The August issues are ready for back-to-school! Regardless of what grade level or subject you teach, as you skim through the article titles, you may find ideas for lessons that would be interesting your students or the inspiration to adapt/create/share your own.

NSTA members, as always, have access to the articles in all journals! Click on the links to read or add to your library.

The Science Teacher – Critical Thinking

Editor’s Corner: It’s Critical: Science teachers are uniquely positioned to affirm the importance of critical thinking. Although teaching it is challenging, it is our moral imperative as educators to help students learn to think and to reason, to evaluate claims using evidence and sound logic.

The lessons described in the articles include a chart showing connections with the NGSS. The graphics are especially helpful in understanding the activities and in providing ideas for your own investigations.

Some teachers may be concerned about investigations and activities because students might not get successful results. The author of Learning From Failed Experiments intentionally allowed student errors and provided guidance in making sense of “mistakes.”

• Data-Driven Inquiry in the PBL Classroom illustrates how students can explore data in maps, graphs, and tables in Biology problem-based learning. The context is a study of marine predators.
• While learning facts and concepts is important, From DNA to Proteins shows how students can combine PBL and argumentation in a comparison of normal and sickle-cell hemoglobin.
• The activities and processes in Making Science Relevant involves connecting science concepts and processes with social issues (e.g., fracking, climate change, gene editing). The article includes a graphic with suggestions for helping students evaluate sources of information.
• Could Your Food Be Contaminated? would be an intriguing and relevant question question for students to explore and investigate how mycotoxins affects crops, animals, and consumers.
• Focus on Physics: Care in the Classroom: This Teacher’s Odyssey is a teachers’ reflection on interacting with students, designing meaningful “exams,” and sharing the joy of learning.

These monthly columns continue to provide background knowledge and classroom ideas:

• Right to the Source: From Inconvenience to Inspiration
• Career of the Month: Volcanologist

For more on the content that provides a context for projects and strategies described in this issue, see the SciLinks topics Careers in Earth Science, Climate Change, DNA Structure and Function, Forces and Motion, Food Crops, Fungi, Genetic Engineering, Mutations, Newton’s Laws of Motion, Newton’s Second Law, Sickle Cell Anemia, Transcription, Translation, Volcanoes

Continue to Science Scope and Science and Children…

Science Scope – Engineering and the Maker Environment

From the Editor’s Desk: Reinventing STEM Through the Maker Movement: A maker is a creator who loves to experiment and who isn’t put off by failure. Whether it is wielding a seam ripper for the purpose of resewing an errant seam, tweaking a 3-D–printed design, or rerunning lines of code, a maker attitude is essential. The drive to create propels makers to overcome challenges by exploring, innovating, and problem solving—the same skills that scientists and engineers use—and the same skills we hope to foster within our students.

Articles in this issue that describe lessons (many of which use the 5E model) include a helpful sidebar documenting the big idea, essential pre-knowledge, time, safety issues, and cost. The lessons also include connections with the NGSS.

• The investigations in Inspiring Student-Driven Observations involve students using temperature sensors to monitor small changes in temperature that can affect the overall climate.
• Build a better lumchbox! The Temperature-Sensing Lunchbox incorporates knowledge of thermal energy transfer with sewing and coding experience in a practical project.
• The lesson in Connect-the-Engineer Activity could be an introduction to types of engineering and the design process.
• Spark up your lesson on food webs with the ideas in Illuminating Food Webs. Students integrate concepts in life science with electronic circuits to create illustrated food webs.
• Making in the Middle: Celebrity Statues describes an afterschool activity that integrates life science and engineering as students develop skills in design and programming.
• Looking for a variation on science fairs? Commentary: A Real-World STEM Competition has information on the eCYBERMISSION project, a way of encouraging students to address community problems through the application of science and engineering methods.
• Disequilibrium: Flight and the Bernoulli Effect includes a 5E lesson to incoporate learning about forces and motion with paper airplanes, soda cans, balloons, and straws.

These monthly columns continue to provide background knowledge and classroom ideas:

• Scope on the Skies: Return to Sender (part 2) focuses on asteroids.
• Interdisciplinary Ideas: Creating a Classroom Library has suggestions for managing a library, too.
• Teacher To Teacher: Forming Parent-Teacher Relationships Around Three-Dimensional Learning includes a template for communicating with parents.
• Citizen Science: Be a Zombee Hunter for Science involves students in tracking honeybees and their parasites.
• Science For All: Engineering a Classroom That Works for All suggests classroom management tips for students with learning differences (routines, instructions, organization)

For more on the content that provides a context for projects and strategies described in this issue, see the SciLinks topics Asteroids, Bernoulli’s Principle, Biomes, Changes in Climate, Conservation of Energy, Engineer, Food Webs, Forces of Flight, Honeybees, Insulation, Robots, Telescopes, Temperature and Heat, Thermal Energy, Weather and Climate

Science & Children – Focus on the NGSS Practices

Editor’s Note: Planting and Practicing: We can learn from each other, whether down the hallway or across the globe. The journal serves as a way to widen our common collaboration pathways both vertically and horizontally.

