As I catch up on readings and resources from other blogs, listservs, and journals, I found several things I’d like to share. I’m calling them WOWs because that’s what I say when I see them – in some cases a positive wow (with one or more exclamation points) and in a few cases a disappointed wow (followed by an arrggh).
I’ll get the disappointing one out of the way fast. Read about how one high school is responding to the mandate for science testing. Is this what NCLB at the high school level is all about? In case you think that this is a unique situation, I know of an elementary school where it has been decided that science and social studies are not taught until after the state tests are over. This means no science or social studies until April! I shudder to think what happens to the arts and physical education, too. What are we teachers going to do about this?
One thing we can do is become more savvy about assessments and their purposes. The December/January issue of Educational Leadership deals with the theme of “Informative Assessment.” Most of the articles are available to all, with a few reserved for ASCD members. But there are enough public ones, including one from Carol Ann Tomlinson on “Learning to Love Assessment” with ten basic understandings about the real purposes of assessment as an integral part of learning, not a mandated add-on.
But on to the other positive wows! The February edition of Learning and Leading with Technology (from the International Society for Technology in Education) has a neat article on how two high school science teachers are using iPods in their classes to share graphics, podcasts (many of which the students create), and class materials. The article is available online to members of ISTE, but perhaps your tech director of another colleague is a member. Or if you email me or reply to this post, I’ll send you the email of one of the authors. (I was pleased to see that their school is just down the road from me).
The January edition of Learning and Leading describes a tool for helping students to plan and prepare reports (essays, slides as in PowerPoints, or video/multimedia). Although there is a brief article about this tool (available electronically to ISTE members), you can go right to the Research Project Calculator website and poke around. I would use this tool to model the process for my students, since I found that even in high school (and in the grad classes I taught), students need guidance in organization and time management. A great feature of this tool is the way that the students can email the resources and scheduler to themselves and also receive email reminders about the milestone dates. These emails link directly back to the website and its resources. There is even a self-evaluation section for the students to reflect on the process and the quality of their work. The teacher resources include rubrics and print handouts to assist students and to inform the library media staff about the projects. An interesting action research project would be to have some classes use this tool while others use a traditional approach.

I totally agree with the editor of TST this month, concerning the status of the earth sciences in many of our high schools. Many years ago when I was in high school (and when dinosaurs roamed the earth, as my students would say), I started my science courses 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? What is the current status of the earth sciences in your high schools? What topics are included in a typical earth science course: Geology? Meteorology? Astronomy? Ecology? Oceanography? Paleontology?
When I got to college, I had to take some earth science electives, and my eyes (and mind) were opened up. I was really tempted to morph my chemistry major into one of the earth sciences, but I compromised by adopting the earth sciences as a lifelong avocation. Most of my knowledge of the earth sciences results from readings, a few grad courses, and self-study at museums and parks. And with the Internet, I’m able to keep learning at a rapid pace!
Have you ever tried any of NSTA’s Science Objects? These free online content courses take about 1-2 hours to complete. I’m a big fan of (yes, you guessed it) the earth science ones, and right now I’m working on the Plate Tectonics offerings. It’s a great way to get acquainted (or re-acquainted) with this essential content. There are other Objects for the physical and life sciences, too. And best of all, they’re designed for those of us (elementary, middle school, or high school) who might not have a lot of formal background in these content areas, but who want to learn more about these topics.
Using a search engine to find websites on earth science topics can be frustrating, especially when a topic has thousands of “hits.” If you need information or teaching ideas, don’t forget to go to SciLinks . Enter a search term and get suggested websites focused on just that topic. Here are some of my personal favorites:

• Windows to the Universe examines our planet, the solar system, and the universe. The text is written at several levels and the graphics are spectacular. A Spanish version is available, too. The site was recently updated to include information on climate change and the polar regions, as noted in the article in this month’s issue “International Polar Year in the Classroom.”
• Meteorology from the University of Illinois is a comprehensive site. I’d be tempted to use this instead of a textbook! I’m a little concerned about last update in 1999, but the basic info is good, and some information is dated later than 1999.
• You can take a virtual field trip to the Grand Canyon to explore the rock strata and geologic formations.
• I cringe when I see “demonstrations” of volcanoes using vinegar and baking soda. While this is a nice example of a chemical reaction, it does not represent the forces that create volcanoes. Why not visit sites such as Volcano Hazards Program of the U.S. Geological Survey or How Volcanoes Work for information and lesson ideas on a topic that most students find fascinating.
• Earthquakes are another interesting topic. Faultline from the Exploratorium Museum and Earthquake Hazards Program of the U.S. Geological Society are good sources. Earthquakes for Kids is good for younger or less experienced students (ignore the games and puzzles – who needs find-a-words and coloring pages when there’s so many interesting things on this site!)
• The University of California Museum of Paleontology is a treasure of information and activities on the fossil record.
• The Hubble Site – Explore Astronomy site is a good resource for astronomy. And the NASA Quest site has online projects for students.
• NSTA also has activities related to the earth sciences: Astronomy with a Stick and Day Into Night

