NSTA has released the following statement regarding the results of the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment Report (PISA):

The National Science Teachers Association is cautiously optimistic and somewhat surprised in the results for Science in the PISA Report. We are cautiously optimistic in that average science scores are up from 2006; however, this growth only puts the U.S. from the lower middle to the middle of the pack. We are still behind 18 countries and only 29 percent of students tested showed proficiency in science.
We are surprised at the scores because a very limited investment has been made on a national level in training and retaining science teachers. We believe that test scores for our students could be significantly improved if schools, states, and the federal government would commit to a larger investment in science teaching and learning.
As this report shows, our international neighbors are making the investment in science education. Our ability as a nation to remain competitive with other countries is dependent on how well we educate our children in science and mathematics. We hope this report will generate more public discussion about the need to make the necessary investments in science education.

At the beginning of the year, I covered measurement, basic equipment, and other fundamentals I thought my students (seventh graders) needed before we started our labs. Now they seem to have forgotten everything and need to be taught this information again whenever we do a lab. What can I do to help them remember?
—Diane, Las Cruces, New Mexico
The first textbook I used had a chapter devoted to the metric system, so I dutifully “covered” it at the beginning of the year, with its emphasis on converting units. Following the advice of a colleague, I also had the students memorize the names of equipment (flasks, graduated cylinders, forceps, and so on) before they had a chance to use them. What a disaster! When it was time to use these concepts, skills, and vocabulary in subsequent lab activities, my middle-school students remembered little of what they had supposedly learned.
As I reflected on this, I realized I had expected the students to master these concepts and vocabulary without any meaningful context. It seemed difficult for them to apply procedures that had been introduced at the beginning of the year to a lab weeks later. I was certainly teaching the material (with the lesson plans to prove it), and the students seemed to know the material at the time—but they weren’t learning it well enough to apply it to new activities.
So I changed my approach.

I introduced lab-related concepts, procedures, and vocabulary on an as-needed basis within the context of investigations, rather than in isolated units of instruction. For example, the students learned how to use microscopes in the context of a unit on microbiology. They practiced focusing microscopes while examining prepared slides of cells. They made their own wet mount slides of algae, yeasts, and molds. They examined pond water and recorded their observations and inferences.
This worked well, but we still want students to connect what they learn to their previous experience and to transfer what they learn to new situations. When students are learning new lab procedures, you could have them create their own frequently asked questions, or FAQs. They could designate a section of their science notebooks for FAQs such as How do I use a balance? How do I make a wet mount microscope slide? What should I use to measure the volume of a liquid? What is the difference between an observation and an inference? The question is followed by a brief, step-by-step response or definition, including diagrams or pictures. Each student would be responsible for adding questions to his or her notebook. If the notebooks have a “glossary” section, students could add descriptions and sketches of equipment as they use it. This becomes a reference to use during a lab.
A variation is to provide index cards on which students write the questions. Punch a hole in the card and add it to a ring with other cards or to a binder. Keep a set at each lab station, and allow students to add to the set as the year progresses. There could also be cards on which students write names and draw diagrams of the equipment and materials they use (e.g., a glassware card) for future reference. During a lab, students can flip through the cards if they have questions (you may need to model this strategy for the students to help them become more self-sufficient).
You could make the cards, but it would be more meaningful if the students make the cards themselves and use their own words in the responses. Perhaps creating the cards could be one of the roles you assign in cooperative groups or at the end of a unit as a review. Each class period could add to the set, and the students can learn from each other’s questions. At the end of the year, you could give the card sets to the eighth grade teacher for the students to continue to use.
Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jkfid/4333769080/in/photostream/

William D. Greene of West Virginia participated in the recent Sino-US Science and Education Forum and has posted this video:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PV3xlBynU6M[/youtube]
Click on the tag below to see more blog posts on this subject.