The lessons described in the articles have a chart showing connections with the NGSS. Many are based on the 5E (or 7E) model and include classroom materials, illustrations of student work, and photographs of students engaged in the activities.

• Guest Editorial: Addressing Common Questions About 21st-Century Science Teaching sets the stage for the theme of this issue. The author includes a chart of NGSS Science and Engineering Practices and what these would look like in a primary classroom. She also addresses questions about inquiry, skills, habits of mind, and the “scientific method.”
• With musical instruments as a context, Waves Sound Great! shows how students can make connections between real-life and science concepts/practices. The activities include hands-on, technology, and investigations.
• T-charts as a way to organize or summarize information have been around for a while. Agree/Disagree T-charts illustrates how this tool can support student argumentation and modeling. (The photos of the second graders’ models are especially interesting.)
• Start with the end in mind is the basis of the Understanding by Design model. This article describes how this process is useful when designing instructional activities to support NGSS standards. The activity in the article focused on investigating the strength of glue in building things.
• As the authors state, children are naturals at building things. Along with their imaginations and creativity, they can say We Are Engineers! In these activities, they are building bridges, towers, catapults, and boats.
• “Children’s use of the [NGSS] practices is based on prior experiences.” The Early Years: Making Sense of Their World includes a lesson on looking for patterns in the movement of the sun.
• In addition to recommending trade books, Teaching Through Trade Books: Important Impacts has lessons on Becoming Gardeners (K-2) and Repurposing Plastics (3-5).
• Teaching Teachers: The Language of Science in the Reading and Writing of Student Scientists illustrates different genres of science writing.
• Engineering Encounters: How Can We Store Water During a Drought? addresses a real-life question as students investigate water use and sustainability.
• Methods and Strategies: Seeds of Practice discusses how to modify a lesson using the 5E model to incorporate Science and Engineering Practices.

These monthly columns continue to provide background knowledge and classroom ideas:

• The Poetry of Science: Dimensions of Science
• Formative Assessment Probes: Is a Brick a Rock?

For more on the content that provides a context for projects and strategies described in this issue, see the SciLinks topics Density, Erosion, How Can Matter Be Measured and Compared, Physical Properties of Matter, Plant Growth, Plants with Seeds, Recycling, Sound, Sun, Water Cycle, Watersheds, Writing for Science

As a first-grade teacher in Detroit with predominantly Latinx students and English language learners, I worked for several weeks at the end of last school year with a doctoral candidate in science education and former elementary teacher, Christa Haverly, and by extension, an associate professor in science education and expert in scientific modeling, Christina Schwarz (see our bios below). We co-planned a unit around the Space Systems standards for first grade: 1-ESS1-1 and 1-ESS1-2 (see the table at the end).

We started the unit with this phenomenon and driving question:

During the unit, students engaged in many science practices, but we are focusing this blog post on their scientific modeling. In the NGSS, the primary purpose of engaging students in modeling is for them to use models to determine relationships between objects so they can explain phenomena in the natural world. To this end, I had students construct, share, and revise their models of the observed phenomena related to our overarching driving question.

We also kept a class model that we continued to update and revise through the unit (pictured is an early version of the model). It seemed useful for my students to have a place to share their ideas and keep track of them during their discussions. In that way, their models were useful for helping them make sense of day and night, a better option than me giving them models of day and night so they could tell me the science facts. I also found that modeling was a useful formative assessment tool, giving me richer insight into student thinking than traditional written assessments.

After a couple of weeks, it became clear that my students were ready to consider an important question about how the day/night cycle happens. We started by reviewing timelines students constructed the week before that plotted daylight and darkness in 24-hour cycles. Students recalled patterns from their data, and we agreed that there is a cycle of light and dark, day and night.

Next, I split students into pairs to role-play Earth and Sun. I gave them a flashlight to represent the Sun, and a sticker to place on one of their foreheads to represent Detroit on Earth. Once in the gymnasium, students took turns being the Sun and the Earth, and explored what kind of movement might create a day/night cycle like we observed in our data. Students’ ideas included the Earth rotating (while the Sun stood still), the Sun moving around the Earth (while the Earth stood still), both co-occurring, and the flashlight turning on and off (both stood still while Sun turned off and on). Many students ultimately tried keeping the Sun still while the Earth spun in place, mimicking the movement of the globe in our classroom.