Articles such as those in this month’s Science Teacher are a wealth of information. I downloaded the software mentioned in “Connecting Students to Seismic Waves” – what fun! I was shaking the table to see the graph change! The activities website mentioned in this article and in “Redefining Earthquakes” look authentic and interesting.
The article “Modes of Inquiry” reinterates that earth science should not be constrained by a focus on THE scientific method. This article describes several types of inquiry used by scientists and is another piece on why a single method of inquiry isn’t always possible (or appropriate). Another article on this topic was in the December Science and Children .
“Investigating the Earth and Its Environment” describes how one school district realigned its curriculum and created a new kind of earth science course. The authors are very honest in their description of the amount of work it took and some snags they had to deal with. But I wish I could have taken a course like this in high school!

“Are you teaching today or are the students just doing a lab or taking a test?” I used to dread this question from a former principal when he wanted to observe a class. He was implying that the only classroom activity worth observing was when I was lecturing (which did not happen very often) or leading a large group activity. But I fooled him! One time I asked him to observe during a performance assessment. To his credit, he came to appreciate that the most important thing that happens in the classroom is not just the teacher’s performance, but rather what the students are learning.
And how do we know what the students are learning? We can wait until the yearly state exams (assuming that science is one of them), we can give our own final or end-of-course exam, or we can create/use unit tests. These summative assessments are fine, but they don’t tell us which students are having problems or have developed misconceptions during the course or unit. And by then it could be too late to go back and reteach. Formative assessments, on the other hand, can provide “just-in-time” information on what students know or can do. These include traditional quizzes and assignments, but can also include informal “thumbs up” questions, journal entries, or bell-ringer activities.
Many students see assessments (or “tests” as we used to call them) as something that happens to them in order for teachers to assign grade at the end of a marking period. Perhaps we haven’t done a very good job of identifying the purposes of assessment. In his research on effective instruction, Robert Marzano found that setting goals and providing feedback to be essential. Another issue in student learning is the type of feedback we provide on assessment tasks. If all the students see are red checkmarks, circles around words that are misspelled, and a “grade” at the top of the page, it’s no wonder that they crumple the paper or stuff it into a notebook without paying much attention to it. If you would like more information on what informative feedback looks like, an article in the December/January Educational Leadership has a great article on “Feedback That Fits.”
Rubrics are another way to provide useful feedback to students. This month’s issue of Science Scope has examples of rubrics to use for student presentations and student writing. Going to the SciLinks site and searching on the keyword “assessment” leads to a set of websites. Many of these relate to reading and writing in science, but there are some great resources on rubrics:

• Ideas and Rubrics is provided by the Chicago Public Schools with examples and ideas.
• Formative Assessment Probes from a 2005 issue of Science Scope.
• Rubric Generator has lots of suggestions for rubrics that can be adapted.

A site that science teachers should take a serious look at is PALS (Performance Assessment Links in Science). There are dozens of performance assessment tasks, organized by standard, grade level, and topic. Each one references one or more of the National Science Education Standards (yes, every state has its own science standards, but many of these can be found in a paraphrased version in the NSES documents). Each assessment includes a detailed description for the teacher, a student handout with places to record data and observations, a scoring rubric, and the results of any formal validation. But the best part is there are examples of actual student work at each of the rubric levels. Wouldn’t it be interesting for a department or grade level to choose several of these to use throughout the year to assess (and discuss) student performance? And they’re already created for you to use! The November issue of the Science Teacher and the November 26 blog have resources for starting and using study groups. Students can use this reflecive process, too. The article “Reflecting on the Test” describes some strategies for helping students become co-owners of the learning process. At first, my students were not receptive to this type of self-reflection. After all, this put some responsibility back on them. I had to do a lot of modeling and be persistent, but in order for students to become lifelong learners, they cannot always depend on a teacher for feedback.
As a sidebar, if you’re not familiar with WebQuests, such as described in the article “Cell City WebQuest,” take a look at the WebQuest site from San Diego State University, where the concept originated. You can search their database by grade and subject, or you can get started on creating one of your own. Each of these has an assessment component, including a rubric.

