Join
Menu Search Join
Authors Susan Koba and Carol Mitchell introduce teachers of grades 3–5 to their conceptual framework for successful instruction of hard-to-teach science concepts. Their methodology comprises four steps: (1) engage students about their preconceptions and address their thinking; (2) target lessons to be learned; (3) determine appropriate strategies; and (4) use Standards-based teaching that builds on student understandings.
Authors Susan Koba and Carol Mitchell introduce teachers of grades 3–5 to their conceptual framework for successful instruction of hard-to-teach science concepts. Their methodology comprises four steps: (1) engage students about their preconceptions and address their thinking; (2) target lessons to be learned; (3) determine appropriate strategies; and (4) use Standards-based teaching that builds on student understandings.

Companion Classroom Activities for Stop Faking It! Force and Motion

Never has it been so easy for educators to learn to teach physical science with confidence. Award-winning author Bill Robertson launched his bestselling Stop Faking It! series with Force and Motion—offering elementary and middle school teachers a jargon-free way to learn the background for teaching physical science with confidence. Combining easy-to-understand—if irreverent—explanations and quirky diagrams, Stop Faking It! Force and Motion helped thousands of teachers, parents, and homeschoolers conquer topics from Newton’s laws to the physics of space travel.
Never has it been so easy for educators to learn to teach physical science with confidence. Award-winning author Bill Robertson launched his bestselling Stop Faking It! series with Force and Motion—offering elementary and middle school teachers a jargon-free way to learn the background for teaching physical science with confidence. Combining easy-to-understand—if irreverent—explanations and quirky diagrams, Stop Faking It! Force and Motion helped thousands of teachers, parents, and homeschoolers conquer topics from Newton’s laws to the physics of space travel.

Hard-to-Teach Science Concepts: A Framework to Support Learners, Grades 3–5

Authors Susan Koba and Carol Mitchell introduce teachers of grades 3–5 to their conceptual framework for successful instruction of hard-to-teach science concepts. Their methodology comprises four steps: (1) engage students about their preconceptions and address their thinking; (2) target lessons to be learned; (3) determine appropriate strategies; and (4) use Standards-based teaching that builds on student understandings.
Authors Susan Koba and Carol Mitchell introduce teachers of grades 3–5 to their conceptual framework for successful instruction of hard-to-teach science concepts. Their methodology comprises four steps: (1) engage students about their preconceptions and address their thinking; (2) target lessons to be learned; (3) determine appropriate strategies; and (4) use Standards-based teaching that builds on student understandings.
 

Twitter in your toolkit?

By Mary Bigelow

Posted on 2011-05-28

A wise professor once told us, “If the only tool you have is a hammer, pretty soon everything starts to look like a nail.” My takeaway from that class was that teachers need a variety of tools, from basic strategies to more specialized ones. And adding tools to the toolkit is part of professional development.
Recently, I’ve added Twitter to my toolkit. At first, I must admit, tweeting seemed like a pleasant diversion, but I’m experiencing its potential for professional development and communication. The other evening, I “attended” an event that began with a podcast of background information on a specific topic. Then the participants (several hundred from across the country) began conversations by tweeting questions/answers, observations, comments, and suggesting websites for further information. I had another person with me during the event, so we had the best of both—social media and face-to-face interactions. How did I learn about this podcasting/tweeting event? From Facebook (another item in my toolkit)—not bad for someone who started a career in science with a slide rule.
More on Twitter as a classroom, communication, or PD tool:

Be on the alert for NSTA’s next tweetchat—join in (or just lurk) and learn.
 
Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bekkchen/441704675/sizes/m/in/photostream/

A wise professor once told us, “If the only tool you have is a hammer, pretty soon everything starts to look like a nail.” My takeaway from that class was that teachers need a variety of tools, from basic strategies to more specialized ones. And adding tools to the toolkit is part of professional development.

• How can water and a penny demonstrate the power of mathematics and molecular theory?
• Do spelling and punctuation really matter to the human brain?
• How can water and a penny demonstrate the power of mathematics and molecular theory?
• Do spelling and punctuation really matter to the human brain?
• What can a chocolate chip cookie tell us about the Earth’s resources and the importance of environmental conservation?
• How can a clear, colorless spray solution unveil a hidden message on a blank sign?
• What can a chocolate chip cookie tell us about the Earth’s resources and the importance of environmental conservation?
• How can a clear, colorless spray solution unveil a hidden message on a blank sign?
 

Student blogs replace worksheets

By Eric Brunsell

Posted on 2011-05-23

Blogs provide a great way to extend the classroom beyond your 45 minute class period.  They can be used in a variety of ways to spark discussion and student research.  Chris Ludwig, a high school science teacher in Colorado, wrote this blog post to show how he used blogs this year to fundamentally change the way he assigned homework.