Back in class, we debriefed and had students share the different ways they made day and night “happen” in Detroit. Next, we watched a video of the Earth rotating, a phenomenon which can’t be observed from Earth. Students discussed their new ideas with their partners and shared them with the class. They observed the Earth slowly spinning, and they also noticed the area illuminated by the Sun was slowly shifting as the Earth spun. During the discussion, one of my students noticed the classroom globe was also partially lit by the sunlight coming through the windows. He walked over to it, and as he turned the globe, he and his classmates saw new parts of the globe becoming light and dark.

I concluded the activity by asking students to create models showing how day and night happen on Earth. What do you see in these two images? What do they tell you about student thinking?

I think the one on the top shows that the side of the Earth facing the Sun is lit, and the side of the Earth facing away from the Sun is in darkness. The one on the bottom shows that the movement of the Earth rotating in a circle has something to do with the day and night cycle. While several students shared these ideas, others were still including images from their bedrooms, more concretely connecting with our original phenomenon, while still others were showing the Sun moving around the Earth. I used about half of students’ models the following day in a gallery walk, representing a range of ideas, and afterward, students discussed what they observed in one another’s models. Throughout the unit, I continued providing students with new experiences, followed by class discussions about patterns based on new evidence, and students continued creating, sharing, and revising their models.

I loved using the models as a way for students to analyze their ideas about our phenomenon and communicate their ideas to one another and to me in ways that did not rely heavily on writing or vocabulary, and for me to learn about my students’ thinking. What are some ways that you use models in the science classroom? Or what are some of the challenges you’ve experienced? Please comment so we can learn with and from one another!

Kim Sedlmeyer graduated from Michigan State University (MSU) in 2011 with a degree in elementary education. Since 2012, she has taught at Escuela Avancemos! Academy, a first-year charter school in Detroit. The Academy is a Success for All school, and Sedlmeyer serves as Reading Roots Chair. Her other passion is dance, and she shares this passion with students every year by directing the school’s Nutcracker program and performances.

Christa Haverly is a doctoral candidate at MSU studying science teacher education, with an emphasis on urban elementary education. Her research centers on teachers’ pedagogical practices that are responsive to students’ science ideas and are socially just. Before beginning graduate school, she taught elementary school for a decade, working in three different urban elementary schools in Maryland and Illinois.

Christina Schwarz is an associate professor of teacher education at MSU. She is a co-editor and author of the NSTA Press book Helping Students Make Sense of the World Using Next Generation Science and Engineering Practices. She has served as subject-area leader in elementary science at MSU for more than a decade and enjoys working in classrooms with teachers and students. She hopes readers will be able to explore and enjoy modeling as much as she does.

This article was featured in the August issue of Next Gen Navigator, a monthly e-newsletter from NSTA delivering information, insights, resources, and professional learning opportunities for science educators by science educators on the Next Generation Science Standards and three-dimensional instruction.  Click here to sign up to receive the Navigator every month.

Visit NSTA’s NGSS@NSTA Hub for hundreds of vetted classroom resources, professional learning opportunities, publications, ebooks and more; connect with your teacher colleagues on the NGSS listservs (members can sign up here); and join us for discussions around NGSS at an upcoming conference.

The mission of NSTA is to promote excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all.

Future NSTA Conferences

2018 Area Conferences

• Reno, October 11–13
• National Harbor (MD), November 15–17
• Charlotte, Nov. 29-Dec. 1

2019 National Conference

• St. Louis, April 11-14, 2019

Follow NSTA

Recently, my colleagues and I had an exchange with some teachers in one of our professional development programs. One teacher said, “I think I do a lot of modeling in my class. I have my kids draw pictures of the science ideas they are learning all the time.”

This description of modeling is common. When we ask our colleagues, either informally or in professional development settings, about their current teaching and the practice of developing and using models, they often respond that they consider models as things like 3-D replicas or drawings. They say, “I have my kids make models of cells, the solar system, the water cycle, atoms, and so on.”

This type of “modeling” activity might sound promising, but it often doesn’t fully realize the potential of the modeling practice. It’s not surprising, though, that this conception of modeling is so pervasive because much of the available information on modeling focuses on drawing as a way to bring kids into this practice. In our experience with modeling, we’ve found that a depiction—usually a drawing—focuses our attention on a surface feature of the practice and not on the deeper knowledge-building potential. 

For example, teachers might typically ask students to draw a model of the pond ecosystem, or draw a model of the forces acting on a ball as it rolls down a ramp. But without a clear purpose, students might be confused about how they should interpret these tasks and can’t properly judge their ideas, leaving them to appeal to the teacher or textbook as authority. “Is this right?” is what most students will inevitably ask.

In contrast, when a class can work together to examine a phenomenon or class of phenomena and specify questions they want to answer, the aim is clear, and students can decide if the model is effective by asking, “Does this help us answer our questions in ways that makes sense?”

