It’s a challenge for science teachers to design activities and investigations that fit into the time periods we have. But science research and investigation doesn’t always fit neatly into 45- or 60- or even 90-minute packages. (One of my challenges was a class split in half by a lunch period!). Even a full-day field trip [...]
OK—you’ve seen the adventures that students have to explore living things, but you don’t have the funds for a field trip and your school is not close to a park or other greenspace. What to do?? Or, you’d like to have your students get some experience with microscopy, but the ones in your school are [...]
YouTube is an amazing resource, with videos on just about any topic. There are animations, videos of demonstrations that you might not be able to do in your classroom, and records of talks by famous scientists. The SciLinks webwatchers have been including them as teacher resources in SciLinks for several reasons: Some of the comments [...]
I once worked with a principal who encouraged us to check off the comments boxes on progress reports and report cards. Most of these were rather generic and impersonal. We thought—wouldn’t it be great to have database of comments to choose from that really reflected our science activities and goals? Fast forward a few years [...]
In case you haven’t seen it yet, the July issue of Science Scope is themed around technology. We seem to think that technology means new cool tools, but I heard a social studies teacher define it as “the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes” and “tools and strategies that people use to solve problems.” He [...]
This is the latest issue in a well-designed and informative series on inquiry learning. I would encourage secondary teachers to read these issues of Science and Children, especially if you’re new to the idea of inquiry learning or want to see what younger students are capable of. Many of the ideas can be adapted for [...]
Back in the 1990s, when I was a technology director, a school board member asked me “What technology should our students use to prepare them for the workforce?” I responded that what our current elementary students would use in college or the workforce had not yet been invented. The best way to prepare students for [...]
Many of us can appreciate the theme of this issue. As a science teacher, I often wondered what it would be like to have a substantial budget for science equipment and materials. But as the authors of these articles show, science isn’t just about how much “stuff” students use, but rather how they think using [...]
On the train, returning from a busy day in Philadelphia and the annual ISTE conference (International Society for Technology in Education), I finally had time to think. It’s been a while since I’ve been to a technology-related conference and exposition, and I used the lens of science instruction to concentrate on the sessions and the [...]
But you only work 9 months a year! How many times do teachers hear that? Those who make that comment obviously have never been a teacher or a family member or friend of a teacher. (And I’m not sure where the 3 months off idea comes from. My classes did not end until the middle [...]
