Have you been to a meeting or conference presentation and seen people typing or texting? I often wondered: Are they taking notes? Checking email? Making dinner plans? Playing a game? I found this a little disconcerting, until I realized that they could be backchanneling—participating in an online chat about the session. At first, as a presenter/facilitator, I was a little skeptical about this. But several experiences changed my mind about how backchanneling could add to class participation and collaboration.
I’ve participated in many webinars, and the simultaneous chat among the attendees was interesting, as we asked questions, answered questions, made comments, or added information. In a recent NSTA Web Seminar, the presenters who were not “live” were monitoring this and responded to us when appropriate and asked us questions, too. As I briefly chatted with other participants, I found that I was still paying attention to the presentation. The backchannel interactions added another dimension to the webinar, similar to a turn-and-talk in the classroom. But I was talking with people from across the country, not just turning to 1-2 people physically sitting next to me. I could see how this could open up the classroom to students who might be hesitant to ask a question, especially when conversations are dominated by others. More students could be involved beyond the hand-raisers or more vocal students.

At a workshop, my colleague introduced the teacher-participants to Today’s Meet, a free tool for backchanneling. She set up a “room,” shared the URL and hashtag with the participants, and as the workshop progressed, teachers could add to the conversation in 140-character notes using their laptops or smart phones (via a website or Twitter). We monitored the channel from her laptop and we would share questions or interesting comments. I compared this to the previous day’s session in which we were greeted with blank stares when participants were asked if there were any questions or comments. We now had feedback from participants who in the previous day had never participated verbally in the conversations. At the end of the day, instead of asking for a summary from the 2-3 participants who raised their hands, all of the teachers “tweeted” their feedback. Today’s Meet has an archive feature, so we could review the comments and questions after the session.
So I’m now more open to the concept, especially after following several conferences that I was unable to attend (e.g, #ISTE12). I’m curious to know others’ experiences in backchanneling as a way to get students more involved in class activities, assuming that laptops, tablets, or smartphones are part of the mix. I suspect that the teacher would have to model appropriate and productive comments and questions.  I liked Today’s Meet because it’s free, access is limited to those who are given the URL or hashtag, after a designated amount of time the channel is disabled, the session can be archived for up to a year, and no membership or registration is required to use this. But I’m sure there are other tools that enable the collaborative process.
This could be another collaborative tool in our instructional toolboxes, along with face-to-face conversations, written reports/summaries, and one-to-one conferencing with the teacher.

Like many other residents of the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic states, I learned a new weather term this week: derecho.  After scrambling to the dictionary and Wikipedia, I learned that the word is pronounced deh-RAY-cho and comes from the Spanish word for “straight.”  A derecho is a rapidly-moving line of storms that has been referred to as a something resembling a hurricane over land.  The derecho that struck June 29, 2012, and caused extensive damage and power outages in areas from Indiana to Virginia came with relatively little warning. Over 1,000 high-wind reports came in to NOAA’s National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center on June 29, and NOAA’s map of the event shows a lit-up corridor of reports along the derecho’s path.  The storms are relatively rare events but are likely to become more widely known and understood as the June 2012 damage assessment and recovery efforts continue in the coming weeks and months. The NOAA Storm Prediction Center’s page “About Derechos” provides extensive background and resources on these types of storms. Accuweather’s description of the June “super derecho” and  Discovery’s “DC Derecho Disaster Explained” include details about the June 29, 2012, event.  If you’re one of the fortunate who have power and online access in the wake of the storm, you can help The Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang select a name for this extreme weather event by voting for the term you think best fits— “Swelter in Place” and “Derechosaurus Wrecks” are running neck-and-neck so far today.