We believe that viewing modeling as a means to an end is a useful way to think about the practice. Models are not the end products or learning targets in themselves, but they allow us to achieve our explanatory goals. Models help us make sense of a phenomenon in a systematic way and explain what is happening. They are used for an explanatory purpose.

Two of us wrote an academic paper about this idea (Gouvea & Passmore 2017). In it, we suggest a few touchpoints for educators as they consider how the modeling practice is positioned in the classroom. We ask:

• Is there a clear phenomenon? Is there some puzzling or unknown aspect of that phenomenon to investigate? Do students understand their role as trying to understand this phenomenon better?
• Is there a clear question? Does the question help clarify what about the phenomenon is puzzling or unknown? Do students understand their role as attempting to answer that question?
• Is there a clear purpose? Are there clear criteria for what constitutes having made progress toward answering the question? Do students understand they are responsible for generating and evaluating that knowledge? (Gouvea & Passmore 2017, p. 58)

We call this the models of versus models for distinction. By using this simple linguistic distinction, we have found it easier to see models as explanatory tools. When planning lessons, we try to avoid saying that “students will develop a model of photosynthesis.” Instead, we say, “Our class will develop a model for where the matter comes from when a seed becomes a tree.” We find this slight shift in language helps us keep the modeling practice connected to an explanatory purpose. Try it out!

The next time you want to incorporate a modeling experience in the classroom, we suggest you ask yourself what the model is for, without using the name of the science idea or a simple label of the thing in your answer. The word “for” should be followed by a phenomenon and matched to a question we have about that phenomenon, something that the science ideas we are developing as a class will help us explain.

Returning to our earlier example of asking students to “draw a model of the pond ecosystem,” which is rather vague, a teacher might instead want to ask students to “develop a model for why there are more mayflies than frogs in the pond.” This revision centers our modeling work on the phenomenon we are trying to explain. We have found that this simple shift in how we talk about (and hopefully, in how we think about) models in the science classroom can help us engage in this practice in more powerful ways.

Please post your comments below and let us know how it this approach is working for you!

Reference: Gouvea, J. & Passmore, C. Sci & Educ (2017) 26: 49. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-017-9884-4

As teachers and science educators we are passionate about the modeling practice and its potential to improve student learning in the science classroom. We are part of the team that developed the high school biology curriculum found at modelbasedbiology.com.  

Cynthia Passmore is a professor of science education at the University of California, Davis.

Julia Gouvea is an assistant professor in the Department of Education at Tufts University.

Jennifer Horton is a high school biology teacher and coach in Lincoln, CA.

Libbie Coleman is a high school biology teacher in Sacramento, CA.

Editor’s Note: Download a free sample chapter from the recently published NSTA Press book, Helping Students Make Sense of the World by Engaging in Next Generation Science and Engineering Practice, which explores the modeling ideas in more depth. Purchase the book here. The writers invite readers to check out their high school curriculum project, modelbasedbiology.com (fee required).

This article was featured in the August issue of Next Gen Navigator, a monthly e-newsletter from NSTA delivering information, insights, resources, and professional learning opportunities for science educators by science educators on the Next Generation Science Standards and three-dimensional instruction.  Click here to sign up to receive the Navigator every month.

Visit NSTA’s NGSS@NSTA Hub for hundreds of vetted classroom resources, professional learning opportunities, publications, ebooks and more; connect with your teacher colleagues on the NGSS listservs (members can sign up here); and join us for discussions around NGSS at an upcoming conference.

The mission of NSTA is to promote excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all.

Future NSTA Conferences

2018 Area Conferences

• Reno, October 11–13
• National Harbor (MD), November 15–17
• Charlotte, Nov. 29-Dec. 1

2019 National Conference

• St. Louis, April 11-14, 2019

Follow NSTA

With the shift toward three-dimensional teaching and learning that the Next Generation Science Standards requires, the Crosscutting Concept of Modeling has become a major focus of my instruction.  I use a process that involves revisiting the same model at least three times in a unit to support students’ growth in this area.

Each unit starts with a puzzling phenomenon that can be fully explained by the concepts covered in the unit. Students observe the phenomenon in a video clip or demonstration, then draw a concrete model of what they observed. For more complex, multi-step phenomena, I give them basic drawings of the areas to focus on; they can add details to these drawings.

Once they have a complete drawing, they label and describe what they think is happening and why. These initial models are often basic and full of misconceptions. I find this very informative because I see exactly what they know and understand at the start of the unit.

Students have an opportunity to give and receive feedback using sentence stems on their initial models.  Each student is given stickynotes and asked to provide at least one positive and one constructive comment for three different students. Examples of positive sentence stems are “I like how you…” and “When you did _____, I could really understand it.” Some constructive feedback stems are “The part about ____ is a bit unclear”  and “You could…” or “Have you thought about including …?”

Over time, the students learned how to use the feedback they gave to others to improve their own models. After the feedback round, students were able to add to their own models before turning them in.

