How do you get families and students to participate in science in the summer? I’m looking for ideas to engage upper elementary students.
–Amber, Minnesota

Even though people say students need a break, isn’t it ironic that by midsummer, newspaper articles appear advising parents what to do when kids say they’re bored? Teachers also are concerned about the “summer slump,” a backsliding of skills and knowledge that occurs when students are not actively involved in practicing or extending what they learned during the academic year. As the contents of the April/May Science & Children suggest, “Learning Doesn’t Take a Vacation,” and parents may welcome ideas for science activities that can be done as a family.

Take-home packets of coloring pages or word searches may keep students busy, but their value in terms of science learning is limited. Hands-on projects may be of more interest to students and their parents or other caregivers. However, requiring all students to complete any set of take-home summer activities has some drawbacks. Some students will participate in family vacations or camps, with their own planned activities. Others spend time away from home with day-care providers. Some parents may work evenings or weekends, have other children to care for, or may not have a lot of skills or self-confidence to assist their children. Even giving extra credit for summer work penalizes students who don’t have resources at home.

But don’t give up on finding ways to connect students and parents/caregivers through enjoyable, informal science activities. Many teachers send newsletters or add ideas to a calendar on their own or the school’s website. The advantage of teacher suggestions (rather than the generic ones in the newspaper) is they can be tailored to a specific age group and connected to the curriculum.

Are there topics you couldn’t get to this year or ones your students found especially interesting? Provide a list of books or websites for students and parents to explore in greater detail. Or suggest books and websites related to the topics students will address next year, giving students the opportunity to preview and increase their prior knowledge and experiences. NSTA’s SciLinks can help you create a list of appropriate websites to share with students and parents.

The Get Ready for Summer page on the Reading Rockets website has a “beach bag” full of ideas for younger children, including science-related ones. Home Experiments and Kitchen Science Experiments have both demonstrations and experiments. Experiments from Science Bob also has a section on “make it an experiment” with suggestions on how to extend the demonstration into an investigation. The Exploratorium is always a good source for hands-on science activities. You could make specific recommendations or encourage parents to choose activities of interest.

Encourage students to keep a summer journal, either on paper or as an online blog to record their experiences (with assistance from their parents). Include places to record descriptions of investigations, a weather diary, observations when taking a walk, observations of constellations or cloud formations, a travel diary, or a place to jot down questions.

Suggest prompts for family conversations (What is your first memory of being outdoors? How have inventions and technology changed over the years? Play I Spy at home and find objects made of metal, plastic, glass, or wood. Talk about where food comes from.)

Give each student a take-home plant to nurture and record observations. Monitor a bird feeder (even better if students make them) or observe insects or family pets and describe their behavior. Assemble collections of leaves, pressed flowers, interesting rocks, or photos of interesting objects. Use common items to make a musical instrument, design an invention, or create a work of art. Help with cooking to practice following a recipe and measuring. (See the Exploratorium’s Science of Cooking).

Encourage parents to take children outside and talk to them about what they observe in their surroundings. Provide information and links to the local library and to nearby museums, zoos, and parks. Many of these organizations have free or inexpensive summer programs for children and families. (I volunteer at a nature center, and I’m surprised at the number of people who say that they had never heard of the center or they did not know that the resources—walking trails, picnic tables, and a museum—are free.)

Offer to share your summer suggestions with daycare providers and community groups running activities or camps for children.

Unfortunately, not every family will take advantage of your suggestions. If you have parents’ email addresses, perhaps a gentle reminder would help, especially when the news articles about summer boredom appear.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/adwriter/164336504/sizes/s/in/pool-1701103@N22/

Studying Science Teaching and Learning Through Drawings

I came across this fascinating study via a tweet the other day. I read many traditional research studies (both quantitative and qualitative) but this one caught my attention because it used drawings as a way of communicating and data collecting. According to the authors (a team form the University of Maryland and other institutions), the study examines “how the science teaching identity of the teacher interns/teachers changed over time” based on their internship experiences. Rather than a traditional questionnaire or observations, this study used drawings as evidence, along with interviews and written responses. Periodically through the study, the teacher-participants responded to two prompts:  Draw Yourself Teaching Science and Draw Your Students Learning Science.

The methodology and the scoring rubric are provided. What’s really interesting are the examples of drawings at the rubric levels and how they represent different levels of the teacher’s self-image and reflections on the teaching and learning processes and the roles of teachers and students in these processes.

