What makes the simple hamburger bun the perfect stage for a juicy hamburger? An airy lightness? The sweet earthy taste and smell of yeasty dough? A hint of shiny brown sugars carmelized onto the surface of the bread in the baking or toasting process? White, wheat, potato? With or without sesame seeds?

Or it is merely a delivery mechanism, a way to keep the meat, toppings, and condiments all contained, and all conveniently pick-up-able in an entirely edible package?

We are into week seven of the weekly, online, video series “Chemistry Now,” and the chemistry of food is not yet exhausted as a source of interesting video and lessons. As we’ve written before, please view the video, try the lessons, and let us know what you think.

Photo: Eurok

Through the Chemistry Now series, NSTA and NBC Learn have teamed up with the National Science Foundation (NSF) to create lessons related to common, physical objects in our world and the changes they undergo every day. The series also looks at the lives and work of scientists on the frontiers of 21st century chemistry.

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Video: “The Chemistry of Bread” (part of a 6-part Cheeseburger Chemistry series) uses bread-making to illustrate and explain how yeasts work to convert starches and sugars in flour to CO2 gas (fermentation); effects of heat on gas; and gluten protein structures.

Middle school lesson: In Bubbles and Bread, students  investigate the chemical reactions that form gases and cause bread to rise.

High school lesson: This Chemistry of Leavening Agents in Bread Making lesson will enrich student concept knowledge of chemical reactions in a comparative study of leavening agents used in bread making.

You can use the following form to e-mail us edited versions of the lesson plans:

[contact-form 2 “ChemNow]

Birds are wild animals that children are quite likely to see and recognize. They live in the city and in the country and in between, all over the world. Why not begin talking about the birds that your students see near school, and have them name all the colors they see? To attract birds for closer observation teachers sometimes put up a feeder where it can be seen from a window for easy viewing and counting. Read about making observations and collecting data in the March 2011 Early Years column in Science and Children.
Here are some of my favorite early childhood resources for learning about birds and bird behavior.

Articles with ideas for classroom activities
Search Science and Children for “bird” to find almost 20 articles on science learning about birds (NSTA membership required).
STEM Comes to Preschool by Sally Moomaw and Jaumall A. Davis. Young Children. September 2010 Vol 65 (5): 12-18. The article relates how they used toy Audubon birds (plush replicas of real birds which have a micochip inside that plays a recorded authentic song of the species) in an inclusive preschool classroom to teach patterning.
Field guides or identification books. No single book fits all needs. Every “birder” has their favorite, but take a look at these two to begin with.
Birds, A Golden Guide by Ira N. Gabrielson, Herbert S. Zim, Chandler S. Robbins (Ed.), illustrated by James Gordon Irving. 2001. St. New York, NY: Martin’s Press. An inexpensive guide for beginning birdwatchers.
Kaufman Field Guide to Birds of North America. Kenn Kaufman. 2005. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin. A field guide with digitally enhanced photographs and pointers (leader lines) to field marks (distinguishing markings or aspects to note that aid identification), this book is fun for children to use for identification purposes, to browse through, or to read about a particular species.
Trade books
A Place for Birds by Melissa Stewart, illustrated by Higgins Bond. 2009. Atlanta, GA: Peachtree. This book introduces 24 species, includes details in sidebars and describes solutions for problems people create for birds.
Backyard Birds of Winter by Carol Lerner. 1994. New York, NY: HarperCollins. This book targets birds of colder climates and includes feeder information.
Counting Is for the Birds by Frank Mazzola Jr. 1997. Watertown, MA: Charlesbridge. Birds flock to the feeder by one then two and so on, up to 20 (you will have to add the count of zero). Have your students count each species and look for non-birds, a squirrel and cat.
Feathers for Lunch by Lois Elhert. 1996. San Diego, CA: Harcourt. Twelve birds (illustrated with accuracy in Elhert’s appealing cut paper collage style) escape the cat’s pounce. Have your children match birds in this book to birds in a non-fiction bird identification book, and predict the ending of the book. Depicts the real danger to songbirds of allowing pet cats outside.
Fly High, Fly Low by Don Freeman. 2004. New York, NY: Penguin. Now in a 50^th anniversary edition, this classic story follows a pair of nesting pigeons (Rock doves Sid and Midge) in San Francisco. Pair this book with the Project PigeonWatch poster (free download).
How the Robin Got Its Red Breast: A Legend of the Sechelt People by Donna Joe, Sechelt Nation, illustrated by Charlie Craigan. 1993. Roberts Creek, BC: Nightwood Editions. Compelling black-and-white illustrations relate the Sechelt legend of how the robin got its colors. Traditional tales often teach about the natural world while serving as guides for proper conduct.
Internet
BirdWatching online magazine (formerly Birder’s World), see the bird photo of the week.
Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Download a free poster, listen to bird calls and songs, read the All About Birds page “Birding 1-2-3: How to Identify Birds” and see the “PigeonWatch”  section for information about these common birds. Read about the Feeder Watch Project to learn how to count birds at your feeder and submit a tally sheet to participate in this citizen science endeavor.
Exploring Nature. Look for your local birds on this natural history website with a free database describing many North American birds.
Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Sandy Shore & Aviary Web Cam. Look for oystercatchers, curlews and other birds using the webcam in this California aviary, or play bird bingo.

