My middle schoolers were full of energy! This month’s Science Scope has many suggestions for channeling their enthusiasm into studying energy transformations. What’s really relevant is that most of the activities require simple materials and can be completed within a few class periods, while still focusing on higher-order thinking and science/engineering practices.
Middle-schoolers love a challenge, especially when they can work in teams. Powering the Future describes a wind turbine design challenge. Students demonstrate their understanding of how energy changes form in the process. The authors provide suggestions on time (2 class periods), equipments needed, student handouts, and a rubric. The photos show the creativity of the students. Generating Excitement has a related activity in which students build generators. (It’s a coincidence that I was reading this article while traveling–as a passenger–through western NY and PA where there are many windmills on the ridges, providing a real-life application). [SciLinks: Wind Energy, Kinetic and Potential Energy]

NSTA journals have published have published articles describing investigations using common objects such as pencils and paper. Clips and Clamps describes a 5E hands-on activity (including a student handout) with these common classroom objects. This would certainly fit into a unit on simple machines (levers).  [SciLinks: Mechanical Advantage, Pencils, Paper, Simple Machines]
Students can demonstrate their creativity as well as their understanding of motion and forces as described in Drivers, Start Your Glue Guns. In this challenge, students build “stock car pasta pods” and test the distance their model can travel. [SciLinks: Forces and Motion, Measuring Motion, Laws of Motion]
Every four years, it seems that people are intrigued by the Winter Olympic sport of curling. The author of Swept Away describes how her students learn science concepts along with a new sport—and if you don’t have a curling rink or club nearby, the article has video resources.  [SciLinks: Friction]
As the author of Teaching About Heat and Temperature Using an Investigative Demonstration notes, the transfer of thermal energy is a difficult concept for middle school students (and others!). He shares how he uses the Predict-Share-Observe-Explain sequence for class demonstrations and formative assessment probes to help students with concepts of conduction and convection.  [SciLinks: Heat Transfer, Conduction, Convection]
Energy Scavenger Hunt provides a real-life look at uses and costs of electricity. Students find examples of energy use at home (the authors provide suggestions for students who are unable to complete the activity at home). [SciLinks: Ohm’s Law, Current Electricity, Electrical Circuits]
Look at That! shows a different sort of transfer of energy–from Eww and Gross to Wow and Cool as students observe and describe the behavior of Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches. Instead of just keeping these (or other classroom pets) in the back of the room, the authors show how putting them center stage can be an effective way to improve students’ skills in observation and description. [SciLinks: Insects]

Can it reflect light? Is it a plant? Is it made of cells? These questions are among more than 100 formative assessment probes developed by Page Keeley and her colleagues to help teachers elicit information about what students think about key science concepts. A capacity crowd at Keeley’s Seattle conference session turned out to learn more about these powerful tools and how to use them in the classroom to delve deeper into student thinking. Keeley began her session, “What Were They Thinking?” by pointing out that teachers realize “students don’t come to us as empty vessels; they have preconceptions about science.”  A teacher who brings those student ideas to the surface can challenge students’ existing ideas and encourage them to think more deeply about a science concept. As Keeley noted, lab equipment like Vernier probes can help us see below the surface and collect additional information, thereby deepening our knowledge. The formative assessment probe is a specific type of question that similarly can help us look beneath the surface to learn more about student thinking.
The probes in Uncovering Student Ideas in Science are engaging questions that promote a lot of talk, argumentation, and thought among students. Teachers who use probes at the beginning of a lesson or unit help make students’ thinking visible to the teacher, the class, and sometimes to the students themselves, who might not have realized their ideas until they were brought to the surface in a probe activity. One probe that Keeley highlighted is “Can It Reflect Light?” Students are given a list of items such as water, soil, mirror, rusty nail, and red apple and asked to sort them into items that reflect light and items that do not. The second part of these activity is the most powerful part, Keeley said, because students are then asked to explain their reasoning for the sorted lists they created. The student explanations give teachers rich insights into preconceptions or gaps in students’ knowledge, thereby guiding the teacher in how to structure an ensuing lesson. Several common ideas students have about light and reflection include the assumption that only light-colored or shiny objects reflect light, for example. A teacher might structure a lesson that offers numerous opportunities for students to explore light and reflectivity to gain first-hand understanding that “if you can see it, it is reflecting light.”
Several different types of questions are used in the probes, including one Keeley called “Familiar Phenomena Probes.” These probes are designed to get at students’ thinking about familiar events. Examples are “Wet Jeans,” in which students ponder where the water has “gone” from a pair of wet jeans that dried while hanging on a clothesline, and “What’s in the Bubbles?”, in which students discuss what they think is in the bubbles that form in boiling water. The probes “What’s in the Bubbles?” and “Can It Reflect Light?” are available for download in the NSTA Science Store. Keeley’s session prompted a lively discussion among the teachers present about commonly held misconceptions and how strongly held they can become among students. Formative assessment probes like those in Uncovering Student Ideas in Science can be just the tool for teachers to employ when urging students to reexamine their existing ideas and deepen their understanding about important concepts in science.