At the halfway point of the unit (about 5–10 days of instruction), students revise their initial models using a writing tool in a different color. They are encouraged to cross out things they now think are incorrect and add new things they’ve learned. They must also add to their written description of what is happening at each step. I encourage them to work with partners/small groups to enhance their current understandings.

At the end of the unit, they are given a blank copy of the model and must repeat the whole process once again. At this point, they should be able to fully explain the phenomenon, clearly showing what they learned from the unit. 

With a range of students from Level 1 English language learners to Highly Capable students, differentiation is needed so all students will succeed with modeling. The primary modification I use is providing a word bank for all but the Honors-level classes. This helps students remember to include all of the necessary parts.  Directions with descriptions of all the steps help them as well. 

I allow students needing the most support to simply label the drawings using arrows and the word bank, rather than writing a paragraph. They are still able to show their understanding of the concepts without getting bogged down in the language.

With the multiple model iterations of the complex guiding phenomena, I am able to assess students’ understanding of the unit and how their understanding changes over time. The mid-unit revisit allows students to be more cognizant of how their own understandings have changed over time.

I also use other models throughout my units. The most common one is smaller phenomena related to the larger one. I often use these as warm-ups, and they all help build understanding of the guiding phenomena. Students will draw what they see and describe what is happening.

For the Electric and Magnetic Fields unit, the guiding phenomenon was a magnetic hourglass. To fully explain why the “sand” behaved the way it did, students needed to incorporate information from the previous units, as well as the current one. Throughout the unit, I played video clips centered around the Performance Expectations of MS-PS2-3 and MS-PS2-5. With these clips, I asked students to make a simple drawing with labels of what they observed, then briefly describe why the materials behaved the way they did.

For the Energy Unit, I taught students how to use Google Sheets to do energy calculations as they entered the data and how to use that data to create graphs modeling the relationships among mass/acceleration/force/energy. They were able to manipulate the data without obsessing about the calculations. This made seeing the relationships easier for them.

The most important part of Modeling for me is to make their use very explicit to the students. Usually students think models are things like 3-D scale models of cars or trains. By showing them that models can be drawings, graphs, or equations, they are able to use modeling as a powerful tool in their own inquiry.

Erinn Olson is a middle school science teacher in the Peninsula School District in Gig Harbor, Washington. She previously taught middle school math and science at Mountain View Middle School in Bremerton, Washington, where her activities included teaching Project Lead the Way, working on the regional science and math leadership teams for  10 years, and serving as the school lead for Common Core Math and implementation lead for the NGSS. She also serves as a leader for the Boy Scouts of America at Cub, Troop, and District Levels. Olson grew up in Salem, Oregon, and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in behavioral science and a Masters of Arts degree in education from Oregon State University.

This article was featured in the August issue of Next Gen Navigator, a monthly e-newsletter from NSTA delivering information, insights, resources, and professional learning opportunities for science educators by science educators on the Next Generation Science Standards and three-dimensional instruction.  Click here to sign up to receive the Navigator every month.

Visit NSTA’s NGSS@NSTA Hub for hundreds of vetted classroom resources, professional learning opportunities, publications, ebooks and more; connect with your teacher colleagues on the NGSS listservs (members can sign up here); and join us for discussions around NGSS at an upcoming conference.

The mission of NSTA is to promote excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all.

Future NSTA Conferences

2018 Area Conferences

• Reno, October 11–13
• National Harbor (MD), November 15–17
• Charlotte, Nov. 29-Dec. 1

2019 National Conference

• St. Louis, April 11-14, 2019

Follow NSTA

This week in education news, the Girl Scouts have added 30 new badges in STEM to encourage more female involvement; back-to-school spending will hit $82.8 billion for K-12 and college combined, and more teachers are digging into their wallets; and meet astrophysicist – and NSTA President-elect—Dennis Schatz.

Girl Scouts Launch New STEM Badges

The Girl Scouts have added 30 new badges in science, technology and engineering to encourage more female involvement in STEM. Girl Scouts CEO Sylvia Acevedo joins the ‘Power Lunch’ team to discuss how the non-traditional activities will help girls adapt to a changing world. Read the article featured on CNBC.com.

Teachers Must Budget For Hundreds Of Dollars In School Supplies

Kids love it, parents may dread it, but one thing’s certain: The annual school shopping ritual is a smack to the wallet every year. This year, back-to-school spending will hit $82.8 billion for K-12 and college combined, according to the National Retail Federation’s annual survey. That’s almost as high as last year’s $83.6 billion. Read the article featured on CNBC.com.

Working Geek: A Star In Science Ed, Astrophysicist Dennis Schatz Wants To Expand Minds

Schatz is a solar astrophysicist by training, has written 25 science books for kids and last year Asteroid 25232 was renamed Asteroid Schatz by the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center in honor of his dedication to science education. He’s worked for the Science Center for four decades. Read the article featured on GeekWire.com.