Several years ago at an NSTA conference, I attended several sessions on science notebooks. I always required my students to keep (and use) a science notebook, but these sessions had some different extensions and variations that made me an even bigger fan. So I was really interested to see an entire issue devoted to this learning strategy. As a secondary teacher, when I read the articles, I visualized how the ideas could apply to older students.
The current thinking on notebooks is that they are more than a collection of handouts and notes copied from the board and organized in a way determined by the teacher. Notebooks are less about organizing “stuff” and more about organizing thoughts, writing about what the student is learning rather than what the student was told to do.
In Making Meaning with Notebooks, Michael Klentschy (the author of Using Science Notebooks in Elementary Classrooms and Using Science Notebooks in Middle School) describes a notebook as … the student’s personal record that can be referred to and updated throughout an investigation or even an entire unit of study. Whether for scientists or students, a science notebook records what was observed or done and what the scientists or students thought as a result of the experience.

Throughout these articles, scaffolding seems to be a theme. For example, A Menu of Options has suggestions for starting notebooks with primary students. I suspect that at the beginning of middle school and then again in high school, teachers would also have to model the process and guide students to help them progress to more advanced thinking and strategies.  (Note: Check SciLinks for additional content resources on Butterflies (K–4 and 5–8) and metamorphosis.)
Nonfiction Literacy in Kindergarten shows how to incorporate nonfiction features such as a table of contents, a labeled diagram, a text box, or a graph in student notebooks to reinforce concepts from reading instruction. There are examples of how the teacher used the notebooks as a formative assessment. Reuse That Notebook describes how teachers in grades 3–6 designed a process for the same notebook to be used throughout the grades. They shared the assessment rubric they developed as a team, and I was impressed that “neatness” and “following directions” (although important) are not included in this science rubric (but they do appear in the self-assessment rubric). Using the same notebook in the following years—what a great record of learning!
Reading Graphically Enhanced Science Notebooks brought back some memories. During a test, a student came to me and asked if instead of writing a description of how cepahalopods move, could he draw a picture? His diagram showed that he understood the concept, as opposed to just memorizing the words “jet propulsion.” This article has several student examples – not just labeled diagrams or tables of numbers but student-generated explanations of processes or events in a graphic format.  The examples are related to magnets. How do oil and gas companies know where to drill? also has some examples of graphics, with illustrations of sending shock waves beneath the Earth’s surface and recording the resulting reflections.
All inquiry starts with a question, but to generate a question a student must have some prior knowledge about the subject. A Laboratory of Words shows how adding a “quick write” to notebooks can help the students to express their prior knowledge (or misconceptions). The article describes how to model the quick write (often used as a bell-ringer). Based on the other artidles, I’m thinking that “quick draws” could also be used.
Learning English–Learning Science adds a family component to the process, using resources form the  Lawrence Hall of Science’s Mateo y Cientina, and  looks at student writing as a way to assess English learning as well as science. In Nature Detectives, students do ongoing observations in the schoolyard or neighborhood and create a field guide. Take a look at Making Tracks Trail Guide, a do-it-yourself project.
SciLinks has resources that could supplement the content in several of this issue’s articles. Documenting Learning has activities for younger students on Properties of Sand, Salt, and Water  related to solubility, and Does It Have a Life Cycle describes an assessment probe that could help the teacher discover conceptions and misconceptions that students have on the topic of life cycles.
Interactive Reflective Logs illustrates getting and providing feedback via the notebook (with sample pages) as students and teachers act as reflective partners. The article models how to give and respond to feedback.
Some addition resources on science notebooks include

• Science Notebooks in K12 Classrooms
• Scientist’s Notebook Toolkit
• Graphic Enhanced Elementary Science

NSTA Journals have published many articles related to science notebooks. Click here for a collection of articles and free book chapters that I assembled using the NSTA Learning Center’s My Resource Center tool.

Seasons Change lists many useful websites. I was reading the PDF version of the article, and when I clicked on the URLs I did not get the sites. Aha—the article is formatted into three narrow columns, and the URLs wrap around to the next line. So here are the sites mentioned in the article:

• If a Leaf Falls in the Forest...
• Why Do Leaves Change Color?
• Why Leaves Change Color
• The Scientific Basis for Autumn
• Why Leaves Really Fall Off Trees
• See the Colors in Leaves
• Keeping a Nature Journal
• Composting

And check out the Connections for this issue. Even if the article does not quite fit with your lesson agenda, there are ideas for handouts, background information sheets, data sheets, rubrics, and other resources.