSTA Press books by entering promo code SAVE10 at checkout through the online Science Store.
Most Popular NSTA Press Books

1. Uncovering Student Ideas in Science, Volume 1: 25 Formative Assessment Probes
2. The NSTA Reader’s Guide to the Next Generation Science Standards
3. Citizen Science: 15 Lessons That Bring Biology to Life, 6-12
4. Diagnosis for Classroom Success, Teacher Edition: Making Anatomy and Physiology Come Alive
5. Even More Picture-Perfect Science Lessons: Using Children’s Books to Guide Inquiry, K–5

Most Popular NSTA Press e-Books

1. Science for the Next Generation: Preparing for the New Standards
2. Rise and Shine: A Practical Guide for the Beginning Science Teacher
3. Predict, Observe, Explain: Activities Enhancing Scientific Understanding
4. The Case for STEM Education: Challenges and Opportunities
5. Uncovering Student Ideas in Primary Science, Volume 1: 25 New Formative Assessment Probes for Grades K–2

Most Popular Science Trade Books for Kids

1. Clouds, Rain, Clouds Again: I Wonder Why
2. Bubble Bubble
3. Next Time You See a Seashell
4. What Can an Animal Do?: I Wonder Why
5. Next Time You See a Firefly

This month’s The Leading Edge asks science education leaders to share their views on The Top Ten items identified by administrators as part of the Speak Up National Research Project which focused on the changing environment for digital learning. While there is The Top Ten list of items identified by students as need to know, the list that people are asked to comment on relates to the top topics in administrator’s views on technology.
One of the items on the top ten list indicates that 55% of school principals and district administrators say it is their concern that they do not have adequate technology for students to use at schools.  While there are pros and cons on the topic, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) has gained much press and popularity in recent years allowing districts to provide the access whereas the students need to provide the technology option.  The idea of BYOD is actually third on the top ten list.  Concordia University actually offers a pros and cons review of BYOD that might be helpful in making a decision.  Regardless of the district policy, BYOD will need to be integrated into the school culture carefully with meaningful and relevant tasks for students to utilize their own device around.  Simply having a device does not necessarily indicate that it should always be open and/or available.  Educators will have a paradigm shift as they begin to look at the class and say “take out your (insert name of device here).”  Some students however will also have a learning curve as they begin to utilize technological devices as a tool for learning rather than as a method for interaction with friends.
Another area that is focused in relates to utilizing technology for professional growth as well as tasks.  The use of tablets for classroom observations and online videos for professional development end up making tasks easier and more readily available, but can also isolate professionals from the discourse that most likely would happen when brought together for a larger professional development experience.
So what are your thoughts on the top ten topics in digital learning?

One of the big ideas from my teaching courses was “congruency”—an alignment of curriculum (What content and skills will you teach?), instruction (What learning activities will help students learn and use the content and skills?), and assessment (How will students demonstrate or show what they learned?). The featured articles in this month’s issue of Science Scope provide opportunities for teachers to learn more about how to align the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) with student learning opportunities. As the editor suggests, now is a good time to take this new vehicle on a “test drive.”
A question that is on the mind of most science teachers is “What will my school and I have to change to meet the expectations in the new standards?” The author of the guest editorial Conceptual Shifts in the NGSS: Opportunities and Challenges describes seven shifts in thinking and the challenges and opportunities that are evolving. The editorial also has advice about how to approach the decision makers in your district or school to move toward implementation.
If you’re looking for ways to incorporate writing in science (as noted in the Common Core State Standards), Cross-Disciplinary Writing: Scientific Argumentation, the Common Core, and the ADI Model describes the “Argument Driven Inquiry” (ADI) model that science teachers can use in student expository writing and argumentation. There are several graphics that describe the 8 stages of the model and their alignment with the CCSS. I suspect that many teachers already have students writing in class, and this model combines science, writing, and argumentation into a do-able, authentic process.
Similarly, English Language Arts and Science: A Shift Toward Student Success describes some of the commonalities between language arts and science: an understanding of vocabulary, questioning, making inferences, visualizing and connecting ideas, creating models, determining important ideas (comparing and contrasting), synthesizing information, and communicating. The authors show how language arts and science can be integrated in a topic about which students (and many adults) have misconceptions: the reasons for the seasons. The article includes an anticipation guide, informational text, vocabulary strategies and writing activities. [SciLinks: Seasons]
Developing and Using Models to Align with NGSS illustrates the complementary nature of disciplinary core ideas (DCI) and modeling. The authors suggest using the article to work with colleagues as a professional learning opportunity. The Earth-Sun-Moon system provides the context for this article. [SciLinks: Earth-Moon Connection, Moon Phases, Solar System]

The use of modeling continues with Incorporating Models Into Science Teaching to Meet the NGSS. The authors note that models serve four roles: data synthesis, representations of science ideas, substitutes for natural phenomena, and hypotheses and claims. They provides examples of these kinds of models and provide a chart of suggested activities and connections  with the performance expectations of the NGSS. The article also includes suggestions for getting started with the use of models.
The fall is a great time to be outdoors. Rather than traditional scavenger hunts or collection activities, Modeling the Forest describes an investigation in which students collect tree data to model a single tree or a forested area. The article provides activities, student handouts, and background information. NGSS: Lost in the Woods describes an investigation of moss and lichen growth on trees as a way of ramping up a traditional activity into an extended investigation. [SciLinks: Forests, Autumn Leaves, Deforestation, Lichens, What Are Mosses?]
[Modeling is the theme for the September issue of The Science Teacher. Check it out for more on the topic.]
Staying on the topic of wood, Innovative Composite Research Modeled in the Middle School Classroom describes an engineering-focused activity in which students explore how composites (based on wood and wood products) can be designed to create materials with more desirable properties. Students were asked to develop a stronger wood-based product—a composite of baker’s dough and sawdust. The authors include a day-by-day lesson suggestion with examples of student handouts/data sheets.
Ken Roy’s safety columns appear in both Science Scope and The Science Teacher. Each journal has a different column, but this month has a direct connection. We often think of safety as the domain of chemistry and biology teachers, but this month Ken writes Earth Science Safety: It’s All in Your Form (in Science Scope) and Acknowledging Safety in Physics (in The Science Teacher). Both of his columns should be required reading (and NSTA members have access to both journals).