Another part of the website is the section for “Educators” with ideas on how the process can be used for lesson plans, action research, and professional development.

• The lesson plans have suggestions for asking students (of any age) to draw their interpretation of science learning. Follow-up discussion questions are included.
• There is a description of the action research process and how drawings can be a data tool. I could see the process used at the beginning and end of the school year to examine an changes in student attitudes and perceptions.
• The “Try It” section has suggestions for exploring our own perceptions as teachers. This could be an interesting ice-breaker activity for a PD session or for personal reflection.

This project focused on teaching and learning in science. You may already be familiar with instruments in which students draw pictures to represent their conceptions and misconceptions about scientists and their work: Draw a Scientist Test (Wikipedia description), Who’s the Scientist, The Scientists and Artist in All.

Graphic: http://drawntoscience.org/index.html

One of my favorite benefits of being an NSTA member is being able to view all of the journals electronically, although I’m somewhat of a dinosaur in that I still like the feel of holding an actual book or magazine. On the NSTA home page, use the links in the “Choose Your Classroom” list to get to the current and archived issues of NSTA journals for elementary, middle school, high school, and college.

I subscribe to the hard copies of The Science Teacher and Science Scope, being a veteran secondary teacher. I toss the latest issues into a bag to read articles in between meetings, with my morning coffee or late night cocoa, or in the car (not while I’m driving, of course!). I also enjoy and learn a lot from reading Science and Children online for ideas and insights, and I’m now reading these articles on my iPad, which fits into my bag too.

Sometimes I wonder about the artificial boundaries we create as teachers: elementary vs. secondary, K-12 vs. higher education, middle school vs. high school. Having been an educator at all of these levels, I’ve found that there are as many similarities as differences. If you take a few minutes to browse the table of contents for the journals that are outside your own teaching assignments (or read the related SciLinks blogs or the highlights on Facebook and Twitter @NSTA or the summaries on the Social Networking Dashboard) you might identify a few articles of interest to download and read. For example, if you’re not up to date on content, the secondary journals may help you. Or you may have students who could benefit from more advanced activities, or those who need some fundamental experiences.

I suspect that many K-12 teachers don’t look at the Journal of College Science Teaching, but this is another excellent resource. It’s interesting that some of the articles in this higher education publication are about topics and issues with which all of us in K-12 can identify. For example, there have been articles about team dynamics in cooperative learning, the use of learning contracts, using “clicker” response systems in class, and a comparison of cookbook labs and authentic research activities. Even though the students described in these articles are older, there are a lot of commonalities with science education at all levels. Best of all, unlike some higher education publications, the articles in JCST are very readable, not written in “journalese.”

You can download journal articles as PDFs directly to your desktop or iPad. Or you can take advantage of NSTA’s Learning Center to save relevant articles in your own online library or organized them into a resource collection.

My first year of teaching had its ups and downs, but I’m looking forward to next year. As the school year ends, do you have any suggestions for how I can prepare for next year? I’ll be teaching the same subjects in the same lab.
—Monica, South Carolina.

Congratulations for completing your first year, and for having a job next year! You’ll find the end of the year is as hectic as the beginning, with final exams, grades and other reports, inventory updates, and clean-up. You also may be looking forward to graduate courses, home improvements, a summer job, family time, or some much-needed R&R. But the end of the school year is a good time to review, reflect on, and learn from your experiences while your memory is fresh and plan for next year

You probably had some great lessons, as well as a few that went over like a lead balloon, and you can learn from both kinds. What made them successful? What did you do when things didn’t go as planned? How effective were your classroom management routines and procedures? Did your students seem to enjoy learning science? Did you enjoy teaching and learning with them? How did you deal with disruptive students? What were your interactions with parents like? Are there any strategies you would like to add to your repertoire, in terms of instruction, classroom management, or communications?

Consider your course curriculum. Were you surprised by any misconceptions or lack of experience your students had? Should you change the amount of time or emphasis you put on some units? Did you have an effective combination of science content, skills, and processes? Do you have any gaps in your own knowledge base that could be supplemented this summer with online courses, readings, websites, or visits to local informal science institutions (museums, zoos, planetariums, etc.)? How well were you able to access and use the technologies available in your school? What kinds of interdisciplinary connections did you make?

As you complete final evaluations/grades for students, ask yourself how well the grades reflect student learning. How well did your assessments align with the unit goals and lesson objectives? Did you provide opportunities for students to reflect on their own learning (e.g., through a science notebook, rubrics)?

