What birds do your children notice as they arrive and leave your site? Taking a walking fieldtrip is another way to have a bird-viewing session with your students. Casual observations of birds can be the beginning of understanding that living things react to their environment. Do birds hang out in the playing field in the [...]
An elementary school PTA veteran observed to me, “If you want families to come to school, serve food or have their child take part in a performance.” This advice goes for preschool too! Serving food makes it easier for families to participate together and seeing their child in action gives families what might be a [...]
Happy New Year! This year I look forward to more conversation in the early childhood community about science education. The January 2012 Early Years column adapts an activity about making craters from Marie Faust Evitt’s book, Thinking BIG, Learning BIG. Craters on the Moon are visible without a telescope, even in daytime, a time when teachers [...]
From news that scientists have discovered the biggest black holes yet to dramatic video footage of volcanic eruptions, the new information science gleans about Earth and space grabs students’ attention. To help teachers capitalize on student curiosity and interest in Earth science, NSTA Press recently launched updated editions of the popular Project Earth Science Series [...]
I enjoyed watching auto races as a child, so I decided to check out Norm Barstow’s session, Elastic Power: Wind Up Your Engines and Explore (a.k.a. “NASCAR in New Orleans”).
Steve Rich’s early morning NSTA Press Session in New Orleans “Bringing Outdoor Science Into Your Classroom” drew teachers eager to explore strategies to incorporate more of the outdoors into their science lessons. Rich presented dozens of ideas for activities linked to nature, and the participants brainstormed about “what can we bring indoors to study?” Some [...]
Demonstrating the carbon cycle was never so much fun as it was in Kristen Dotti’s session, Drop the Lecture and Let the Students Pick Up the Learning in Environmental Science.
This morning in New Orleans, as part of the Urban Science Education Leadership (USEL) session, presenters from the Baltimore City Public Schools described their district’s Elementary STEM Teacher Clinic and how it transformed the teachers who participated in it.
Emily Morgan and Karen Ansberry, authors of the popular Picture-Perfect Science Lessons Series, led a lively group of teachers in exploring classroom strategies and lessons that combine science with reading in the elementary grades. The Picture-Perfect Science Preconference Workshop at the New Orleans NSTA Area Conference included activities highlighting reading strategies like making connections, questioning, [...]
Find out how and why science educators around the country are integrating history in their science lessons to help students make connections to their world.