Recently, I had the opportunity to test out the Power- Wheel by R.B. Manufacturing. The PowerWheel is a micro hydro generator that can be hooked up to a faucet or hose. It is designed to model how electricity can be generated and to show the transfer of energy. I was intrigued to test this product as the transfer of energy is a difficult concept for middle school students to grasp. Overall, the PowerWheel is a sturdy piece of equipment that comes partially assembled. Eighth-grade students were able to fully assemble the apparatus as shown using the directions provided. If you have a garden-hose spigot at your school, you will have no troubles powering the generator by running the water through the hose. You can also use a pencil to turn the wheel by hand. Enough electricity is produced to get a string of LED lightbulbs to illuminate. The PowerWheel comes with an extremely useful Learning Guide, which is also available as a pdf on the manufacturer’s website. This is a handy option if you want each student to read to learn more about energy. The majority of the publication is informational text covering forms of energy, transfer of energy, and how electricity is created. The content provided is accurate and has graphical representations to allow for ease of comprehension. We were able to use some of the charts, including one on Energy in Our Lives, to assess students on reading charts and graphs as well as learning energy concepts. After you have your PowerWheel hooked up to a water source, it is very easy to demonstrate how energy is transferred by turning on the water and watching the lights begin to glow. However, this demonstration would take less than ten seconds, and wouldn’t require students to engage in any higher-level thinking. The utility of the PowerWheel comes with actually using the device to conduct investigations. Students are able to make qualitative and quantitative measurements as the PowerWheel generates electricity. To assist teachers, the last two pages of the Learning Guide have lesson ideas. In addition, the website provides lesson plans for teachers. If you are new to teaching energy, the lessons will be easy to understand and duplicate. Experienced teachers will be able to easily modify the lesson ideas to meet the needs of their classrooms. The website is not static. New lessons continue to be developed and added. I was able to have students create experimental design investigations to learn more about forms of energy, electricity, and energy transfers. These experiments are what make the PowerWheel valuable to your classroom. You can measure the electrical current using an ammeter at different flow rates. You can see the difference between lighting LED bulbs versus a bike lamp (incandescent bulb). When I looked at postassessment data, I found that students increased their understanding of forms of energy and transfer of energy as a result of using the PowerWheel. I did have one difficulty using the PowerWheel—getting it to connect to a faucet. I did not have a hose to connect the PowerWheel and needed to use a faucet in a classroom. The hose did not automatically connect. In one room, I first had to buy an adapter for the faucet. Then I discovered that my faucet was still too small and had to return to buy another adapter for my adapter. The total extra cost was about $10, but a suggestion would be to make sure you are able to hook everything up ahead of time. Once I had the hose adaptors in place, the PowerWheel worked well in this room. However, in the lab downstairs, the water pressure was not great enough to turn the wheel. Overall, I would recommend the PowerWheel if you want students to investigate electricity and how energy changes forms. It is a simple model that is engaging and has real-world applications.

While mechanical, single-channel, adjustable-volume pipettes are most commonly found in research laboratories, I use them with high school chemistry students to introduce them to the concepts of accuracy, precision, and density at the beginning of each school year. In this lab, students measure volume using beakers, graduated cylinders, and adjustable pipettes, and measure mass using top-loading balances and analytical balances, to determine which combination of measurements provide the most accurate and precise value for the density of distilled water. Using an adjustable Proline Plus Pipette with a range from 100 to 1000 μL, I conducted this lab later in the school year without students, in order to compare it to similar pipettes purchased from other vendors. Overall, I found them comparable in many ways to other pipettes I’ve used in my lab that are available from other manufacturers. Specifically, I found them as durable and easy to use as the Finnipipett II (Fisher Scientific) and BenchMate II (Oxford Labware) pipettes. All three brands measured a range of volume from 100 to 1,000 μL. The Proline pipettes were similar in price ($221) to the Finnpipeete II line ($246), while the BenchMate II line was more expensive ($350). All three come with thorough, easy-to-follow instructions. In terms of durability, it is important for teachers to remind high school students to keep the volume within the range printed on the pipette. If students turn the adjustable dial on the pipette past the accepted volume range, the dial will “stick” and the pipette will become unusable. Based on my comparison, I would recommend the Proline Plus Pipette by Biohit to teachers who are interested in using adjustable volume pipettes with their students. The list price of this brand is a little lower than other brands tested, making it a more economical choice for most teachers.