Do you, or does your class, have a favorite book about birds?

Peggy

“To know the road ahead, ask those coming back.”

—Chinese Proverb

A team of science educators has developed a new NSTA position statement acknowledging the value of 21st-century skills within the context of science education (available here). The statement advocates for the science education community to support 21st-century skills consistent with best practices across a science education system and notes that “exemplary science education can offer a rich context for developing many 21st-century skills, such as critical thinking, problem solving, and information literacy.”

With the first decade of the 21st century already in the rear view mirror, it is somewhat interesting-for several reasons-to still be considering what we call 21st century skills. Like it or not, the 21st century is already 11% over, and yet 21st century skills discussions are couched as if 1) there is a really a choice, and 2) the 21st century is still to come.

 
 
Let’s take a stroll down memory lane to consider the challenges to traditional education when calendar pages all over the globe flipped from 1899 to 1900, or in this case, to 1911.

Some of the notable events of the first 11 percent of the 20th century include:

• The first Nobel Prizes are awarded
• The first Trans-Atlantic Radio Signal
• Einstein proposes his theory of Relativity
• The first electric washing machine
• Ford begins selling the Model T
• Plastic is invented
• Peary is first to reach North Pole
• The air conditioner is invented
• Blériot flew his monoplane across the English Channel
• Rutherford discovers structure of the atom
• Raymonde de Laroche was the first woman to receive a pilot’s license
• Amundsen reaches the South Pole
• The first talking motion picture is demonstrated

Digested, this list indicates we drive cars, human flight is obvious, instant global communication is possible, we have a serious challenge to Newton, the guts of an atom are known, and we have stood on the extreme reaches of our planet. In essence, kids, everything from here on out will be much different than anything known before. Ever.

Two years before the first moon landing, Marshall McLuhan penned the following: “Today’s child is bewildered when he enters the 19th century environment that still characterizes the educational establishment, where information is scarce but ordered and structured by fragmented, classified patterns, subjects and schedules.”

Now lets jump ahead a few decades to see how the 20th century skills played out. But what were the skills of the last century? I’m not sure, however the students of that era either dealt with, discovered, or invented some big ticket things like world wars, the great depression, electrification, antibiotics, the atomic bomb, x-rays, television, telephones, jet flight, radar, vaccines, computers, the moon landing, the internet, and cell phones, just to name a few of the thousands of new additions to society. Not an insignificant list compared with our list that includes iPods, Facebook, eBay, YouTube, video chat and digital books. Sure, I know there are greater things to point a finger at for examples of 21st century change, but as governments fall and rise, the revolutions of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and soon (my guess) Google Earth should hardly be surprising. If you recall, Thomas Jefferson did once say, “Information is the currency of democracy.” And if there is anything the above list of web-based tech shouts out, its information.