One of the major changes that I made this year was to switch to using individual student blogs as the centerpiece of student assessment (the other major change was to implement standards-based grading). I started using student blogs for a number of reasons including:

  1. I was tired of grading worksheets with the same copied answers on them.
  2. I realized that these worksheets weren’t always helpful in learning content, and in fact, much of the time they got in the way of learning.
  3. Student in my classes have access to a MacBook cart whenever they are in my classroom and we have fantastically dependable wireless internet connectivity for these laptops (yay tech support!).
  4. Blogging platforms like Blogger and WordPress are free.
  5. I’m increasingly wary of multiple choice anything as real assessment and wanted students to write more.
  6. I wanted students to have a permanent, online record of their achievement throughout the year, not some pile of papers shoved in a binder (or trash can).
  7. I wanted students to have an audience for their work that would include each other, their families, the community, and the world.

Ludwig continues,

So how did we use the blogs? They became the go-to location to post assignments for me to read and grade. For a week or two, though, I operated a lot like I did last year, posting assignments on Edmodo and using its great assignment features to have students turn things in online, as well as posting them to their blogs. I realized that this was a duplication of effort and soon instead of sending out “assignments” in Edmodo, I just sent files and links as “notes.” This meant that these resources no longer came with a due date and that I was not using Edmodo to see who turned in which assignments.

Read the full post here.

Blogs provide a great way to extend the classroom beyond your 45 minute class period.  They can be used in a variety of ways to spark discussion and student research.  Chris Ludwig, a high school science teacher in Colorado, wrote this blog post to show how he used blogs this year to fundamentally change the way he assigned homework.

 

Physical science resources

By Mary Bigelow

Posted on 2011-05-23

“I know what I mean but I can’t ‘splain it.” I used to hear that from my middle school students in physical science, especially on essay questions. Sometimes the concepts are indeed hard to ‘splain in words. Visuals and observations of real events can make the concepts more real for students.

Harvard Natural Sciences Lecture Demonstrations


For example, a recent NPR blog Cinderella’s Ball, This Time With Pendulums had a video of a set of 15 pendulums, each a different length. When released simultaneously, watch what happens as a camera placed on the side of the apparatus captures the motion. What’s happening here? Hmm. I wondered what it would look like from the front. And sure enough, there was a blog comment with the same question and a response with a link to a video of a slightly different setup but with the camera in a different position. I checked out the creator of the video, Harvard Natural Sciences Lecture Demonstrations.  The site has resources for teaching concepts in physics and mathematics, but I spent the most time looking at the videos. These are short and to the point—great discussion starters or bellringers too.
Concepts in chemistry can be hard to understand, too. Middle School Chemistry from the American Chemical Society can be helpful. This series of lesson plans uses the 5E framework for lessons on matter, changes of state, density, periodic table/bonding, the water molecule, and chemical changes. The lessons include hands-on activities, simulations and animations, and student handouts.

“I know what I mean but I can’t ‘splain it.” I used to hear that from my middle school students in physical science, especially on essay questions. Sometimes the concepts are indeed hard to ‘splain in words. Visuals and observations of real events can make the concepts more real for students.

 

Spring bird sightings bring reflection on conference sessions

By Peggy Ashbrook

Posted on 2011-05-21

Children look at downed and abandoned nest before returning it to where it was found.

If children bring a downed and abandoned nest to school, have them return it to the same location.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Turdus-migratorius-002.jpgSpring migration brings additional bird species back to their nesting range and in numbers that children can easily observe. There have been plenty of American Robins pulling up worms from the rain-soaked ground. And the children discovered a Robin’s nest in the shrubby tree on the playground, not under our noses but just above them. Your class can become citizen scientists by sending information about the nests they find to NestWatch, a nest-monitoring project developed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in collaboration with the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, and funded by the National Science Foundation. Begin by having your students observe and draw the nest without disturbing it.
The interest in bird nest building grew when a child brought in a nest with eggs that had been downed by storm winds, and unattended by the parents for days. (Note that the US Fish and Wildlife Service administers the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and that states also regulate possession of nests.)    We looked at it closely but did not touch it. Children try to build a nest using potter's clay, leaves and sticks.
Then we tried building a nest using sticks, grass, and pottery clay. The almost three-year-olds loved getting into the clay, and found the nest building too difficult to work on for very long.
It’s amazing how many species of birds can be seen in one location. Lisa Gardiner wrote about looking for birds in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park with a team from BirdSleuth who were leading an NSTA National Conference workshop called Exploring Birds and Citizen Science. Birds hadn’t caught her attention the first time she walked the route on her way to the workshop, “Yet once I was looking for birds they seemed to be everywhere.” National and area NSTA conferences are great places to get support for teaching science in early childhood, learn some fascinating science content to share with your students, and to get “how-to” tips for teaching. I always come home with new resources—materials, websites, and contacts—and renewed enthusiasm. Maybe one of my or your students will be inspired like Noah Strycker who wrote about his experience studying Adelaide penguins in the Antarctic in his book, “Among Penguins: A Bird Man in Antarctica.”   Strycker became interested in bird watching when an elementary school teacher pointed out chickadees and grosbeaks on a bird feeder outside the classroom window. Read his blog to keep up with his travels along the Pacific Crest Trail which he kicked off this week, on May 19, 2011. I wonder what birds he will see?
Peggy

Children look at downed and abandoned nest before returning it to where it was found.

