Having worked with small organizations for a number of years now, inevitably I will hear one state chapter or component leader say, “We don’t have to worry about filing taxes…we didn’t have enough income.”
Well, this is partly true.  Your organization may not need to file a formal 990, but you will have to file something, regardless of how small the revenue.  Organizations with revenues beyond $50,000 must complete an IRS Form 990 or 990 EZ, but if the organization’s revenue is $50,000 or less ($25,000 or less for tax years after December 31, 2007 and before December 31, 2010) a Form 990-N (postcard) must be filed.
The 990-N is an electronic postcard and is simple to complete. You only need to complete eight basic items of information: (1) EIN or TIN; (2) Tax Year; (3) Legal name of organization and mailing address; (4) Any other aliases or names of the organization; (5) Name and address of principal officer; (6) Organization website address; (7) Confirmation that the organization’s annual gross revenue are $25,000 or less ($50,000 or less for tax years after December 31, 2010), and (8) If applicable, a statement that the organization has gone out of business.
The trickiest issue is trying to figure out WHEN to file your organization’s 990, 990EZ or 990-N – always remember five and 15^th. Your organization’s tax filings are due the fifteenth day (just like our individual tax returns) of the fifth month after the end of your fiscal year.  For example, if the last day of your fiscal year is June 30^th, your organization’s tax filings are due November 15^th.  I always suggest that organization leaders/staff add this date to their operational timeline and policy and procedure manual.
For more information about the 990-N, visit Annual Electronic Filing For Small Exempt Organizations.

There is nothing like a family illness for making the point that it is important for the average person to have a basic understanding of science concepts. Several recent hospitalizations among family and friends have made me aware of how much there is for me to learn about medical science and engineering, even though I feel I have a good (but not advanced) understanding of physics, chemistry, biology and earth science, and some engineering. There are always choices for the patient and family to make, alternatives to weigh, and procedures to follow for better health. Some of those require us to understand what the blood tests are measuring, how blood pressure affects the body, which Continuous Positive Airway Pressure breathing mask to choose, and how medications work.
Like imaginative play about Space, children enjoy pretending to be medical personnel, taking temperatures, looking at or drawing x-rays, and applying band-aides. This imaginative play supports childrens’ developing science understanding and an interest in learning more. Children’s play allows them to make beginning theories about how the world works. Undirected play also allows teachers to assess academic and social skills to see what we need to focus on in coming weeks.
After observing the children’s undirected play I ask myself, What materials can I add to the room to spur the students to extend their play using practices which will support their later learning in science and engineering? What group discussions will support students in the science and engineering practices of asking questions and defining problems, developing and using models, planning and carrying out investigations, analyzing and interpreting data, using mathematics and computational thinking, constructing explanations and designing solutions, engaging in argument from evidence, and obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information in unstructured and structured activities? What structured activities will focus on the concepts they appear to be exploring? And, how will all of this fit into the standards and curriculum of my program?
One example is the frequent math play I see the three and four-year-olds doing with manipulatives and their snack items. They are trying out, on their own, the concepts they’ve been working on with teachers and through their observations of the world. For the math-exploring young five, I might introduce the idea of using a Venn Diagram when grouping, by offering two hoops to define the groups. For the snack-sorter who is demonstrating a strong interest in one-to-one correspondence, I might ask “How are these objects the same and how are they different?” and “How many do you have all together?”
Another example of how science concepts can be explored during undirected play is learning about the friction (or lack of) between winter mittens and the playground sliding pole as compared to the friction between bare hands and the metal of the pole. When a child went down too fast for his comfort, I was able to have him compare a bare hand to a mitten-covered hand on the pole—a short experience and discussion about the nature of materials.
These small moments are positive steps towards building scientific literacy.
Peggy

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.
— Alisa, Boston, MA
It sounds like your question has several components. First of all, how do you know your students understand the lesson concepts? Teachers often say “Any questions? Good.” When there are no questions, the teacher assumes that everyone understands. Try to provide a context or focus, such as “Any questions about the difference between eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells?” And then wait a few seconds for students to think about their learning and formulate their questions. Frequent formative assessments—bellringers, “ticket out the door,” brief quizzes, responses via clickers or white boards, thumbs up—may also help students to reflect on what they know or don’t know and give you some concrete feedback on their understanding during each lesson.
When can your students get extra help? It’s hard for students who ride busses to come in early or stay late. Many students are involved in extracurricular activities or have afterschool responsibilities. And it’s hard to blame students for not wanting to give up lunch, often the only chance they have to socialize or relax. Some teachers have virtual “office hours” in the evenings or on weekends to provide assistance via e-mail or a discussion forum. But as today’s students seem to prefer social media to e-mail, you could take advantage of this interest. For example, even though Edmodo looks like Facebook, it’s a microblogging site that a teacher can set up for students to collaborate, ask questions, and share resources. Teachers can also post their own resources such as quizzes or study guides. It’s accessible 24-7 via computers or smartphone apps. The teacher can moderate the site and delete inappropriate posts.

