I’m looking for suggestions on what to do with students on the first day of school. I’m starting my first year teaching science at a middle school.
—Shelly, Illinois
Put yourself in the students’ place. On the first day, they’re subjected to six, seven, or eight  teachers reading the syllabus, describing their grading system, and going over laundry lists of class rules. By the end of the day, everything blends together, and the following day students won’t remember who said what. They might appreciate a break from this scenario.
Save your syllabus discussion and safety contract for another day in the first week. You could start with a brief description of the purpose of the science course, including any big ideas that serve as a theme or organizer. Rather than going over all of the rules, describe the overall expectations on which the rules are based. For example, I would tell students that respect was most important in my class—I would respect them, they would respect me, they would respect each other, and we would all respect the learning process. (One year after I said this in an elective class, a student got up and left the room. The other students stared at him, and one remarked, “I guess he wanted a class where he could be disrespectful!”)
Depending on the length of your class period, you could then use an activity to get to know your students’ personalities and interactions. (However, until you have their safety contracts on file, avoid any activities in which students use chemicals, flames, projectiles, or heat sources.) In a recent  discussion on the NSTA members–only email list, several teachers posted some examples:

• Franklin W. suggested the marshmallow challenge. Students have 20 pieces of spaghetti, one meter of tape, one meter of string, one marshmallow and 8 minutes. Working in teams, they have to build a structure to get the marshmallow as high off the desk as possible. They then measure to the top of the marshmallows and the highest wins.
• Ryan R. asks students to arrange themselves in alphabetical order by first names or chronologically by birthdate and then sit in the corresponding numbered seat.
• Karen D. gives her students a deck of cards (or some index cards) and asks them to build a structure.
• Dave D. groups students and gives each group a “secret” object. Their goal is to write a list of observable characteristics so other groups can identify it.

As students do an activity, you’ll have a chance to observe their thinking and problem-solving skills. You can start to identify the leaders, organizers, followers, thinkers, disrupters, class clowns, and bystanders.
If time is an issue, you could do a brief demonstration to get their interest. You could also try a formative assessment probe from the Uncovering Student Ideas in Science series of books from NSTA. Try a different one in each class to get a cross section of previous experiences and/or misconceptions. You’ll also get a writing sample from the students.
There may be some required housekeeping tasks expected of teachers on the first day. When I taught in a large, two-story middle school, my principal wanted us to check attendance to make sure students found their way to their classrooms. I dutifully called names, but I usually mispronounced a few or called students by their full name rather than a preferred nickname. Although the students often found this hilarious, I was embarrassed. So I started asking the students to introduce themselves. I could annotate my list with a phonetic spelling or nickname.
The first day of school is exciting, stressful, busy, and a little scary for students (as well as their teachers). As a teacher you want to set a welcoming tone for your students and communicate your passion for science and your interest in helping them learn.
 
Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kacey3/1263403799/

This month I was able to spend unstructured time with a 2.5 year old and her family. In my position as an observer, not teacher, care-giver or parent, I could enjoy only observing—observing without a purpose outside my own interest. This open-ended vacation mode of observation may not have sharpened my thinking or provoke deep understanding but it allowed me to think for a long time about how children wonder and ask questions about their environment.
For example, she asked some questions that showed how curious she is about the world. “Momma, why are there numbers on the microwave?” (I was surprised that she knew the symbols were numbers!) And she said this about the staples holding an inexpensive paperback book together: “Why do they have these pins in here?” The answers about the function of the numbers for counting, and the function of the staples (new word for her) for holding, related to familiar concepts.
She was identifying an object or phenomena of interest and expressing her interest in finding out. It reminded me of another child who, at an earlier age, would point at objects and say, “Dhat!”
Children’s early exploration of, and reasoning about, the world is noted in the Framework for K–12 science education: Practices, crosscutting concepts, and core ideas, a document based on research, which was the basis for the structure and content of the Next Generation Science Standards for K-12 (NGSS). In a section titled “Children are Born Investigators” (pg 24), the Framework states, “In fact, the capacity of young children—from all backgrounds and socioeconomic levels—to reason in sophisticated ways is much greater than has long been assumed [1]. Although they may lack deep knowledge and extensive experience, they often engage in a wide range of subtle and complex reasoning about the world [20-23].”
(Reference 1, to the National Research Council’s 2007 publication Taking Science to School: Learning and Teaching Science in Grades K-8, and other references are on pages 35-36.)
That learning about the natural world begins before kindergarten is also recognized in the NGSS where the science and engineering practices used to develop the kindergarten performance expectations all state “builds on prior experiences.”
Parents, other care-givers and preschool teachers are the adults who are able to provide those experiences and answer questions that follow. We all need time to make the most of moments in our daily lives, and to be able to learn about, plan and implement experiences.

“Let’s argue” writes the editor in his introduction to this issue. But he is referring to scientific argumentation–the goal of which is to “reach consensus in a collaborative search for truth.” The practice of arguing from evidence (along with the related practice of obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information) is identified as a scientific and engineering practice that is incorporated in the NGSS.
So what does argumentation look like in a real classroom? The featured articles in this issue have many ideas for refocusing our instruction by integrating this practice into science activities.
To show how scientists use this process, Argumentation in Science Education includes a summary of the claim, evidence, and justification in Watson and Crick’s work on the structure of DNA. The article also has a graphic showing the components of an argument and criteria that can be used to evaluate them. The authors note that the biggest challenge for students is in justifying their evidence. They illustrate this with student experiences in studying why some pendulums swing faster than others. Students will need opportunities and guidance to craft arguments successfully. [See SciLinks for more on science content related to Pendulums.]
Making and Defending Scientific Arguments describes four strategies for scaffolding students in the process of argumentation: making an inference from observations, agreeing or disagreeing with a statement (the author includes several starter sentences to guide students), testing another person’s claim, and making your own claim (with organizational lists for argument-based oral reports and lab reports). The author notes that  argumentation is a “higher-level, critical-thinking skill.” But students at any grade level can participate in the process. [See this month’s Science & Children and Science Scope.]

I’m going to share a copy of Arguing History with a social studies colleague. The authors highlight several controversies in the history of science that students can investigate through a “case study”: an overview of the controversy, group investigations into the details, argumentation in which the groups defend a position, and resolution. The case study incorporates cooperative group methods and a historical perspective.
The author of The Language of Argumentation compares argumentation (a position based on evidence) and debate (a formal setting in which two teams present their arguments using a specific format). She describes an activity to introduce students to debating (a forum that most students have never seen or participated in). Based on the topic “Does the world need nuclear energy?” the article has examples of discussion questions, a writing prompt template, a peer observation form, and examples of the claims, data, and warrants for the students’ debate. [See SciLinks for more on science content related to Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Reactors.]
What’s the Alternative? has suggestions for helping students make the connections between evidences and alternative models. Using MEL diagrams (Model-Evidence Link) students can graphically see and evaluate the connections. The authors provide examples and templates used during an investigation of climate change. [See SciLinks for more on science content related to Climate Change.]
Another strategy to help students learn about and use the practice of argumentation is through role-playing activities. The authors of Hook, Line, and Sinker note that although these activities may take several class periods, they provide a context for students to learn about and understand core science content, such as (in this case of the population decline of bluefish tuna) species interdependence, life cycles, limiting factors, carrying capacity, population dynamics, and predation. By giving students a role to play and an audience, they make a more personal connection beyond definitions. The article has links to role cards, record sheets, discussion questions, and other materials. [See SciLinks for more on science content related to Ocean Fisheries.]