1st Of Christa McAuliffe’s Lost Lessons Released From Space

The first of Christa McAuliffe’s lost lessons finally was released from space Tuesday, 32 years after she died aboard Challenger. Read the article featured in Education Week.

8 Apps You Should Check Out Before School Starts

Check out this list of apps, ranging from kindergarten through high school and touching on topics such as STEM, history, and vocabulary. Read the article featured in eSchool News.

Stay tuned for next week’s top education news stories.

The Communication, Legislative & Public Affairs (CLPA) team strives to keep NSTA members, teachers, science education leaders, and the general public informed about NSTA programs, products, and services and key science education issues and legislation. In the association’s role as the national voice for science education, its CLPA team actively promotes NSTA’s positions on science education issues and communicates key NSTA messages to essential audiences.

The mission of NSTA is to promote excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all.

Follow NSTA

I have accumulated a large number of the freezer gel packs from a meal service. I’d like to find a way to use them in a classroom activity.
—P., Georgia

The best thing about these freezer packs is that they provide a constant that will help your class design and conduct a lot of experiments. Reusing these in your classroom is also a great environmental message.

A few ideas for experiments :

• Engineer the best picnic cooler. (Save styrofoam boxes and pellets from shipments you have received).
• Determine the optimum place to put a freezer pack in a standard cooler.
• What conditions speed up/slow down warming or cooling? Correlate the data with ambient temperature.
• Investigate the heat conductivity of different solids and liquids. Put the packs in ziplock bags and immerse them in oily/messy liquids.
• Surface area experiments: curl them up, lay them flat, stack them vertically/horizontally, spread them out. Relate this information to physical science, chemistry and even biology.
• The contents of freezer packs are non-toxic. Open them up and do carbohydrate, lipid, protein, and other chemical tests on the contents.
• Place them on different parts of the hands and arms to create a cold sensitivity map.

As useful tools:

• Keep them in the freezer to use instead of ice cubes for chemistry or biology activities.
• Putting live insects in a freezer for a few minutes will slow them down. Place the gel packs under the insects to keep them cool while observing them with microscopes or magnifying glasses.

Hope this helps!

Photo credit: By Dhenning2005, aka Dave Henning [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons

Sometimes the discovery of materials on a play area inspires children’s exploration and use of the NGSS science and engineering practices. 

In this example a long length of bark from a tree branch became a trough for investigating water flow.

At first the 5 year old simply put the curved length of bark at an incline to make a path for water which was being used elsewhere in the outdoor play area. Her choice was likely informed by her prior experiences with balls and ramps, and in water play. In her actions she is planning and carrying out an investigation, asking what will happen to the water as it moved from a container onto the bark trough and trying to solve the problem of designing a system to carry water. A teacher supported her by standing nearby and watching intently, showing interest, and asking a few open-ended questions. “Where is the water going?” “What might happen if you drop the water from a higher up or a lower down?”

The child poured water into the trough at the top, watching it flow down and soak into the sand. Then she added another container at the bottom to try to catch the water. Additional children joined in. Repeatedly pouring water into the top of the length of bark made the children certain that very little water was being captured by the container at the bottom.

The first child redesigned the system, moving the length of bark to balance on top of two containers at the ends of the length (K-PS2-2 Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions). She observed while pouring the water into the middle of the horizontal trough. Where do you think the water flowed in this new system design? 

There was time for one more redesign before going indoors for lunch. She added a third container on top of the trough in the center and poured water on top of the upside-down container. Where do you think the water flowed in this new system design?

Do you have any advice for creating bottle ecosystems with my seventh grade class? I would like them to do two-tier systems with terrestrial and aquatic organisms.

—S., Missouri

Students can learn a lot when they create these micro-habitats in plastic bottles with plants and invertebrates. The bottles can be stacked to form interdependent aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. I’ve collected some resources in the NSTA Learning Center (https://goo.gl/o6ovVd) with more information.

Start the project by going over the different types of ecosystems and organisms. To get the organisms, you can sample a pond, flip over rocks and even visit a pet store before “build day.” I always kept a stock of these year-round in terraria and aquaria in my classroom. After spending a class researching the organisms available, students create a “shopping list” of the materials they need to add in their ecosystem. Have students bring in the two-liter bottles or ask colleagues for donations. Spend a class building the ecosystems and starting seeds of fast-sprouting plants like oats, radishes, greens, and alfalfa. Some students may want to use samples from an aquarium in their aquatic ecosystems. Have them explain why in their journal. A fleece wick between the lower, aquatic ecosystem to the upper, terrestrial ecosystem will facilitate water movement. In a few days the plants will sprout and students can add the invertebrates

Have the students write journal entries at least twice a week and stress accurate observations. If available, use oxygen and carbon-dioxide sensors as part of their data collection. Bio-geochemical cycles, pyramids and food chains/webs that depict their bottles can be incorporated into their journals.

