One of the arguments against year-round schools is that “kids need a break.” But isn’t it ironic that by the end of July, we see articles in newspapers or blogs on the topic of what to do when kids say they’re bored?
Schools often send home a summer reading list. But you can go beyond this with suggestions for inexpensive resources and science-based activities that parents (or other caregivers) can suggest for children or ones that they can all do together. Many teachers put these suggestions on their own websites or on the school website, in addition to sending notes home. The advantage of teacher suggestions (rather than generic ones in the newspaper) is that they can be tailored to a specific age group and connected to the school curriculum.
Get Ready for Summer from the Reading Rockets website has a “beach bag” full of ideas to include in your suggestions for younger children, including science-related ones.
Are there topics you couldn’t get to this year or ones that your students found especially interesting? Perhaps you could suggest some books or websites that address these topics for students to explore on their own. Use SciLinks to identify websites by topic and grade level. Or you could suggest books and websites related to the topics you will address next year, giving students the opportunity for a preview of coming attractions.
If you address a note to parents, here are some websites that have some simple science activities that adults and children could do together. Home Experiments and Kitchen Science Experiments have both demonstrations and experiments. Experiments from Science Bob also has lots of demonstrations as well as a section on “make it an experiment” with suggestions on how to extend the demonstration into an investigation. And The Exploratorium is always a good source for hands-on science activities.
You could also include links to local library and to nearby museums, zoos, and parks. Many of these organizations have free or inexpensive summer programs for children and families.
Several districts I worked also shared the teachers’ summer suggestions with daycare providers and community groups that ran summer activities or day camps for kids. Giving your local public library a heads-up would also be helpful if older students come in and say they have nothing to do.

Sometimes you see a new application on the web and think “This is cool!” – and then as a teacher you wonder “How can I use this?” I recently was introduced to Wordle, a free, Internet-based application. Wordle takes words from a document or list that you input and creates a “word cloud” graphic in which the size of the word is proportional to its frequency. You may have seen these word clouds on some news sites. You can tweak the layout and color schemes and choose whether to include numbers and whether to remove common words (e.g., is, the, are, of).
Just for fun, I pasted NSTA’s position paper on Scientific Inquiry into a wordle. I tweaked the color scheme and font, and here is what was produced.
Cool, isnt’ it? It’s interesting how some words stand out. You may have seen these word clouds on some news sites. There are some shortcomings, though. You can’t save a wordle directly to your computer. You can print it, so I used the PDF feature on my print dialog box to save it as a PDF file. Or you could use a screen capture utility. You can explore various layouts, fonts, and color schemes, but you can’t edit the list after the wordle has been created. So I would create my list or document in a Word file and then copy/paste. If you have a list of words and want some to stand out, you’ll have to enter them multiple times in the list or go to an advanced feature http://www.wordle.net/advanced where you can enter a word and a number (e.g., science:4). You can save your wordle to a public gallery, but there is no search feature. Some of the entries in the public gallery are not very good (and there is no spell-check), and the site has no filter for language that may be inappropriate for a classroom. If you want a two-word phrase to appear, you would have to insert a tilda (e.g., simple~machine) which will not appear on the graphic.
But even with these caveats, I’ve seen (or can think of) ways that Wordle could be useful. Students could copy and paste a writing sample to see the frequency and variety of words they are using (and you can get a frequency chart, too). By changing the frequency of words in a list, you could create a graphic that illustrates essential, important, and nice-to-know vocabulary for a unit. At the beginning of a unit, a teacher I know asked students for words related to the topic. He asked them again at the end, and has the pre- and post- graphics to show informally how students perceptions and knowledge have changed. Students could create them to illustrate their notebooks. Or you could solicit words on a topic at a faculty meeting or in-service event and create a graphic to share and discuss.
My hopes for the next version include the ability to upload a frequency chart (with the word and a number) and the ability to save in a graphic format to use in other applications or documents.
If you’d like a copy of the NSTA Inquiry wordle as a pdf file, click here. I also made a wordle from the position statement on Elementary Science (to share at an event next week). Help yourself, and feel free to add a comment with any other suggestions for how this could be used.