Although some schools do not require detailed written lesson plans, there are advantages of having plans that can be revisited and adapted the following year. Were your lesson plans detailed enough, or will you have to recreate them? Based on your assessment data, what instructional strategies should you change (or keep)? How well were your assignments and projects aligned to the unit goals and lesson objectives? Did your lab activities help students to develop their inquiry skills?

On a practical note, check with your principal or department chair for any end-of-year checkout procedures. Your classroom may not be secure during the summer months, so keep your lab equipment and technology in locked cabinets or store rooms. Take valuable or irreplaceable personal belongings home or lock them in a cabinet. Label any large personal items you brought in, such as a desk chair or stool, with your name in case they wander off over the break. If you have personal documents, tests, grades, or other sensitive information on an unsecured hard drive, transfer them to a network drive or to a flash drive. Some schools allow teachers to take their school-assigned computer home for the summer, but don’t take any school equipment home without permission.

Update equipment inventories and note if anything needs to be repaired or replaced. Keep your requisition list for next year handy so you can check in the new materials. If any textbooks are in need of repair, take care of them now. Make sure items such as glassware, cages, aquariums, sinks, or tabletops are clean and ready for next year.

Based on your reflections, this might also be a good time to formulate your goals for next year. It’s tempting to say, “I’ll think about this in August,” but if you take some time now for thinking, reflecting, organizing, and planning, you’ll have more time in the fall to get your second year off to a good start.

Every month, our colleague Ken Roy shares important information about safety in the science classrooms and laboratories. His columns appear in Science Scope and The Science Teacher. These are “must-reads” for science teachers, and NSTA members can access articles in both of these online, regardless of which journal you receive in print. The information can and should be shared with administrators and discussed at faculty meetings.

Usually his column in each journal is different, but I noticed in the April/May editions OSHA’s Newest Lab Resource was discussed in both columns: Science Scope’s Scope on Safety and The Science Teacher’s Safer Science.

Ken describes this latest resource, the publication Laboratory Safety Guidance, which can be read online or downloaded as a PDF at no cost. According to Ken this document is “intended to help science teachers and their supervisors maintain safer, healthier laboratories and ensure that applicable health, safety, and environmental regulations are followed.” The booklet summarizes applicable OSHA standards for laboratory workers and focuses on chemical hazards, biological hazards, and safety hazards. OSHA’s Laboratories site also has links to fact sheets and other information.

Publications such as NSTA’s Exploring Safely (elementary), Inquiring Safely (middle school), and Investigating Safely (high school) also have a wealth of practical, relevant information and should be in your school or personal library–read about them at the NSTA Press site. NSTA also has position papers related to student lab work and safety and a Safety in the Science Classroom Portal. And if you search for “safety” and your grade level in NSTA’s SciLinks, you can access even more resources and information. Let’s be careful out there!

My principal just asked me to be the science department chair for next year. I’d like to change the format of our professional development (PD) days and the once-a-month afterschool meetings to do some PD or other departmental projects.
—Melanie, Indiana

We teachers complain we have no opportunity to collaborate, yet if we’re not careful, faculty meetings become gripe and gossip sessions. I once worked with a chairperson who began each meeting with “I don’t have anything to talk about, but the contract says we have to be here until 4:30.” He would read some announcements aloud and then grade papers. Needless to say, not much was accomplished during those meetings, and he did not last long in that position. I’m glad to hear you want to facilitate something more productive.

For your monthly meetings, you can send out an agenda a few days in advance with a copy to the principal. The agenda should reflect issues of importance to science teachers or the district (e.g., safety, grading policies, instructional strategies, technology, inventories, parent communications, and assessments). Use e-mail or an attachment to the agenda to communicate information items so the meeting time can be spent more productively. Rather than a bulleted list of items to address, phrase them as questions for your colleagues to discuss. For example, instead of “Safety,” ask, “What do you do to ensure students work safely in your lab?” Set aside a few minutes to recognize new issues or other concerns. Celebrate any successes or accomplishments, too, and some munchies might be appreciated at the end of a long day.

I know of some schools where the teachers hold book groups at faculty meetings. If this would not work with your time constraints, you could distribute journal articles (such as those in NSTA’s publications) or video segments ahead of time for discussion during the meetings. Initially, you might have to prepare some conversation-starters. Perhaps teachers will eventually suggest articles or topics of interest.