Amy Murphy

I’m a first year physics teacher. I hear my colleagues talk about what they learn from their students. This puzzles me—what can I learn from students who don’t have the content knowledge that I do?
—Wendy, Elizabeth, New Jersey
This question caused me to reflect on the students I’ve met over the years. While it’s true they didn’t always have a depth of knowledge in science, when I paid attention to their questions, behaviors, and attitudes, my students made me think about my approach to teaching and learning. Here’s a sample what I learned from students:
After a unit test, “Sandra” looked very dejected. When I asked her what was wrong, she replied, “I know a lot about this, but you asked the wrong questions.” That stopped me in my tracks. I was the teacher—the one supposed to have all of the questions and answers. I asked her what should have been on the test, and she told me what she knew about the topic from working on scout badges, visiting museums, reading books, and watching TV programs. She was right—for her I didn’t ask enough of the right questions. She taught me the value of providing a variety of ways for students to share what they know and can do.  For example, at the end of unit tests I included an optional item: “Tell me about what you know about the topic that was not on the test.” It was thought provoking to discover what students found interesting enough to remember and explore how they could supplement the lesson objectives with their own knowledge.

When I first started teaching, my middle school had a hierarchy of homogeneously grouped sections, determined by test scores in math. The students were in the same grouping for all of their subjects, including science. Being the newbie, I was assigned the “lowest” of the nine sections of seventh and eighth graders. I didn’t accept the stereotype that these students also had little ability in science. I found them to be genuinely curious and they responded well to class discussions and hands-on activities. (I actually had more discipline problems with the one “higher” section I was assigned). Fast forward 10 years…I met up with one of these students at a football game. She mentioned she had recently graduated from the local community college’s nursing program. She then said, “I’ll bet there are teachers who never thought that someone from section 7-9 would ever graduate from college.” I was blown away by the fact that this poised 20-something woman still carried around the stigma of being labeled as the lowest of the low in seventh grade. From her, I learned to trust my own observations and judgment about students, rather than relying on stereotypes and labels. (I can’t speak for other subjects and grade levels, but I was glad when we changed our scheduling to a non-labeled, more heterogeneous one.)
During a unit on insects, I noticed “Molly” writing copious notes. I glanced over her shoulder and saw she had a page of arthropod names and their origins in mythology (e.g., the Luna moth, nymphs, arachnids, the Cyclops copepod). I asked her if this was an assignment for English class (which included a unit on mythology), and she looked at me as if I had a head like Medusa and replied, “No, I just think this is really interesting.” So thanks to Molly, I learned helping students make connections between science and literature, social studies, and the arts is good for all subjects.
I tried to incorporate skills like notetaking in my class, and I encouraged students to outline or create study cards. One day, “Bobby” and “Kris” asked if they could try something different. In a previous unit, we used a matrix graphic organizer to summarize information for a report. They wondered if they could try this instead of outlining the chapter. They showed me a mockup: the rows listed the three types of rocks and the columns had headings such as how formed, where found, examples, how to identify. I told them to give it a try. When they were finished, I asked them to share with the class, and other students found this method more useful than a long outline. From these two students, I learned to say, “Here’s how you could do this assignment, but if you have a different idea, let’s talk about it.” I should also thank them for the idea that eventually morphed into part of my dissertation
Of course, it is possible some of your students will surprise you with content knowledge beyond yours, based on their interests and experiences. Listen to what they say, even if you are a content expert, “That’s really interesting. Tell me more.” And they will.
 
Photo:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/rongyos/2686415336/

Science teachers are reading an eclectic selection of teaching resources this month, judging by the top content on NSTA’s website. You can look inside these books by downloading a free sample chapter at the NSTA Science Store.  Post a comment or tweet using the hashtag #nstareading to tell us what you’ve been reading and what books you’ve recently recommended to other science teachers!
Most Popular NSTA Press Books

1. Designing Effective Science Instruction: What Works in Science Classrooms, by Anne Tweed (sample chapter: “Building the Framework”)
2. The Everyday Science Sourcebook, Revised 2^nd Edition: Ideas for Teaching in Elementary and Middle School, by Larry Lowery (sample chapter: “Weather”)
3. STEM Student Research Handbook, by Darci J. Harland (sample chapter: “Research Design”)
4. Rise and Shine: A Practical Guide for the Beginning Science Teacher, by Linda Froschauer and Mary Bigelow (sample chapter: “The First Week of School”)
5. Teaching Science Through Trade Books, by Christine Anne Royce, Karen Ansberry, and Emily Morgan (sample chapter: “Cloud Watchers”)

