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Even science fair enthusiasts may dread grappling with these two questions:

1. How can you organize many middle and high school students doing many different projects at the same time?
2. How can you help students while giving them the freedom of choice and independence of thought that characterize genuine inquiry?
Even science fair enthusiasts may dread grappling with these two questions:

1. How can you organize many middle and high school students doing many different projects at the same time?
2. How can you help students while giving them the freedom of choice and independence of thought that characterize genuine inquiry?
Even science fair enthusiasts may dread grappling with these two questions:

1. How can you organize many middle school students doing many different projects at the same time?
2. How can you help students while giving them the freedom of choice and independence of thought that come with genuine inquiry?
Even science fair enthusiasts may dread grappling with these two questions:

1. How can you organize many middle school students doing many different projects at the same time?
2. How can you help students while giving them the freedom of choice and independence of thought that come with genuine inquiry?

Science Fair Warm-Up, Teachers Guide: Learning the Practice of Scientists

Even science fair enthusiasts may dread grappling with these two questions:
1. How can you organize many students doing many different projects at the same time?
2. How can you help students while giving them the freedom of choice and independence of thought that characterize genuine inquiry?
Answer the questions—and face science fairs without fear—with help from the Science Fair Warm-Up series.
Even science fair enthusiasts may dread grappling with these two questions:
1. How can you organize many students doing many different projects at the same time?
2. How can you help students while giving them the freedom of choice and independence of thought that characterize genuine inquiry?
Answer the questions—and face science fairs without fear—with help from the Science Fair Warm-Up series.

Scientific Argumentation in Biology: 30 Classroom Activities

“Individuals who are proficient in science should be able to understand the language of science and participate in scientific practices, such as inquiry and argumentation. Empirical research, however, indicates that many students do not develop this knowledge or these abilities in school. One way to address this problem is to give students more opportunities to engage in scientific argumentation as part of the teaching and learning of science. This book will help teachers with this task.” —Authors Victor Sampson and Sharon Schleigh
“Individuals who are proficient in science should be able to understand the language of science and participate in scientific practices, such as inquiry and argumentation. Empirical research, however, indicates that many students do not develop this knowledge or these abilities in school. One way to address this problem is to give students more opportunities to engage in scientific argumentation as part of the teaching and learning of science. This book will help teachers with this task.” —Authors Victor Sampson and Sharon Schleigh
Launch a new generation of students into catapult- and boat-building—plus glove- and greenhouse-making—with this newly refreshed resource. Four sets of well-loved activities have been repackaged in one convenient volume that seamlessly combines hands-on experience with intriguing engineering concepts.

Perfect for inspiring interest in STEM topics, the activities encourage high school classes to learn by doing. The activities will get your students fully engaged in meaningful explorations of concepts such as
• buoyancy and friction (through boats);
Launch a new generation of students into catapult- and boat-building—plus glove- and greenhouse-making—with this newly refreshed resource. Four sets of well-loved activities have been repackaged in one convenient volume that seamlessly combines hands-on experience with intriguing engineering concepts.

Perfect for inspiring interest in STEM topics, the activities encourage high school classes to learn by doing. The activities will get your students fully engaged in meaningful explorations of concepts such as
• buoyancy and friction (through boats);
"No one would find it strange to see a geologist poring at length over a single rock, or an entomologist over a moth, or botanist over a leaf. Examining a specimen closely can help scientists develop new understandings. That’s just what we hope to achieve in poring over moments of student thinking.”
—from Becoming a Responsive Science Teacher
"No one would find it strange to see a geologist poring at length over a single rock, or an entomologist over a moth, or botanist over a leaf. Examining a specimen closely can help scientists develop new understandings. That’s just what we hope to achieve in poring over moments of student thinking.”
—from Becoming a Responsive Science Teacher

Science Fair Warm-Up, Grades 8–12: Learning the Practice of Scientists

To the teacher:

Although this book is intended as a guide for your students, NSTA has you covered as well! Science Fair Warm-Up, Teachers Guide: Learning the Practice of Scientists provides all of the information you need to guide your students through the activities included in this book.