I love bottle ecosystems and so did my students!

Hope this helps!

Photo by author

This week in education news, maker spaces help teach students to redesign their worlds; educator externships provide hands-on authenticity that better informs instruction and boosts teacher confidence; teachers wish they had more opportunities to further their careers while remaining in the classroom; across the country, most teachers don’t receive enough money to equip their classrooms and keep them running; President taps Kelvin Droegemeier as next White House science adviser; and Florida’s talent gap persists in the STEM occupations, despite the state’s booming economy.

‘I Can Do That!’: How Maker Spaces Teach Students to Redesign Their Worlds

As schools nationwide are expanding the use of maker spaces, researcher Edward Clapp spoke with Education Week about how teachers can get it right. Clapp is senior research manager on the Agency by Design initiative at Harvard University, which examines the promises of maker-centered learning. Read the article featured in Education Week.

K12 Educator Externships Provide Practical STEM Experiences

An externship program run by the Oklahoma State Department of Education expanded this summer, allowing K12 teachers to gain professional STEM experiences they can bring back to the classroom. During the pilot last year, teachers tested soil samples and worked in a concrete-making lab, among other activities, during a paid two-week externship at an Oklahoma City engineering firm. Read the article featured in District Administration.

It’s Time To Change Our Learning Model

As a 22-year-old first-year teacher, I was introduced to one of the biggest challenges within our schools. While setting up my classroom, my principal came by to deliver a set of fifth-grade textbooks and an analysis of the starting points for each of the 28 students in my class. While all of my students were in fifth grade, they were individuals starting at varying places academically. I worked hard, cared a lot, and spent lots of late nights developing lessons. I tried to learn how to keep the classroom orderly and motivate my students to learn. And I tried to learn all I could from my colleagues who had far more experience, knowledge, and skill than I had. Read the article featured in eSchool News.

What’s School Without Grade Levels?

On windswept fields outside Fargo, North Dakota, a bold experiment in education has begun. In a lone building flanked by farmland, the Northern Cass School District is heading into year two of a three-year journey to abolish grade levels. By the fall of 2020, all Northern Cass students will plot their own academic courses to high school graduation, while sticking with same-age peers for things like gym class and field trips. Read the article featured in The Hechinger Report.

Teachers Weigh In On Pay, Safety, School Choice, And Evaluations in New Survey

In a year marked by teacher activism and demonstrations, educators are urging policymakers to listen to them. Now, a new survey details teachers’ opinions on more than a dozen education issues. Read the article featured in Education Week.

Cash-strapped Teachers Turn To Facebook, Online Sites To Equip Their Classrooms

When teacher Shemena Shivers walked into her Melrose High School science lab for the first time, she couldn’t contain her excitement at the closet full of equipment and supplies. But after a closer look revealed long-expired solutions and outdated texts, she realized that she would need to spend hundreds of dollars out of pocket just to provide her students a basic science education. So, she did what many of her fellow teachers have done: She turned to Facebook for help. She created a video of her classroom, issued a heartfelt online plea and posted a link to her supplies campaign on MTR Give, a fundraising site run by the teacher-training program she had attended. Read the article featured in Chalkbeat.

Trump Taps Meteorologist As White House Science Advisor

U.S. President Donald Trump will nominate meteorologist Kelvin Droegemeier as his government’s top scientist. If confirmed by the Senate, Droegemeier would lead the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Trump, who took office 19 months ago, has gone longer without a top science adviser than any first-term president since at least 1976. Read the article featured in Scientific American.

Building A Talent Pipeline To Meet STEM Demands

Florida’s economy is booming, yet, as other states also are experiencing, the talent gap persists in many of our targeted industries, particularly in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) occupations. Read the article featured in the News-Press.

Stay tuned for next week’s top education news stories.

The Communication, Legislative & Public Affairs (CLPA) team strives to keep NSTA members, teachers, science education leaders, and the general public informed about NSTA programs, products, and services and key science education issues and legislation. In the association’s role as the national voice for science education, its CLPA team actively promotes NSTA’s positions on science education issues and communicates key NSTA messages to essential audiences.

The mission of NSTA is to promote excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all.

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President Trump Signs Career and Technical Education Bill

Congress finally passed, and President Trump signed into law, a reauthorization of the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act on Tuesday, July 31.

The bipartisan bill, which has not been reauthorized since 2006, will provide $1 billion to states for secondary and post-secondary skill training.  It has the support of governors, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and most education groups and was heavily championed by the Administration, notably the president’s senior adviser Ivanka Trump, who has made workforce issues a priority.  