You could also rotate the location of the meetings, asking a different teacher each month to “host” the meeting in his/her lab. The host would describe some of the student activities, and the other teachers have a chance to learn more about what happens in other classrooms. It might be possible to have a combined meeting with another department to discuss common interests or questions.

Occasionally, you could set up a virtual meeting using Skype (or a similar program) to interact with a scientist, museum curator, or other resource person.

I once worked with a social studies department chairperson who came up with an effective PD project. After getting administration approval, he arranged for the teachers to tour a historic site during the summer. The teachers rented a van and traveled together. A docent gave them a comprehensive behind-the-scenes tour, and they had the opportunity to handle and examine some artifacts and documents up close, with the guidance and insights of a professional curator/historian. They had lunch in a historic tavern, took lots of pictures, and during the ride home discussed how what they learned applied to their teaching. Each teacher submitted a written summary of the day. The teachers did this on their own time and at their own expense, and in return, they were excused from a PD day in October. It was a win-win situation: the teachers had a content-focused learning day, there was no expense for the district, and the teachers had a “day off” during the school year. This became a model for other departments: I once spent a day studying plate tectonics with colleagues at a natural history museum and another day with the state fish commission as they studied fish populations.

As a new chairperson, you may encounter some resistance from teachers used to the status quo. Being expected to participate in discussions or group activities may take some getting used to on their part. If meetings in previous years were seen as a waste of time, you may have to be persistent to let people know that things are going to be different.

Perhaps our colleagues would like to share comments about their challenges and successes as department chairs. Good luck!

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dsbrennan/4222955364/

Table of Contents

Although it’s snowing on this April day in the Northeast, I suspect that many students (and teachers) are thinking of the summer break. But as the theme of this issue suggests, students will keep on learning. How can we as teachers build on their experiences when they return from a break? How can we encourage them to take advantages of learning opportunities in their neighborhoods and communities?

If you’re thinking of what to do in a summer program, Slithering Into Summer has ideas for helping students to explore reptiles and amphibians. [SciLinks: Amphibians, Reptiles] I could see also this being adapted for a teacher professional development project, such as the one described in Bayou-tiful Data. The author describes how her summer experience led to the creation of similar learning opportunities for her students to investigate water quality. Just Me and You—And a Whole Community Down by the Stream has ideas for starting a science club and engaging the students in studies of nearby habitats. [SciLinks: Water Quality, Wetlands]

A teacher summer institute that also includes a summer camp for students sounds like a win-win program. The authors of Is Your Soil Sick? describe how teachers and students collaborated on an investigation of soil quality. Learning and getting dirty—sounds like a good combination. [SciLinks: Soil, Soil Types]

Summer Science has more suggestions for family involvement, particularly for younger students. And get out the sunblock for Solar Energy: Fun in the Sunas you read about solar activities at a camp for junior naturalists, especially building and cooking in solar ovens. [SciLinks: Alternative Energy Resources]

The title Studying Zooarchaeology brought back memories of a student who was really interested in word origins. He would probably have figured out that this is about the study of animals remains such as bones, shells, or teeth found in archeological digs. The investigation describe here focuses on observing artifacts and making inferences about their history. [SciLinks: Animal Bones]

I’ve always admired those who keep journals that are more than dates and events. Notebooking Like a Naturalist has ideas for using trade books and modeling for young naturalists interested in this lifelong process. As an alternative to sending home find-a-word puzzles or coloring pages, take a look at the four enrichment activities and photos in A Traveler’s Guide to the Universe. Students and their families or friends can do these together under starry skies with a pair of binoculars. [SciLinks: Stars, Moon Phases, Constellations]

Birdwatching, sports events, wildlife viewing, and stargazing are popular vacation activities. How Do Binoculars Work? has a brief primer on the principles of optics that bring objects up close and personal. I’ve visited many national, state, and local parks that have a lending program for visitors—a nice way for families who can’t afford (or forgot to bring) equipment. [SciLinks: Lenses]

Many of these articles have extensive resources to share, so check out the Connections for this issue (April/May 2012). Even if the article does not quite fit with your lesson agenda, there are ideas for handouts, background information sheets, data sheets, rubrics, and other resources.

Table of Contents

Although schools may have mission statements and other documents about providing opportunities for all students, the real work occurs in the classrooms—and this issue has many suggestions for doing so.  For example, Accommodating Differences describes strategies to involve all students in class activities, noting that “All classes, even homogeneous ones, show varying levels of ability and motivation.”