The class period may be the only time you can interact with students. Is your classroom a “safe” place for them to ask questions? Do students know how to ask for assistance? Is asking considered a sign of weakness? Are students embarrassed to ask questions? No matter how trivial the question or comment, never belittle it, reply with sarcasm, or allow other students to laugh at it.
After you’ve gone over directions for an activity, it’s frustrating when students raise their hands and ask, “What are we supposed to do?” If you say “I already told you. Figure it out,” students may assume that other kinds of questions will get the same response. Model how to refer to the printed directions or how to ask a partner.
It may also be helpful to model the type of questions students could ask related to understanding: “Could you please explain that again?” “I don’t understand… Does this mean that” “But what about…” “What would happen if… ”
If you notice more than one or two students have the same question during an activity, offer some “group therapy:” meet with a small group of students to go over the concept or procedures. If you find all of the groups are struggling with a concept or procedure, have a brief mini-meeting to review.
Teachers need to walk a fine line between being helpful and taking over a student’s thinking. Some students become dependent on teachers, constantly asking questions for verification (“Is this correct?” “Am I doing this right?”) Show them how to refer to the rubric or to the directions to help them develop initiative and independence.
As a student, I enjoyed figuring out something for myself. I became annoyed with teachers who hovered over my shoulder, asking if I needed help. You’ll have to determine when students really need help and when they need time to think through a problem themselves. I had a student who constantly asked questions in a soft voice. I thought at first he needed my help, but it turned out that he was thinking out loud. We made a deal—if he did indeed require some help, he would raise his hand. Otherwise, I left him alone with his thoughts.
In the classroom, teachers are usually the ones asking the questions. I’m glad you’re trying to foster students as questioners.
 
Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rongyos/2686415336/

There is much in the literature about the importance of reading in science, not just pronouncing or decoding words but comprehending informational text. Unlike what students might see in a reading or English class, science resources are not usually written in a story-telling style. Science text often uses headings, subheadings, abstracts, summaries, sidebars, footnotes, specialized vocabulary, and graphics. Students may not realize reading science text can be a slower process than reading a novel or story, and rereading a section is appropriate and even encouraged. Likewise, writing in science is usually purposeful and informative.
This issue of The Science Teacher examines topics related to literacy: reading, writing, information literacy, visual literacy, and data literacy. [SciLinks: Reading and writing in science] You may want to supplement this issue by reading the January Science Scope: Science and the Common Core Language Arts Standards
If a secondary student cannot decode words, there is certainly a need for intervention by reading specialists. But helping students develop strategies to comprehend text material is an important job of all content teachers, science included. I wonder if many secondary students’ reading “problems” are, in reality, a lack of guidance and experience in interacting with informational text. Reading to Learn describes some strategies for helping students make sense of informational text, including annotation and double (or triple) entry journals. The authors suggest making copies of text so that students can mark them up, since in most schools writing in the textbook is not permitted. (I wonder about the expense of duplicating). I’ve seen online textbooks with the capability for highlighting and creating sidebar notes or questions. The students were truly interacting with the text. The teacher I observed did a great job of modeling how to render the text by doing a think-aloud as he read the text and annotated it.

Writing and Science Literacy has suggestions for writing in categories such as technical writing (notebooks and lab reports) and has a protocol for lab notebooks. But it’s interesting to see that the authors also include creative writing as an option in science classes (including cartoons and poems). I visited a biology class where the teacher asked the students to post a haiku about the lesson on the class blog site. Even though a haiku is a very structured form of poetry, the students’ creative responses were enjoyable to read and showed their ability to recast their learning in a different format. I’m also a fan of cinquain poems, acrostics, and three-words (similar to a morning TV show’s feature). Environmental Science Lab Reports outlines  the components of a report that could be generalized to other sciences. Rather than a traditional “book report,” the author of Reading, Writing, and Physics outlines a project in which students use journaling to respond to a book.
The authors of The Way They Want to Learn suggest that technology has a role in building student literacies and communication skills. They describe several Web 2.0 tools that students can use to create visual concept maps (CMAP), graphic organizers (Webspiration) presentations (Prezi), and graphic displays (Tagxedo, VoiceThread, Museum Box). But don’t worry if you’re not familiar with these—students can be very good at figuring things out if you give them the opportunity.
“But I read it on the Internet!” Students may naively think that all Internets sources are created equal. Climbing the Pyramid describes an activity in which students create a hierarchy as they evaluate science news sources to become informed critical readers (and viewers). This would be a good article/activity to share with your school librarian. (Isn’t it ironic that as information literacy becomes an even more important issue, schools are laying off the library staff—the people who are trained to assist students and teachers? Hmmm.) In addition to reading the news, students can apply their literacy skills by writing news articles, using the ideas in Science Journalism.
Using Online Data has many resources at the end for the analysis and interpretation of data, including NOAA and USGS. [And in SciLinks, you can search for sites on a given topic that include data sets to manipulate].