The National Association for the Education of Young Children‘s annual conference has plenty of sessions about teaching science to young children, so many that I am going to have to make some tough decisions about which to attend. Fortunately, presenters can upload their handouts to the NAEYC website so I can look there to get a taste of what I miss. The conference is a collaboration with the National Black Child Development Institute (NBCDI)  so there are even more choices.

If you are going, I hope you will come to the session on science inquiry that I’m presenting with Linda Froschauer, Field Editor of Science and Children titled, “This is What Young Scientists Can Do” on Friday November 5 from 2-3:30pm in Convention Center Room 201 C/D (Session #596 on page 114).
NAEYC members can still join the application to create an NAEYC Science Interest Forum, see earlier 10/19/10 post.
Hope to see you at the conference—this year or in future years,
Peggy

I’ve used some of your suggestions on class participation, but this year I have several fifth-graders who try to monopolize class discussions and often ask questions that are off-topic or beyond the scope of the lesson. Sometimes, I don’t know the answer to their questions. I hate to squelch their enthusiasm for science, but I want to give everyone a chance to participate.
—Amanda, Winston–Salem, North Carolina
We’ve all a class in which no student wants to be the first to participate, and there are many strategies to encourage participation (see the blog entry Encouraging Class Participation). But your situation is a little different. I can still see some of my “ooh-ooh” students (the sound they made as they waved their hands frantically in the air). Their enthusiasm should be celebrated, but a few overeager students shouldn’t discourage the others.
Talk to these students privately and individually. “I appreciate your enthusiasm and knowledge. But as the teacher, I have to give everyone has a chance to participate. So even if I don’t call on you, I still value your ideas and questions. But I need to listen to the others in the class, too.” A wink or slight nod in their direction will acknowledge their waving hands as you call on other students. But you’ll also have to make it very clear that any behavior or language belittling other students is unacceptable.
Sometimes students ask questions or offer comments only tangentially related to the topic (or perhaps not at all). These might be teachable moments worth pursuing. If not, use a section of a bulletin board or wall space as a “parking lot.” Ask the student to write the question on a sticky note or index card and add it to the parking lot to be addressed at a later time. Periodically, revisit the parking lot to look at the topics and respond to them. If the question relates to a topic later in the lesson or unit, add it to the parking lot and then remove it when it is addressed, thanking the student for asking the question earlier.

Keep using strategies such as wait time or calling on students randomly. Quiet responses such as a thumbs-up or holding up a paper or small white board with an answer will allow you to get feedback from everyone. Some teachers give students a limited number of “tokens” to use while participating in whole-class discussions. The tokens can be used to respond to questions, add to a discussion, ask questions, or elaborate on another student’s response. If students use all of their tokens, they must wait until the others have used theirs before participating again. The ooh-oohs will have to judge when and how to use their tokens.
If a student asks a question and you don’t know the answer, the worst thing you can do is make up answer. It’s OK for a teacher to say, “That’s an interesting question, but I’m not sure how to answer it. What do you think? Does anyone else have an idea?” If the question is related to the lesson, you could model how you would go about finding information. If it’s not related, add it to the parking lot and go on with the lesson. If the student has some extra time, encourage him or her to find information and share with the class.
How do these students relate to others in cooperative learning activities? Do they take over and try to do everything themselves? Are their teammates content to stand back and watch them? Be sure to assign roles to the members of the team and identify the official spokesperson for the group. Rotate the roles so that all students eventually have the opportunity to perform each one. Monitor the teams as they work. You may need to intervene to make sure students are participating in their assigned roles.
I once did some action research on cooperative learning in which I put the ooh-oohs in the same group for an activity. It was interesting to observe the group dynamics when no one wanted to relinquish the role of team leader. We then discussed leadership, teamwork, and what it was like to have someone try to take over your job. It was also interesting to observe the other teams and note the leaders who emerged when they had the chance.
Photo:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/rongyos/2686415336/

I had a good time at the USA Science and Engineering Festival Expo in Washington, D.C. on October 23 and 24. I was really impressed with the large number of people attending—great diversity of age, sex, ethnicity, race, language, families and individuals. I saw one of my neighbors there, a young mom with 3 kids and her mother—someone I didn’t realize was interested in science or engineering, and I saw a lot of STEM* geek t-shirts. Well attended, the festival was crowded even at 4:30 on Sunday just before closing.

*STEM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.
The number of people in attendance made it difficult for young children to get access to some booths, but by going with the flow they could see some really cool stuff. Hopefully the cool stuff will inspire children to take science classes, join science clubs, and pursue science inquiry at home and in informal settings.

Click on the photo to see others online.

Click on photo to see others online.

The on-site Science Store at the Kansas City Area Conference has been bustling. Books and gear items garnering a lot of attention include John Haysom and Michael Bowen’s new NSTA Press book Predict, Observe, Explain: Activities Enhancing Scientific Understanding and Michael Klentschy’s Using Science Notebooks in Middle School. Susan Koba and Anne Tweed’s Hard-to-Teach Biology Concepts and Anne’s Designing Effective Science Instruction are topics of discussion and interest, buoyed by those authors’ workshop sessions at the conference. Lots of science teachers at the conference are sporting the conference pin, which features blinking versions of Kansas City’s iconic “Sky Stations” sculptures atop the convention center. Items from the “I Love Science” and “Science Matters” NSTA gear lines continue to be popular, as well. All of these NSTA Press books and gear items are available online at the Science Store.

The fall is my favorite season — the colorful leaves, the cooler weather, the different position of the sun that gives everything a slightly different look. For most of us, it’s also the beginning of a new school year and a good time to explore new ideas for our classrooms.
Our colleagues in the NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) and IRA (International Reading Association) have a great resource to help students with reading and writing: ReadWriteThink. I used the menu in the left margin to search on “Standard Lessons” and the theme “Science” and found a list of 54 lessons that relate science and language arts on topics such as vocabulary, reading nonfiction texts, informational writing, and critically evaluating Internet resources. You can further finetune by grade level. Many lessons have intriguing titles such as Digging Up Details on Worms: Using the Language of Science in an Inquiry Study, Digital Reflections: Expressing Understanding of Content Through Photography, and Using THIEVES to Preview Nonfiction Texts. Most of these are for K-8, although if you have high school students who are English language learners or have difficulty with high school text, you may find some helpful lessons here.
The bonus here is that if you enter a keyword, the site also accesses resources from the Verizon Thinkfinity partners. This list can be futher finetuned by grade level. I entered the keyword keyword “cell” and filtered with 9-12, science, and lessons. I got a list of 21 results, although not all were actual lessons (some were “updates” which are podcasts).

The folks at Edutopia, one of my favorite sites, have a new Home to School Connections Guide. This free document (you do need to register) has many suggestions for involving and communicating with parents and other caregivers. You may also be interested in a blog entry on the Edutopia site How to Teach Students to Think Like Scientists.

I always find something interesting and relevant in the Educational Leadership journal. For example in the October 2010 issue I found articles such as The Words Students Need, Reviving Reteaching, and Cell Phones as Teaching Tools. You don’t have to be a member to access these articles. (Thank you, ASCD!).

The SciLinks webwatchers are continually expanding the database with new resources. Check out some new entries on topics such as Ciliophora, Stoichoimetry, Chemical Safety, or Lunar Eclipses. And you can always review the Reasons for the Seasons this fall.
Photo by MLB: Central Park in the Fall.