Happy New Year!
Over the holiday break, I found this blog on a colleague’s Facebook page. Free Technology for Teachers has lots of suggestions for free (yes, free) applications. Today’s entry (January 4) is 11 Science Resources to Try in 2011.
Share yesterday’s entry 11 Math Resources to Try in 2011 with your colleagues!

Does your (or your child’s) early childhood program include science inquiry experiences? Here are a few resources to get started, or to expand on, your understanding of science inquiry. These resources are on my list because I have read them (some—not all, yet), or other works by the authors, or read the reviews on NSTA Recommends or another source. I’m sure there are others—use the comment feature below to add your list to this one. Thanks to Nick dePreter, teacher who I met at his session at a NSTA conference, for asking a question which inspired this list. Online community–another great resource!

In print

• Building Structures with Young Children (Young Scientist Series) by Ingrid Chalufour and Karen Worth. 2004. St. Paul, MN: Redleaf Press.
• Growing and Changing by Robert E. Rockwell, E. Sherwood, R. Williams, and D. Winnett. 2001. While Plains, NY: Dale Seymour Publications. Activities for students to make observations and collect data in about themselves and other organisms.
• The Inquiry Matrix by Julie Grady. The Science Teacher, November 2010. Note that NSTA members can access all journals online.
• Investigating Real Data in the Classroom: Expanding Children’s Understanding of Math and Science by Richard Lehrer and Leona Schauble, eds. 2002. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Education researchers and classroom teachers paired up to describe how children can collect and analyze data as they go about answering questions.
• More Picture Perfect Science Lessons: Using Children’s Books to Guide Inquiry, K-4 by Karen Ansberry and Emily Morgan. 2007. Arlington, VA: NSTA Press.
• The Pillbug Project: A guide to investigation by Robin Burnett. 1999 revised. Arlington, VA: National Science Teachers Association.
• Preschool Pathways to Science: Facilitating Scientific Ways of Thinking, Talking, Doing, and Understanding by Rochel Gelman and Kimberly Brenneman, Gay Macdonald, Moisés Roman. 2009. Baltimore, MD: Paul H Brookes Pub Co.
• Scaffolding Science Inquiry Through Lesson Design by Michael Klentschy and Laurie Thompson. 2008. Portsmoouth, NH: Heinemann. Note: written for teachers of grades 3-5.
• Science in Kindergarten by Ingrid Chalufour and Karen Worth, Reading #56 from the CD accompanying Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children from Birth through Age 8, Third Edition by Carol Copple and Sue Bredekamp, eds. 2009. Washington, D.C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children.
• Science Is Golden: A Problem-Solving Approach to Doing Science with Children by Ann Finkelstein. 2001. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press. For parents and teachers—how to guide children’s questions toward investigation, including gathering data.
• The Teaching of Science in Primary Schools by Wynne Harlen and Anne Qualter, 2009. London, Great Britain: David Fulton Publishers.
• Worms, Shadows, and Whirlpools: Science in the Early Childhood Classroom by Karen Worth and Sharon Grollman. 2003 Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, Washington D. C.: NAEYC.
• A Head Start on Science: Encouraging a Sense of Wonder: 89 Activities for Children Ages 3-7 by William C. Ritz. 2007. Arlington, VA: NSTA Press.
• Outdoor Inquiries: Taking Science Investigations Outside the Classroom by Patricia McGlashan, Kristen Gasser, Peter Dow, David Hartney, and Bill Rogers. 2007. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. From the staff of First Hand Learning, Inc.
• Squishy, Squashy Sponges by Beverly Kutsunai, Susan Gertz, and Lynn Hogue. 2003. Middletown, OH: Terrific Science Press.

Online

• Annenberg, Learning Science Through Inquiry

http://www.learner.org/workshops/inquiry/videos.html?pop=yes&pid=1452

• The Cat in the Hat Know a Lot about That! Explorer’s Guide, on doing science with young children.

http://www.pbs.org/teachers/includes/content/catinthehat/Teachers_UnitDownloadables/CITH_Teachers_ExplorersGuide.pdf

