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Making light work of gravity: Scaffolding middle schoolers’ thinking to help them understand gravitational lensing.

Science Scope—January/February 2024

By , , ,

Although the NGSS has helped teachers conceptualize teaching science in a more integrated way, effectively scaffolding students’ thinking within and across lessons can still be a challenge for any middle school science teacher. Thinking about the curriculum structure can be useful for scaffolding across lessons (Figure 1). While many curriculum structures exist (Posner, 2003), some structures are better at providing the teacher opportunities to promote sensemaking across lessons and units. For example, a spiral curriculum is where relevant prior concepts are revisited in order to connect them to new concepts. Revisiting concepts is meant to deepen students’ knowledge rather than merely repeating previous content (Harden, 1999). In our state, each middle grade has NGSS standards for life, physical, and earth/space science. We’ve found the spiral curriculum was useful to help students see connections across science disciplines. Our light unit (Table 1) comes before our unit on space science (Authors, 2018). In this article, we demonstrate how we scaffold students’ learning to help students make connections between lessons about light (MS-PS4-2) and gravity (partially addressing MS-ESS1-2). We use these experiences to help students understand gravitational lensing
Although the NGSS has helped teachers conceptualize teaching science in a more integrated way, effectively scaffolding students’ thinking within and across lessons can still be a challenge for any middle school science teacher. Thinking about the curriculum structure can be useful for scaffolding across lessons (Figure 1). While many curriculum structures exist (Posner, 2003), some structures are better at providing the teacher opportunities to promote sensemaking across lessons and units.
Although the NGSS has helped teachers conceptualize teaching science in a more integrated way, effectively scaffolding students’ thinking within and across lessons can still be a challenge for any middle school science teacher. Thinking about the curriculum structure can be useful for scaffolding across lessons (Figure 1). While many curriculum structures exist (Posner, 2003), some structures are better at providing the teacher opportunities to promote sensemaking across lessons and units.
 

Safety Blog

Safer Laboratory Dissection Activities

By Ken Roy

Posted on 2024-01-16

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Archive: Changing the Environment in STEM Teacher Education: Four Big Ideas, March 6, 2024

In this web seminar, the 2023 AAAS ARISE blog series' editors will discuss four important ideas for changing the environment in STEM teacher education. These ideas pertain to integrating technology in STEM teacher education, supporting teacher leadership, attending to linguistic diversity, and supporting newly hired teachers.

In this web seminar, the 2023 AAAS ARISE blog series' editors will discuss four important ideas for changing the environment in STEM teacher education. These ideas pertain to integrating technology in STEM teacher education, supporting teacher leadership, attending to linguistic diversity, and supporting newly hired teachers.

In this web seminar, the 2023 AAAS ARISE blog series' editors will discuss four important ideas for changing the environment in STEM teacher education. These ideas pertain to integrating technology in STEM teacher education, supporting teacher leadership, attending to linguistic diversity, and supporting newly hired teachers.

In this web seminar, the 2023 AAAS ARISE blog series' editors will discuss four important ideas for changing the environment in STEM teacher education. These ideas pertain to integrating technology in STEM teacher education, supporting teacher leadership, attending to linguistic diversity, and supporting newly hired teachers.

 

The Organic Chemistry of Drug Design in a Case of Schizophrenia

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The Organic Chemistry of Drug Design in a Case of Schizophrenia

 

Association News

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By Deborah Hanuscin

Posted on 2023-12-21

Building Relationships Between Educators and Researchers

 

Association News

Inform Your Vote: NSTA Governance Revision and New Bylaws 2023

By Erika Shugart, Ph.D., NSTA Executive Director

Posted on 2023-12-19

Inform Your Vote: NSTA Governance Revision and New Bylaws 2023

 

Safety Blog

Indoor Air Quality Issues in the Science Instructional Space

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Indoor Air Quality Issues in the Science Instructional Space

 

Press Release

NSTA Reveals List of the Best STEM Books for K-12 Students

 

Safety Blog

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By Ken Roy

Posted on 2023-11-21

Science Instructional Space Safety Signage

Web Seminar: Prepare to Vote: Walkthrough of Proposed Bylaws Revisions, December 18, 2023

The NSTA Board of Directors is recommending to the membership the approval of revised bylaws. Bylaws are internal rules and regulations that serve to guide the organization and serve as an agreement between NSTA and you, its members.

All individuals receive a certificate of participation and 100 NSTA activity points for attending the live web seminar and completing the end-of-program survey. A certificate of participation is not awarded for watching the recorded version of the program.

The NSTA Board of Directors is recommending to the membership the approval of revised bylaws. Bylaws are internal rules and regulations that serve to guide the organization and serve as an agreement between NSTA and you, its members.

All individuals receive a certificate of participation and 100 NSTA activity points for attending the live web seminar and completing the end-of-program survey. A certificate of participation is not awarded for watching the recorded version of the program.

The NSTA Board of Directors is recommending to the membership the approval of revised bylaws. Bylaws are internal rules and regulations that serve to guide the organization and serve as an agreement between NSTA and you, its members.

All individuals receive a certificate of participation and 100 NSTA activity points for attending the live web seminar and completing the end-of-program survey. A certificate of participation is not awarded for watching the recorded version of the program.

The NSTA Board of Directors is recommending to the membership the approval of revised bylaws. Bylaws are internal rules and regulations that serve to guide the organization and serve as an agreement between NSTA and you, its members.

All individuals receive a certificate of participation and 100 NSTA activity points for attending the live web seminar and completing the end-of-program survey. A certificate of participation is not awarded for watching the recorded version of the program.

The NSTA Board of Directors is recommending to the membership the approval of revised bylaws. Bylaws are internal rules and regulations that serve to guide the organization and serve as an agreement between NSTA and you, its members.

All individuals receive a certificate of participation and 100 NSTA activity points for attending the live web seminar and completing the end-of-program survey. A certificate of participation is not awarded for watching the recorded version of the program.

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