If children bring a downed and abandoned nest to school, have them return it to the same location.

 

On being a "cooperating" teacher: The greatest lesson ever

By Mary Bigelow

Posted on 2011-05-19

In a previous blog on student teaching, Christina Atton reflected on her student teaching in science. Her cooperating teacher, Ms. Chevin Stone (from Donald E. Gavit MS/HS in Hammond, IN), shares her experiences as Christina’s cooperating teacher.

Chevin Stone


When my principal emailed asking for a volunteer to work with a student teacher in a science classroom, I jumped at the opportunity. Part of me thought it would be great to have a few weeks of not writing lesson plans while advising a new recruit to the fine profession of science education. At the cooperating teachers meeting, I found out I’d only have my student for seven weeks. What could she possibly learn in a seventh grade classroom in such a short time?
She learned about classroom management.
The thing one never learns sitting in a college classroom is how to manage a class. You can talk about the techniques, watch all the Harry Wong videos ever produced, and even watch a veteran teacher work his or her magic in the classroom, but until you have to get students settled, on task and learning, it’s all just talk.
She learned that lesson that hard way. My kids are accustomed to me, the stern, “get it done or die” teacher who can keep the majority of the class on task and still sip her cup of tea without breaking a sweat. The best, most well-planned lesson is for naught however, if you don’t have control of the classroom.
My student teacher found out one night that her supervisor would be coming in first thing in the morning. The class being observed was an honors class of bright kids, some with Attention Deficit Disorder. The plan was for me to stay to take pictures of the center activities she was doing. I’m glad I was there.

In every seventh grade class, it seems there is at least one young man who makes you wonder what makes him tick. In this honors class, I have six like that. Never mind a visitor in the room, never mind I sat between the two groups of three as they worked. Between taking pictures, I quietly kept my “gang of six” on task. They decided, however, “It’s a sunny day, the birds are chirping, the girls look nice, and who cares if there’s ‘company in the house’——let’s put on a show.” Before the class period was over, three notebooks disappeared, a quarter used in one of the centers was reported missing and reappeared mysteriously on my desk, and a student reported all of his personal belonging stolen. On a bright note, the closing discussion went very well. (As part of a lesson on DNA, we discussed whether DNA really proved Osama bin Laden was dead.)

Christina Atton, Student Teacher


I’ve never been so embarrassed in my life. My student teacher corralled the group several times; only to have the “gang of six” find new ways disrupt and cause disarray whenever I moved more than five feet away from them. I even went so far as to haul three of them out of the room and give them one of my patented lectures. I apologized to the supervisor (who, incidentally, had been a professor of mine) and when my student teacher returned from her conference, she was frustrated, irritated, and just downright angry.
Classroom management is not something that can be learned in seven weeks. It takes nearly 4 weeks for a veteran teacher to pin down the nuances of personality and behavior. She’d been dutiful in watching me use various techniques to get the lesson started, moving, and flowing smoothly. I often use centers, which can be a great teaching/learning tool. However, in a large class, it’s important to work the “center magic” in such a way that everyone is on task. Her center-based lesson worked for every class except this one.
I bet she reflected on that experience in her journal for at least two pages.
I’ve been teaching for seven years, and I admit that I have days when classroom management is a hard row to hoe. But then again, as I told my student teacher, this is a science classroom, where we learn by doing inquiry. There’s going to be some chaos, some noise, some disarray.
Well, she learned a lot about classroom management. But what lesson did I learn? I think I’ve learned that I have something to share. There aren’t that many teacher candidates interested in science, so those who choose this discipline are precious to us all as science educators. I’ve learned what is important to me, as an educator and passed that on to her. I’ve learned how to be a mentor.
I’m going to miss her. She’s taught me a thing or two and I had a box full of goodies for her (I love a new curriculum cycle when I have lots of things to give away!) It’s my greatest hope she takes her passion for the craft to places where it is most needed and that her students learn to appreciate and love science as much as both she and I do. This has been fun; I must do it again sometime!

In a previous blog on student teaching, Christina Atton reflected on her student teaching in science. Her cooperating teacher, Ms. Chevin Stone (from Donald E. Gavit MS/HS in Hammond, IN), shares her experiences as Christina’s cooperating teacher.

Subscribe to
Asset 2