• Entries from a Staff Developer’s Journal . . .Helping Teachers Develop as Facilitators of Three- to Five-Year-Olds’ Science Inquiry by Robin Moriarty

http://cse.edc.org/products/pdfs/YCMoriarty.pdf

• Foundations, volume 2, Inquiry :Thoughts, Views, and Strategies for the K-5 Classroom

http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2000/nsf99148/start.htm

• Exploratorium, Institute for Inquiry

http://www.exploratorium.edu/IFI/resources/index.html

• Inquiry Science in the Elementary Classroom: A Study Guide, from Educational Development Center, Inc.

http://cse.edc.org/products/inquiryscienceelemclassroom/inquiry.asp

• K2S Bitesize BBC Interpreting Data, site has ‘bitesized’ interactive learning content including on interpreting data using tally charts.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/maths/data/

• National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), Teaching Young Children, Picturing Good Practice. You Can Count on Math Handout 2: Math-Related Children’s Books, Songs, and Finger Plays for Preschoolers

http://www.naeyc.org/files/tyc/file/BooksSongsandFingerPlays.pdf

• Science News for Kids, an online science news journal—a resource to learn age appropriate vocabulary and new science content.

http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20101006/Note1.asp

• A Try Science Conversation with Wynne Harlen, author of The Teaching of Science in Primary Schools

http://scienceonline.terc.edu/harlen_conversation/index.html

• Understanding Science website, especially the Understanding Science 101 section

http://undsci.berkeley.edu/

• Young Children’s Inquiry chart by Hubert Dyasi, CCNY; and Karen Worth, Education Development Center, Inc.

http://cse.edc.org/products/inquiryscienceelemclassroom/Inquiry.pdf
What resources can you add to this list? (Authors and publishers: don’t be shy!)
Peggy

December’s Science 2.0 includes a brief example of how Dale Basler (physics teacher and co-host of Lab Out Loud) creates his own videos for use in his physics classroom.  Here are a few examples:
Bobber Meets Roundabout from Dale Basler on Vimeo.
Grocery Store Conveyor Belt Stops from Dale Basler on Vimeo.
See more here.

I was once on a planning committee for a citizen-science  project. Several of the other teachers on the committee remarked that it was a great project but that they probably wouldn’t be able to use it in their own classrooms. “It’s an awesome project, but we have too much content to cover first” was their reason. I can still see the puzzled look on the face of one of the scientists on the committee. “Why is there a need to ‘cover’ content before engaging students in real-world science. Why can’t the students learn content within the context of these projects and experiences?” A good question.
Integrating content and activities/investigations in a planned and purposeful way is a challenge for teachers. The articles in NSTA publications have many examples of how this can be done, including planning tools, rubrics, connections to standards, and assessments. Tools such as SciLinks can provide just-in-time content and background information for both students and teachers.
For example, The Hudson River Plume uses a combination of online and laboratory activities (the authors include a detailed overview) to explore the impact of human activity on watersheds and coastal environments. The content addresses water movement and characteristics beyond a textbook discussion. (SciLinks: Watershed, Water Movement, Eutrophication, Pollution)

A Life-Cycle Assessment of Biofuels focuses on the context of alternative fuels (ethanol in this case): what resources are used to produce them, how they are processed, what does it take to transport them. Students may find it interesting to look at the “life cycle” of other products such as cell phones, pencils, bottled water. (SciLinks: Carbon cycle, Alternative fuels)
Wolves in the Wild incorporates a jigsaw cooperative learning activity with content related to social, economic, and ecological issues.  (SciLinks: Wolves, U.S. National Parks)
Your principal may do a double-take seeing high school students use a sandbox or Rubik’s cubes. but you can reassure her that real learning is taking place.  In Puzzling Science: Using the Rubik’s Cube to Teach Problem Solving, the teacher-author had mastered the cube before designing this problem-solving activity. It might be an interesting action research project to study what happens when the teacher learns along with the students! The Classroom Sandbox shows how a physical model can be used to illustrate concepts, manipulate variables, or test hypotheses. See Deformational Sandbox in the Classroom
You probably have some athletes in your classes. In another real-life connection (using the 5E Learning Cycle) students consider Why Do Athletes Drink Sports Drinks? (SciLinks: Osmosis, Electrolytes, Sports Drinks)
This month’s HealthWise column What’s the difference between an x-ray, a CAT scan, and an MRI? describes these medical processes that students hear about in the news and family discussions. (SciLinks: CAT Scanning Fossils, MRI).
In conversations with teachers and administrators, I’ve often heard these terms used interchangeably: activities, experiments, labs, investigations. Are they the same? How would you explain the differences?