Inquiry is not as dependent on equipment and technology as it is on the willingness of the teacher to model the process and to move from being a sage on the stage to be a guide on the side (or better yet – a partner in the process). What I find really interesting month after month in this journal is that the inquiry activities in the articles were actually conducted in real classrooms with real students — from young children exploring mixtures and elasticity to upper elementary students using satellite data to study local wetlands. The authors of these articles aren’t afraid of noting any unforeseen difficulties and the improvements they would make to the activity. On a practical note, I also liked how some of the articles list the related standards and have full-page resources (lesson outlines, student handouts) that could be used right away or saved for future lessons.
As you’re reading the articles, log into SciLinks and do a keyword search on “properties” or “matter” for websites that are related to this topic.
Two of these articles should be read together: “Button Basics” and “Science 101: Why Do We Classify Things in Science.” The first article describes an engaging classroom activity in classifying objects. When I did activities such as these with my students, I found the most interesting part was not the final chart or diagram but the conversations the students had during the process, the rationale they used in their classification schemes, and how they responded when another group used a different classification scheme for the same objects. The author of the Science 101 article notes that classification is not just an end in itself, but rather a process that is a means to an end – understanding concepts better. For example, in the “Case of the Missing Music” article, students don’t just classify fingerprints; they match the properties of fingerprints to solve a mystery. If you’re interested in other forensic activities, log into SciLinks and do a keyword search on “forensics”.
I hope that the readers of NSTA journals consider the Elementary-Middle School–High School classification as a fluid one! NSTA members have online access to all of the journals, and a quick browsing of the annotated table of contents can lead to ideas that can be adapted to other grade levels. For example, in this issue of S&C, the article “Mighty Molecule Models,” although used in fifth grade, could certainly be appropriate for secondary students, especially those who haven’t had much background in atoms and molecules. Regardless of the grade level, I think it’s important to keep guiding the students toward an understanding of what the models represent, as the authors of this article describe.
I could identify with the editor’s comment that some students were not familiar with the word “property” as it’s used in science. Sometimes we take this fundamental vocabulary for granted, thinking that the students understand how words such as “properties” and “theory” are used in science. I learned two new interpretations of words from this issue.

• In the article “Attracting Student Wonderings,” these wonderings (a term I had not seen in this context before) could be called guiding or essential questions – and they were formulated by first-graders!
• When I saw the title “Formative Assessment Probes – my first thought was that of electronic instruments. But the probes described here are processes to determine how students make connections between concepts, in this case the concepts of matter and rocks. The full-page probes can be downloaded, too.

Talk about an interesting day in the age of electronic information! This afternoon in a listserv I belong to, I read about a report by the National Academy of Sciences on the teaching of evolution in the classroom. There were two news articles, but I wanted to read the primary source. On the opening page of the National Academy of Sciences website, I found the news release from the Academy. It is in conjunction with the new book Science, Evolution, and Creationism. I followed that link and found out that I could download a PDF version of the book – for free! There was also a podcast. Guess what I’ll be reading/listening to over the weekend, and it all was available within a few minutes.
When I was teaching middle school science, evolution was in the district curriculum (and it is now in my state’s standards in biological sciences), and I can’t imagine teaching life science or biology without using evolution as an underlying principle. But as an undergraduate chemistry major, I never had the opportunity to formally study the theory of evolution. So my knowledge of evolution has accumulated from a variety of sources over the years.
Staying up-to-date on topics such as evolution is a lot easier with the Internet, but sometimes there is too much of a good thing. If you Google “evolution” for example, you get over 170,000,000 hits! Or — you could log into NSTA’s SciLinks, search on the word “evolution” and get a list of websites related to topics such as “biological evolution” or “evolution and adaptation.” Here are a few of my favorites.
Understanding Evolution is a comprehensive site from the University of California Museum of Paleontology. This could be the basis for a complete course, study group, or self-study. The teacher link in the right margin is a tremendous resource with a link to a searchable database of lesson ideas and a link called “conceptual framework” which is actually a set of essential questions around which to organize a unit! Many individual components of this site are noted separately in the SciLinks database, but if you go to the main site, you can see just how comprehensive it is. I would start with click on the Evolution 101 link for a tutorial on evolution. This would also be appropriate for students.
Another good source is Evolution from PBS. Even if you don’t have access to the video, the web-based resources are very good and visually stunning.
NSTA has a set of Evolution Resources,with links to the above websites as well as to position papers and other resources and articles.
I wonder how many people have actually read any of Darwin’s writing? Darwin’s The Origin of Species is not an easy read, but it is the primary source! The page has links to his other works, too.
A colleague of mine recently visited the Galapagos Islands and said it was a life-altering experience. I don’t know if I’ll ever get there, but Galapagos on the NSTA site is a great collection of background information, classroom investigations, and resources for teaching evolution.
If anyone else is reading the National Academy book, perhaps we could use this site to begin a discussion?