I have the opportunity next year to co-teach two science classes with a special education teacher. Approximately one-third of each class will be special education students. We’re both interested but a little apprehensive. How do we make this work?
—Devon, Pompano Beach, Florida
The March 2009 issue of The Science Teacher was devoted to the theme “Science for All.” A principal of mine used to say “All means all—not some or most.” As noted in NSTA’s position paper on Students with Disabilities, it’s critical for all students to have quality science experiences.
A co-teaching model of inclusion, such as the one you’re considering, teams the content knowledge of a science teacher with the expertise of the special education teacher to differentiate instruction and deal with a variety of learning issues. Both teachers are in the classroom at the same time. I’ve had many special needs students included in my classes, but I never had the opportunity to co-teach. So I shared your question with several teams to get their suggestions.
They all said that getting the right match of personalities is crucial. The teachers should agree on classroom management routines and procedures. But it’s not necessary for the two teachers to be identical in their personalities. For example, a detail-oriented teacher may complement a big-picture one. Even with professional development, one team noted they still had a lot of trial and error the first year. But they had a commitment to make it work for all of their students.
The teams also noted it’s important that everyone (including the principal) understand the concept of co-teaching and the appropriate roles for the teachers. They shared a few horror stories, such as the science teacher who considered the special education teacher as his teaching assistant. He assumed that the special education teacher would perform clerical work, grade assignments, and set up and put away lab equipment. In another extreme example, the special education teacher did most of the work (notetaking, writing, etc.) for the students and gave it to them to hand in. These unpleasant experiences could have been avoided if the expectations had been determined ahead of time.
On one team, the special education teacher has the role of a tutor. She monitors the class and assists special education students during independent and cooperative group work. But on the other teams, both teachers present and review content, assist all students, and conduct formative evaluations. One teacher noted there are no “your” students and “my” students—they are all “our” students. The roles of teachers switch during the class period. The special education teacher will often take the lead in reviewing a topic or describing a procedure. The science teacher usually introduces new content.
One special education teacher mentioned her greatest concern was her lack of content knowledge in science. The first year of co-teaching, she was more of a tutor. But now in the second year of their teamwork, she feels comfortable with the content of the curriculum and with basic laboratory procedures.
One science teacher’s greatest concerns were whether the students could handle advanced topics and whether they would be able to do as many topics during the year. He found there were fewer interruptions for discipline problems with two teachers in the room. When he was out of the classroom on sick days or for conferences, the special education teacher was able to continue with the lessons. With another teacher in the room, the students also were able to get more individualized attention.
The co-teaching teams emphasized the need for time to collaborate, plan, revise, and assess student work. They emphasized the importance of having common planning time several times each week, if not daily. Above all, they suggested you give yourselves time to make this work and give yourselves permission to make mistakes (and learn from them).
NSTA has some resources. The portal Students with Disabilities has NSTA’s position statement and links to strategies for inclusion. On the NSTA Learning Center, use the search term “inclusion” to find journal articles that suggest strategies for helping all students. If your special education colleague wants to brush up on content, Science Objects are free online courses on a wide variety of topics.
Do you have colleagues who are already involved in co-teaching whom you can observe and who can share their insights and experience? If you don’t have any in your school, join the NSTA Community professional networking site to find virtual colleagues and mentors.
You have an excellent opportunity to document your experiences, perhaps as a blog or an action research project. I’m sure others would be interested. Good luck!