I’ve seen how many strategies for accommodate English Language Learners (ELLs) work for all students. Striking a Balance has examples for ramping up the use of learning centers to include activities in reading, writing, content review, and vocabulary in science. The Snowball Questioning Methoddescribes a variation on the Think-Pair-Share and Wait Time strategies for getting students involved in discussions. The author notes an increase in student engagement and an improvement in quiz scores when using this method! [SciLinks: Student Equity]

A colleague in social studies always emphasized the “story” in history. He crafted lessons that put events into a narrative context that emphasized the people involved. Las Rocas Nos Cuentan Su Historia (Rocks Tell Their Stories) takes a similar approach to geology—exploring the stories told in rocks. Students compare and contrast the characteristics of rock samples (a sample worksheet is provided) rather than memorize names of rocks. [SciLinks: Identifying Rocks and Minerals, Rock Formations, Rock Types, Rock Cycles]

Science terminology and text reading is a struggle for all students, but especially for ELLs. The authors of Every Word You Speak describe five levels of language development and provide examples of prompts or questions that can be used at each level to encourage participation. There are also examples of word maps and organizing charts that can help all students who struggle with learning the language of science.

Taking the Leap is subtitled “A classroom bungee jump activity helps students understand physics concepts.” I had visions of students leaping out of windows, until I read that this is a variation on the egg-drop activity that many teachers use. The investigation includes a number of physics concepts, graphing, and mathematical applications. [SciLinks: Acceleration, Elasticity, Force of Gravity, Hooke's Law, Potential and Kinetic Energy]

One way to engage students is through projects that are connected to a real-life need or situation. Hands-On Hydroponics illustrates a 5e inquiry lesson in which students build hydroponic growing systems (photographs are provided) and use them to investigate questions related to sustainability and plant biology as related to the increasing need for food. [SciLinks: Hydrophoncs, Plant Growth]

Don’t forget to look at the Connections for this issue (April/May 2012). Even if the article does not quite fit with your lesson agenda, this resource has ideas for handouts, background information sheets, data sheets, rubrics, etc.

Our new principal does not have a background in science. What can we do to help her understand what science teaching and learning “looks like” and the challenges of teaching laboratory science?
—Charles, Ohio

If their own experiences in science consisted of lectures with an occasional demonstration or video, principals may not understand the concept of inquiry-based learning and how science teaching differs from other subjects. Having taught other subjects, they may be unaware of the science teacher’s responsibility for safety in the labs or security in the storage areas. They may have never considered how much behind-the-scenes work science teachers do (especially when we make it look easy).

You could ask your principal to observe lab classes (for the whole period, not just a walkthrough). When you meet with the principal, describe what students learn from these activities (using students’ science notebooks) as well as the amount of time it takes to set up and put away the materials and read a report from each student, the safety and cooperative learning routines established in your classes, and the fact that the students could not have done the activity in a “regular” classroom without running water, lots of electrical outlets, flat tables, and appropriate safety equipment.

For example, as a middle school science teacher, I worked with a principal who had been a high school English teacher. Before the formal observations he was required to do, he would ask, “Are you teaching today, or are the students just doing an activity?” For a while, I complied with his definition of teaching, and he observed a well-designed, teacher-centered lesson with lecture, discussion, and review. But this was a show–my classes were much more than this.

So once when he asked the question, I said that if he came in that day, he would see a lesson that would show what our students can really do. It was a guided inquiry lesson with the question, “How do earthworms react to stimuli in the environment?” Each team of students had already devised procedures to investigate the question and an outline of how they would organize the data, and I provided the materials they requested (and some feedback or questions about their procedures). When the principal came in, he saw a room full of engaged students working cooperatively and enjoying their investigation. Rather than watching me “perform,” he asked the students about what they were doing. In our post-observation conference, he noted it gave him a new perspective on what students can learn from purposeful “activities” (and the time and resources it takes to implement them).

You could also invite your principal to attend a department or team meeting to discuss some of your challenges. For example, describe the hazards (and liability) of scheduling non-science classes or study halls in lab classrooms. Take her on a tour of your storerooms and show her the inventory of equipment and materials, including the Material Safety Data Sheets you have to keep up-to-date. Describe the security measures you have in place. Frame any suggestions in terms of student benefit and safety rather than teacher ease and convenience.