As a new science teacher, your first year of teaching is well underway. You’ve been facing the challenges that all new teachers face—learning your students’ names, how to manage your classroom, the best ways to engage your students, and how to account to your administrators for all that you do. But science teachers face other challenges, such as additional safety requirements, particular grading difficulties, budget restrictions, and how to incorporate science into an already crowded curriculum.
The New Science Teacher’s Handbook: What You Didn’t Learn From Student Teaching may be just the lifeline you need to keep your first teaching experience a positive one. Written by Sarah Reeves Young and Mike Roberts, using their actual classroom experiences as examples, this handbook tells you what you need to know that you didn’t learn in your preservice training.
Each chapter presents scenarios and time-tested ideas from both within and outside the classroom. The authors explain the setup for each chapter:

The Story: These are actual experiences that happened within either Sarah’s or Mike’s classroom. Any “I” statements are in reference to what happened to us individually within our classrooms. As a new teacher, it’s always nice to know that someone else has had a similar struggle. These true stories demonstrate that even those who go on to write books on best practices in the classroom didn’t start off as perfect educators.
The Moral: What we learned from the aforementioned story. Similar to a fable, there is a moral to each story that addresses the theme of the struggle and sets the stage for moving beyond the challenge.
Steps for Success: Here we present strategies to help teachers overcome situations similar to those presented in “the story.” There are multiple solutions presented so teachers can choose those that work best for their specific concerns and school environment.
What Does Success Look Like: This section examines how the classroom looks after implementing the “steps for success.” This is the “light at the end of the tunnel” to help new teachers see that common challenges can end with positive results that benefit both teacher and students.
Resources: Here we present resources to consider for additional support in organizing the classroom for those teachers who want to explore the topic in more detail.

Whether you are on your way to becoming a new science teacher or a teacher in the early years of your career, we feel confident that the ideas presented here will help you become the teacher you’ve always wanted to be.
To learn more, check out the sample chapter: “Starting Class the Right Way: Starter Activities.” This book is also available as an e-book.
An additional NSTA Press resources to help you as you get started in your science teaching career is Rise and Shine: A Practical Guide for the Beginning Science Teacher.

Our parents’ association is giving mini-grants to each teacher. This is only my second year teaching at the elementary level, so I still need lots of stuff for my classroom. I’d like to spend the funds on science-related materials. Any suggestions on what I should buy?
—Darin, Savannah, Georgia
Although it’s tempting to use the funds for classroom supplies or posters and decorations, I’m glad you’re thinking about science! Some basic materials can go a long way in providing opportunities for young students to explore and investigate.
First of all, look at your school’s science curriculum for your grade level and your lesson plans from last year. Were there activities you couldn’t do because you didn’t have the materials? Refer to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) for elementary students and consider how the performance expectations (and the practices, core ideas, and crosscutting concepts they were developed from) could be addressed through student investigations. Materials for these activities could be a good start for your shopping list.
Do you have protective eyewear and other basic safety equipment? If not, put these on the list. Did you use science kits last year? You may need to replenish the consumable materials this year. Perhaps you and your colleagues could pool your mini-grants for larger-ticket items to share among your classrooms.
I have several colleagues who were elementary science specialists. Based on what I saw in their classrooms, you could begin to develop an inventory of simple materials used for a variety of activities:

• Building blocks in different sizes and shapes
• Magnets
• Hand lenses
• Calculators
• Metric rulers and plastic measuring cups
• Easy-to-read thermometers
• Science-related books at a variety of reading levels for your classroom library
• Maps of your state, the United States, and the world
• A class set of small white boards and markers for students to display their work
• Shallow trays
• Animal specimens sealed in clear plastic blocks (e.g., insects, worms, small skeletons)

Consider what you might need for student projects:

• Materials for investigating plant growth in a classroom garden (even a window ledge can be a garden): small pots, plants, potting soil, a grow light
• Binoculars and field guides to use on class field trips
• Science notebooks for student journaling, sketching, and recording data
• Materials for composting or recycling projects
• Weather stations
• A small aquarium

If you have access to tablets, their cameras can be turned into microscopes, or you could purchase apps that relate to your learning goals or enhance student creativity. Students could use a digital camera to document and share their activities.
Storage space is a concern in many classrooms. You could include containers for storing materials or trays and small boxes to organize materials for the lab groups.
Browse through the articles in Science & Children for more activities (and what you would need) that fit with your learning goals and students’ interests.
During the school year, share what you and your students are doing with the materials with the parents’ organization. They’ll appreciate seeing pictures or videos of students at work. You could also ask students to write thank-you notes or create presentations explaining what they’re learning in science as a result of their gift.
And once you’ve used these funds, start a list for next year!
 
Photo: http://tinyurl.com/kf8d74l