So were people in 1911 concerned that the education system was failing to teach the skills necessary to be a productive citizen in the new century? I don’t know. I wasn’t there. But there are plenty quotes from education experts of the time expounding upon the perils and pitfalls of our current public school trajectory. For example, in the first half of the last century John Dewey wrote, “Education is a social process. Education is growth. Education is, not a preparation for life; education is life itself.” Wow, John, that sure sounds a lot like our 21^st century skillset.
However, what I do believe is different in the 21st century is the acknowledgement that we can only use today cautiously to predict tomorrow. Further, the skills expected of high school graduates are not limited to those of content, but also must include a flexible, fluid, dynamic attitude that integrates well with any situation the student may encounter. Oh, and the student will encounter situations unlike any generations previous.
What the 21st century has taught us thus far, very much like the first decade of the 20th century, is that inventions and institutions are not much more than suggestions. And to think otherwise is to place too much faith in stasis. As NSTA solicits input about 21st century skills, something should feel familiar about the topic. In the draft position statement, the following list is provided including: core subject knowledge; learning and innovation skills; information, media, and technology skills; life and career skills; adaptability; complex communication/social skills; nonroutine problem solving; self- management/self-development; and systems thinking.
Sounds an awful lot like the processes of science to me. And what’s not to like about that?
Actually, there is something. It’s subtle, but we have longed for predictability in education, and now it seems we are attempting to encapsulate unpredictability into a predictable program with defined outcomes.
My worry here is that we might be using the same piece of 20th century educational practice that concerned McLuhanin in order to package and sell the concept of 21st century skills. As Dewey foretold, the future is not a destination where one arrives and the story ends. And similarly, 21st century skills are not a finite set of testable proficiencies. Instead they are goals of direction and objectives of strategy. As we race against the clock to capture and cage the skills of the 21^st century, let’s not incarcerate them, for once in captivity they might fail to thrive. The skills will need to roam in the wild if they are truly going to make a difference.

“Only when we know a little do we know anything; doubt grows with knowledge.”

—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I totally agree with the editor of Science Scope this month, concerning the status of the earth sciences in many of our high schools. Many years ago when I was in high school, the science offerings started with biology, followed by chemistry, physics, and a fourth year biology elective. Earth science was not even in the course catalog—so much for the good ol’ days! Are things different now? In recent conversations on NSTA listserves, teachers were discussing the order in which students should take biology, chemistry, physics—but few of the conversations included earth and space sciences anywhere in the sequence.
It seems like an earth/space science course would be an ideal capstone course in high school—integrating physics with meteorology and astronomy, chemistry with geology and oceanography, and biology with paleontology and ecology. In essence, students would experience how the sciences are related and focus on interesting and current topics. But as of now, for many students, the upper elementary and middle school grades are the last time they’ll be formally exposed to earth science topics in school.
As middle level teachers will attest, it’s not hard to get young students interested in the earth sciences that explain and describe the world around them. The articles in this issue have lots of suggestions for activities, and I’ve noted the SciLinks topics that would support the content or include additional activities.

By the time students get to middle school, they’ve heard the word “system” in the context of the solar system or the metric system, but they may not understand what systems are. An Earth-System Approach to Understanding the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill describes a recent event in terms of the interrelationships among the biosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, and atmosphere. The article also includes graphics to help students see and reflect on the connections. [SciLinks: Atmosphere, Biosphere, Earth’s Structure, Water Cycle]
In the Hot Seat has an analysis of home heating options  [SciLinks: Heating Systems, Alternative Energy Homes, Solar Heated Homes, Carbon Cycle/Global Warming]
Ocean Acidification has two lessons presented to help students understand the causes of ocean acidification and its effects on coral reefs. [SciLinks: Coral Reefs, Acid Rain, Greenhouse Gases, pH]
Are you planning any outdoor events at the end of the year? The students in the article Clever with Weather collected and analyzed local data (with an emphasis on graphing) to determine the best place for a picnic. (I know of an elementary school where the students analyze weather data each morning and prepare a report for the principal to help her make a decision about whether to have outdoor recess that day). [SciLinks: Weather, Weather Instruments, Weather Patterns]
Prehistoric life is a popular topic with middle schoolers, and three articles add to that interest. In the Dinoviz project, students trace how our perceptions of what dinosaurs “looked like” over time have changed, based what was learned through research. Fossil Patterns in Time describes a 5E lesson that addresses misconceptions students may have about the geologic time scale and the occurrence of vertebrates. This is one of many excellent lessons at the ENSI (Evolution & the Nature of Science Institutes) website.  Fossil Sharks: Learning From and About the Past also has activities using fossil shark teeth to guide students through investigations of how life and environmental conditions have changed over time. [SciLinks: Geologic Time Scale, Fossils, Fossil Record, Dinosaurs, Sharks]
As the author of Fun with a Flume—Ideas for Inquiry suggests, middle schoolers don’t mind getting wet. The simple apparatus here can be used to demonstrate many concepts related to water. [SciLinks: Convection, Water Erosion, Watersheds and Pollution]
Earth’s Reflection: Albedo includes several activities to illustrate the relationship between this concept and climate change. Although students may not be familiar with this term, they can understand the concept. The authors include diagrams, suggestions for data collection, and assessments. [SciLinks: Albedo]