To the student:
To the teacher:

Although this book is intended as a guide for your students, NSTA has you covered as well! Science Fair Warm-Up, Teachers Guide: Learning the Practice of Scientists provides all of the information you need to guide your students through the activities included in this book.

To the student:

Science Fair Warm-Up, Grades 7–10: Learning the Practice of Scientists

To the teacher:

Although this book is intended as a guide for your students, NSTA has you covered as well! Science Fair Warm-Up, Teachers Guide: Learning the Practice of Scientists provides all of the information you need to guide your students through the activities included in this book.

To the student:
To the teacher:

Although this book is intended as a guide for your students, NSTA has you covered as well! Science Fair Warm-Up, Teachers Guide: Learning the Practice of Scientists provides all of the information you need to guide your students through the activities included in this book.

To the student:

Becoming a Responsive Science Teacher: Focusing on Student Thinking in Secondary Science

“No one would find it strange to see a geologist poring at length over a single rock, or an entomologist over a moth, or botanist over a leaf. Examining a specimen closely can help scientists develop new understandings. That’s just what we hope to achieve in poring over moments of student thinking.” —From Becoming a Responsive Science Teacher

Becoming a Responsive Science Teacher offers
• A philosophical framework for understanding the beginnings of scientific thinking in high school students.

“No one would find it strange to see a geologist poring at length over a single rock, or an entomologist over a moth, or botanist over a leaf. Examining a specimen closely can help scientists develop new understandings. That’s just what we hope to achieve in poring over moments of student thinking.” —From Becoming a Responsive Science Teacher

Becoming a Responsive Science Teacher offers
• A philosophical framework for understanding the beginnings of scientific thinking in high school students.

 

Activities and investigations

By Mary Bigelow

Posted on 2012-11-10

It’s easy to find activities in science, especially with the Internet. But integrating content and activities/investigations in a planned and purposeful (and engaging) way can be a challenge for teachers. The articles in NSTA publications have many examples of how this can be done, including planning tools, rubrics, connections to standards, and assessments. Tools such as SciLinks can provide just-in-time content and background information for both students and teachers [See Scientific Investigations and Developing Classroom Activities for examples.]
The featured articles in this issue focus on these planned and purposeful activities and investigations:

  • Noodling for Mollusks (even the title of the article is intriguing) describes how to model and practice field sampling with students. I must admit I was unfamiliar with the term “noodling”– searching for an organism using your sense of touch but not your sense of sight (sounds like a real-life application of the mystery box). The article describes a classroom simulation based on the experiences of one of the authors. So even if you don’t have access to an aquatic environment, you can use their directions to create a noodling site, collect data, and analyze the results. [SciLinks: Mollusks]
  • Make Your Own Phylogenetic Tree has a detailed description of a simulation to help students understand phylogeny and molecular similarity. [SciLinks: Phylogenetic Trees, Mutations]
  • Chemistry Cook-Off shows how cooking can be used to help students learn chemistry concepts, such as chemical and physical changes. (But remember that cooking and eating in the science lab is not a safe practice.) The article includes guidelines and a rubric. [SciLinks: Physical/Chemical Changes.  See also Kitchen Chemistry from the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK) , the Science of Cooking from the Exploratorium, and Cheeseburger Chemistry from NBC Learn and NSTA.
  • It’s All in the Particle Size describes an investigation about sedimentation and topics related to weathering, erosion, and deposition as a prelude to a study of sedimentary rock. The author includes the essential questions for the investigation and graphics related to the investigation [SciLinks: Soil, Weathering, Sedimentary Rock]
  • The author of A Hidden Gem describes the important role teachers play in guiding students as they access and use online resources. She describes a three-phase approach to a student investigation of global warming (the GEM of the title – Generate ideas, Evaluate ideas, Modify ideas) and the online resources used. [SciLinks: Global Warming, Climate Change]

“Activities and Investigations” has been a recurring theme in TST. See these back issues for even more ideas: December 2007 and December 2010.
Don’t forget to look at the Connections for this issue (November 2012), which includes links to the studies cited in the research article. These Connections also have ideas for handouts, background information sheets, data sheets, rubrics, etc.

It’s easy to find activities in science, especially with the Internet. But integrating content and activities/investigations in a planned and purposeful (and engaging) way can be a challenge for teachers.

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