 Most Popular NSTA Press e-Books

1. Forensics in Chemistry:  The Case of Kirsten K., by Sara McCubbins and Angela Codron (sample chapter: “The Cooler and Delivery Truck Evidence”)
2. Everyday Engineering: Putting the E in STEM Teaching and Learning, by Richard H. Moyer and Susan A. Everett (sample chapter: “Toothbrush Design: Is There a Better Bristle?”)
3. Front-Page Science: Engaging Teens in Science Literacy, by Wendy Saul, Angela Kohnen, Alan Newman, and Laura Pearce (sample chapter: “Can I Do This? Frequently Asked Questions”)
4. Gourmet Lab: The Scientific Principles Behind Your Favorite Foods, by Sarah Reeves Young (sample chapter: “Ballpark Pretzels”)
5. Uncovering Student Ideas in Life Science, Volume 1: 25 New Formative Assessment Probes, by Page Keeley (sample chapter: “The Virus Debate”)

We’ve heard that after the school year ends, many teachers spend time catching up on NSTA Reports articles they didn’t have a chance to read thoroughly earlier. To help you make the most of this precious downtime and prepare for the year ahead, here’s a selection of 2011–2012 stories we think you’ll enjoy reading—or re-reading.

Teach Earth science? “Making Science Excellent From the Start,” our October 2011 cover story, looks at the Michigan Teacher Excellence Program (MITEP), a National Science Foundation (NSF)–funded teacher preparation program targeted to the state’s middle level Earth science teachers, who often lack a college major or full certification in Earth science. MITEP connects them with scientists who can deepen their content knowledge, provides opportunities to collaborate with colleagues, and produces teacher leaders who are ready to instruct their colleagues and present sessions at national and regional geology meetings.

“Making the Most of the NGSS,” from our November 2011 issue, discusses A Framework for K–12 Science Education, the foundation for the Next Generation Science Standards, and details nine recommendations NSTA’s leadership and a team of experts made after they analyzed the final Framework and identified areas needing improvement.

Our January 2012 issue contained these three gems:

Twelfth graders in the sciences strand of the Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness program at Joppatowne High School in Joppa, Maryland, recently presented their yearlong capstone projects to industry professionals, school system leadership and staff, and family and friends. The students plan to pursue careers in science-related fields following graduation.

• Two initiatives that involve teachers and students in preserving steelhead trout and Chinook salmon on the West Coast and diamondback terrapins on the East Coast are the subject of the cover story, “Hatching Conservation Science.” Project-based learning, hands-on biology activities, and student research are key components of both efforts.
• In addition to free and low-cost teacher resources, the nation’s 17 Department of Energy National Laboratories offer teachers and students opportunities to experience real-world science during field trips to the labs, workshops, and presentations by scientists. Learn more by reading “Getting to Know the National Laboratories.”
• Integrating science with emergency preparedness helps students think scientifically and potentially save lives. Find out how microbiology, chemistry, Earth science, data analysis, technology, history, and language arts play roles in “Preparing Students for Science and Emergencies.”

From 2006 to 2010, NSF provided seed funding for Academies for Young Scientists programs, which expose K–12 students to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) out-of-school time experiences. How did some of these programs keep going after the funding period ended? Click here: “Academies for Young Scientists Outlast Initial Funding.”  (from our February 2012 issue)

Major Patrick Sullivan of the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center in Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, works with fifth graders at Eisenhower Elementary School in Ft. Leavenworth. (photo by Matthew Dixon)

In our March 2012 cover story, “Exploring STEM Professional Development,” representatives from teacher PD programs share their thoughts on what STEM PD really means—and how it can support teachers in their efforts to improve STEM teaching and learning.

Teachers around the country are reaping the benefits of partnering with the military,  including classroom visits by science and engineering experts who can inspire students to consider STEM careers, access to cutting-edge technological tools and scientific equipment, and meaningful professional development. “Joining Forces With the Military for STEM,” our April 2012 cover story, describes some of these successful partnerships.

Do-it-yourselfers will enjoy our May 2012 cover story “Building Equipment—and Interest—in Science.” Discover how teachers who built or refurbished scientific equipment with their students made these projects a special learning experience, as well as a money-saving venture.