Certain trees in my neighborhood are currently supporting populations of growing Eastern Tent Moth caterpillars. Children were excited to tell me about the “nest” they saw “way high” up in the tree (about 15 feet up). The wild cherry (Prunusserotina) is often host to several clumps of these larvae, or baby moths, until they pupate (make a cocoon and change into the pupa stage in life). I hope the children will be encouraged to bring paper and crayons out to the playground and draw what they see. When teachers model this kind of documenting of observations, children often want to do it too! In warm weather the caterpillars climb all over the tree and are easier to catch. Cut a few branches and bring some caterpillars indoors for extended, closer viewing.
(Put the branch ends in water and into an enclosed container afterwards so the caterpillars won’t wander and can be put outdoors again.)
A butterfly species with a large caterpillar, Eric Carle style coloration (The Very Hungry Caterpillar), and a short life cycle would be ideal for classroom observation, so children could see the larvae mouth parts munching, the pupa form appear, and a beautiful adult insect emerge within a month’s time. I often use the not-so-colorful Cabbage White butterflies to show a butterfly lifecycle because the caterpillars are easy to find on collard and cabbage plants (look on the underside of the leaves of decorative cabbage plants that go to seed as the weather warms up).

What local species are active in your area during the school year? (Add a comment by clicking on the word “comment” below. Hint: write and save your comment in a separate document to cut and paste in, because the anti-spammer “capcha” box may time out before you are ready to submit your comment.)
Some species are endangered—check for “at-risk”, “threatened” or “endangered” status of North American species on the US Fish and Wildlife Species List (by state) , with the NatureServe Explorer (search for “butterflies and moths” to see list), and with a local Lepidopterist (scientist who studies butterflies and moths), and read the Lepidopterist SocietyStatement on Collecting before collecting any caterpillars. Many state societies, such as The Ohio Lepidopteristshave helpful websites.
Some caterpillars with hairs have stinging hairs and should not be handled. State Cooperative Extension Services (Florida, Hawai’i,  Kentucky, North Carolina,  Virginia) often have identification information.
Butterflies and moths—another animal shape to compare and contrast with our own. Pull out some scarves and pretend to become one!
Peggy

The children were happy that I had enough of each color pipe cleaner (known as “fuzzy sticks” nowadays) that everyone could choose their favorite color. We wanted to make bubbles and needed to make bubble wands.

Children like to have choices (as do I). Choosing marker color, place in line, type of seed to plant, or which center in which to begin their day, can be so important for young children that they are willing to overcome shyness or difficulty with language to voice their choice. Being encouraged to choose and plan helps children develop thinking, and talking about what they might do in the future—important for science because part of being able to make predictions is to think about what has not yet happened.

After the class watched as I made bubbles of air in water, I asked the children to predict what shape bubble I could make with a square shaped bubble wand dipped in soap solution. My purpose was to raise a question in their minds, “What shape can bubbles be?” and ask the children to predict based on prior knowledge before going outside to blow bubbles. They had four shapes they could point to, to show their prediction, and we reviewed their names, square, cube, circle, sphere. The children pointed to the ball shape even as they said, “Circle.” They knew what they meant but were not yet familiar enough with the word “sphere” to use it. I use the word “round” much more often than “sphere”. If only sphere were a little easier to pronounce!

Recording a prediction or observation with tally marks is a kind of choice, but young children may not understand that they are choosing a representation of what they think or a reality that they have observed. On Friday in a large group follow-up to an activity where all the children moved water from container to container using various tools(see 3/22/09 post: Using tools to move water), one student was advocating for others to choose his choice of “favorite” tool. When we see children trying to influence their friends’ choice in recording a personal prediction or observation, we know that the child does not understand the purpose of tallying the predictions and observations.

Anyone have ideas for helping children understand that recording observations is not voting?

Here are two resources on early childhood and making choices:

• The HighScope Educational Research Foundation, “an independent nonprofit research, development, training, and public outreach organization with headquarters in Ypsilanti, Michigan.” Research shows that planning and reviewing are the two components of the program day most positively and significantly associated with children’s scores on measures of developmental progress.
• The Alliance for Childhood “promotes policies and practices that support children’s healthy development, love of learning, and joy in living.” See the Alliance’s graphic about the continuum of children’s choice play in kindergartens.

What kind of choices in your class support science learning? Tell the rest of us about what your students choose by adding a comment. Click on the word “comment” below. Hint: write and save your comment in a separate document to cut and paste in, because the anti-spammer “capcha” box may time out before you are ready to submit your comment.

Looking forward to learning from you,

Peggy