All teachers use their planning time for writing lesson plans and evaluating assignments. But science teachers have additional demands. Sometimes principals see how organized you are and don’t realize how much time and effort it takes. Keep a log of the amount of time you spend setting up your labs, including time before and after school. Also log the time spent inventorying and maintaining the storage areas, repairing or servicing equipment, and complying with local and state regulations. If you ask for more planning time, emphasize it would be used for the additional responsibilities that come with teaching science (and then be sure that it is).

Share some resources with your principal. The website Understanding Science has a section called “Everything You Need to Know About the Nature and Process of Science”  that could bring her up-to-date on what good science teaching includes. You could share copies of NSTA’s position statements “Learning Conditions for High School Science” and “Safety and School Science Instruction.”

In all fairness to principals, they are expected to be both building managers and instructional leaders. We can help them with both of these jobs. After observing several science investigations, my principal asked teachers in other subjects if he could observe non-traditional activities in their classes, too.

Photo: www.flickr.com/photos/throgers/4461828586/sizes/q/in/photostream/

Table of Contents

Do you need an interesting way to start a faculty meeting? Try the assessment crossword in this month’s Editor’s Roundtable. Even if you give your colleagues a word bank for their responses, the puzzle can be a discussion-starter. I occasionally gave this type of quiz to my students. They seemed somewhat surprised at this change of format, but they seemed to spend more time on figuring out and discussing the responses.

Although assessments are often seen as the “final” part of learning, assessments can actually be starting points. In the guest editorial Misunderstanding Misconceptions, Page Keeley discusses the use of formative assessment probes to identify students’ misconceptions. There is even a list of misunderstandings teachers may have about misconceptions—another topic for a faculty meeting.

The choice of words used in instruction can reinforce misconceptions, such as students assuming that the words guess, prediction, and hypothesis are interchangeable. More Than Just Guessing: The Difference Between Prediction and Hypothesis describes the nuances of these words and provides examples and definitions. For example, a prediction “reflects our thoughts about what will happen in the future, but it is based on patterns we have observed or on our prior knowledge.” A hypothesis goes further than a prediction, using “prior knowledge to create an experimental design that can be tested.” The author suggests an if-then-because format for a hypothesis statement. [SciLinks: Scientific Methods]

Another misconception held by students, parents, and administrators (and a few teachers) is that any hands-on activity is “inquiry.” Two articles address this issue. Folding Inquiry Into Cookbook Activities has suggestions for transforming traditional “labs” into higher levels of inquiry as students develop more ownership in the purpose and design of the investigation. An Integrated Instructional Approach to Facilitate Inquiry in the Classroom discusses inquiry as a continuum of approaches and describes a 7E learning cycle model integrated with a KLEW strategy (know-learn-evidence-wonder) in a unit on the water cycle. [SciLinks: Water Cycle, Scientific Investigations]

Creating Science Assessments That Support Inquiry has examples of assessment items that incorporate graphics, scenarios, and quotes as a context for student responses at the remembering, analyzing, and evaluating levels. Even so, when we use an assessment, many times we are so focused on how many students choose the correct answer, that we don’t see the patterns in and misconceptions in the incorrect responses. What were they thinking? Applying Scientific Principles to Resolve Student Misconceptions looks at a topic which students may struggle to understand (buoyancy) and has a graphic showing how students’ perceptions of sinking and floating have an impact on their responses to assessment items. Understading their responses can be helpful when planning instruction. [SciLinks: Buoyancy, Density]

The authors of Investigating Students’ Ideas About the Flow of Matter and Energy in Living Systems describe in detail student misconceptions about this topic—where food comes from and how it is used in the body. The list of ideas about food (i.e., matter and energy in living systems) includes related misconceptions students may have—an excellent resource for the topic, an analysis of student responses, and words teachers can use to enhance student understanding. [SciLinks: Food and Energy] In the realm of physical science, A Change for Chemistry differentiates between preconceptions (“coherent ideas prior to instruction”) and misconceptions (“scientifically inaccurate ideas”) and how teachers can learn more about student thinking from a pre-assessment than by checking wrong answers on a final test. A list of common misconceptions about the nature of matter is included. [SciLinks: Physical/Chemical Changes, States of Matter]

At the recent NSTA conference, I saw many teachers using iPads for not only checking email or finding information but also for taking photos of exhibits and presentation screens (rather than copying information). A Coruscating Star in the Cavalcade of Electronic Devices: The iPad has a overview of this tool and several science apps that are applicable for teaching and learning. (OK – I had to look up the meaning of coruscating: flashing or sparkling; brilliant or striking in content or style, which seems to describe the tool and its applications well!)