Passing along some information —
From Elizabeth Deakin: Heading into its 10th year, eCYBERMISSION is a free, web-based Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics competition for students in grades 6-9. Your students can compete against other students in their grades for state, regional, and national awards. Teams consisting of 3-4 students and a team advisor would work to solve problems in their community utilizing the scientific method, scientific inquiry or engineering design process and can win at the state, regional and national levels. To date, more than $8.5 million has been awarded to students throughout the country with more to be awarded in 2012.
Deadline to register is  December 16, 2011. For more info, see our overview video about eCybermission.  Some past winners include

• The 6th grade Hardheads team was recognized by judges for their experiments with materials used to support sports helmets. For their project, the students conducted experiments on multiple materials for possible use in sports helmets, with the hope of finding a material that decreases the prevalence of concussions and other head injuries.
• The 8th grade Landroids team tested the elements necessary to create a device that could detect deer on roads.
• The 9th grade Chocolate Addiction team investigated how makeup can cause damage to the skin when it has been exposed to certain independent variables, such as heat or water.
• Other past winners can be found on the project website.

I’m using probes in some of my chemistry labs, although I’m sure I could be doing more with them. In addition, I’m still trying to learn how to enhance lessons with the interactive board that was installed this year. I recently attended a workshop featuring several Web 2.0 tools that look interesting, but I now I’m feeling really overwhelmed. How can I keep up with all of these tools and strategies so I can teach my students how to use them?
—Julia from Oregon
I’m not sure anyone can “keep up with” the evolving tools and strategies in the field of educational technology. (I’ve been trying unsuccessfully for more than 25 years!) When I look at the entries on blogs such as the Free Technology for Teachers or suggestions from other educators via Twitter or the NSTA listserves I feel your frustration—too many cool tools for the science classroom and too little time to explore them! On top of all of the other day-to-day responsibilities of teaching, it seems impossible to learn about all of the available resources for science classes and design activities for students to learn about and use them in conjunction with the learning goals.
My principal had a saying: School seems to be the place where old people do most of the work while young people watch. So maybe it’s time to switch our model from the teacher as the know-it-all “sage on the stage.” If we want students to become lifelong learners, they need opportunities to learn independently and collaboratively with the teacher not only as a “guide on the side” but also as a partner in the process.
For example, when I was teaching a multimedia design elective, we received a multi-user license for a video editing program. I had dabbled with it, but I certainly did not know all of its capabilities. So I decided to get the students dabbling too. After a brief overview of what I knew, I gave each team of students a different section of the user manual. The students had to explore and experiment with the feature, edit one of their videos using that feature, give a demonstration to the rest of the class, and prepare a one-page introductory handout with step-by-step directions. As the assessment, the teams traded handouts and tried to follow the directions their peers had written.
At first some of the students were annoyed that, when they had a question, I replied, “I don’t know but I can try to help you figure it out.” I sat with each team to observe their problem-solving strategies and collaborative skills (and learn from them). I was astounded at what they figured out and produced in a few class periods.
Recently, a teacher did something similar with the Glogster tool. She showed students the site but then they had to figure out how to create a digital poster that summarized a lab investigation. Although this took a little longer than having students use the standard lab report template, the students had a chance to work collaboratively and incorporate their lab findings into a visual format. Next time, they’ll be more at ease, and the teacher learned about the tool from the students. I suspect she won’t abandon the traditional lab report format but will use this as an option.
This kind of strategy puts both the teacher and the students outside of their traditional comfort zones. The teacher is not the source of knowledge and the students are not passive receptacles. It requires some risk-taking to give responsibility for learning to the students. And students may be frustrated by their new role at first, asking, “Why don’t you just tell us what to do?” But these are the same students who—without formal instruction—have figured out the nuances of video games and mastered the art of texting.
Teachers also may be reluctant to try new things because of the time factor and the perceived need to cover a list of topics. But during the year there are pockets of time that students can use to explore new tools and strategies. For example, at the end of a unit when some students are making up assignments or retaking tests, other students could be exploring new uses for the probes, designing activities for the interactive board or web tools, and preparing demonstrations for the other students. The days before a long break can be also used for these explorations, rather than starting a unit and having to re-teach the concepts after the break.
 
Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnnieutah/3432012705/sizes/l/in/photostream/