During the signing of the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act President Trump said, “we will continue to prepare students for today’s constantly shifting job market, and we will help employers find the workers they need to compete.”

The new law will apply to the 2019-2020 academic year. It allows states to set their own career and technical education goals and it eliminates an existing negotiation process between states and the Education secretary, who still approves the state plans.

The goals would be built around specific “core indicators” outlined in the bill, such as high school graduation rates and the percentage of CTE students who enroll in post-secondary programs. Schools would also be required to make “meaningful progress toward improving the performance of all career and technical education students.”

Although no specific provisions are related to STEM education, the bill does call out STEM subjects, including computer science, and better connects career and technical education (CTE) to local workforce needs.  

Trump Picks Meteorologist Kelvin Droegemeier to Lead White House Science Office

President Trump has selected well-known meteorologist Kelvin Droegemeier to head up the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, a decision that was widely praised by members of the scientific community. According to the American Institute of Physics, Droegemeier—who has spent his career at the University of Oklahoma (OU) and is the university’s vice president for research—“has contributed extensively to science policy at the national, state, and professional levels.” Read more about the selection here.

White House Requests Federal Agencies to Prioritize STEM Education in FY2020 Budgets

In a memo on the Administration’s Research and Development Budget Priorities, the White House requested that federal agencies prioritize STEM education and workforce development as they develop their fiscal 2020 budgets.

“Federal R&D dollars focused primarily on basic and early-stage applied research, paired with targeted deregulation, and investment in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and workforce development, will strengthen the Nation’s innovation base and position the United States for unparalleled job growth, continued prosperity, and national security,” says the memo signed by Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Michael Kratsios, deputy assistant in the Office of Science and Technology Policy.

“Agencies should prioritize initiatives that reskill Americans for the jobs of today and the future,” the memo also says. “Education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), including computer science, will be foundational to preparing America’s future workforce, and should be integrated into instruction through application to real world challenges. Agencies should work to ensure the STEM workforce includes all Americans, including those from urban and rural areas as well as underrepresented groups.”

Administration Puts Spotlight on Workforce Training

Also last week President Trump signed an executive order “to prioritize and expand workforce development” by creating a senior-level National Council for the American Worker panel that will “develop a national strategy for training and retraining workers for high-demand industries.”

An advisory board comprising leaders from the private sector, educational institutions, philanthropic organizations and state governments will also work with the administration “to implement results-driven job-training programs in classrooms and workplaces across the country.”

The report notes that “workers and educational institutions are separated from employers by an information gap that makes it difficult to prepare the workforce with the skills employers seek. The information gap is exacerbated by a dearth of data and weak comparability of skill requirements. Coordination among these parties will be crucial for addressing America’s reskilling challenge.”

White House Presidential Advisor Ivanka Trump outlined the report in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. Read the full report here.

Trump Administration to Overhaul Federal Rules on Accreditation

The U.S. Department of Education has published a notice in the Federal Register that it intends to convene a negotiated rulemaking committee in January to develop proposed regulations that would revise current federal rules set in place during the Obama Administration related to the Secretary’s recognition of accrediting agencies and non-traditional education providers .

The proposed topics for negotiation would include:

• Requirements for accrediting agencies in their oversight of member institutions;
• Requirements for accrediting agencies to honor institutional mission;
• Criteria used by the Secretary to recognize accrediting agencies, emphasizing criteria that focus on educational quality;
• Developing a single definition for purposes of measuring and reporting job placement rates; and
• Simplifying the Department’s process for recognition and review of accrediting agencies.

Three public hearings will be scheduled to discuss the rulemaking agenda: September 6, 2018, at the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, DC; September 11, 2018 in New Orleans; and September 13, 2018, at Gateway Technical College in Sturtevant, WI. Read the Federal Register notice here.

ICYMI – NSTA Executive Director to Co-Chair National STEM Education Advisory Panel

NSTA Executive Director Dr. David Evans has been appointed by the National Science Foundation to serve as the vice chair for the National STEM Education Advisory. The panel was created to encourage U.S. scientific and technological innovations in education, and to advise a group of federal organizations called the Committee on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Education (CoSTEM) on matters related to STEM education. They will also help to update CoSTEM’s 2013-2018 Federal STEM Education 5-Year Strategic Plan.

In addition to David, two classroom teachers and NSTA/NCTM STEM Teacher Ambassadors—K. Renae Pullen and Bruce Wellman— have also been named to the panel and NSTA Past President Arthur Eisenkraft has also agreed to serve.  Read more here and here.

Stay tuned, and watch for more updates in future issues of NSTA Express.

Jodi Peterson is the Assistant Executive Director of Communication, Legislative & Public Affairs for the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) and Chair of the STEM Education Coalition. Reach her via e-mail at jpeterson@nsta.org or via Twitter at @stemedadvocate.

The mission of NSTA is to promote excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all.

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