Perhaps you’ve used the “Favorite Websites” feature of SciLinks, in which you can create lists of websites to share with students.

The new Quiz Manager takes this a step further. You can create questions for a particular website in the SciLinks database and assign students to complete them. You would need to have a class roster first, and then you’re ready to start. There are mini-tutorials on SciLinks that guide you through the process of creating question banks and show what the student activity looks like. You can create “selected response” items (multiple-choice, T/F, matching) and short-answer response questions. After the student is finished with the assignment, the teacher gets a report on how students answered the items and can comment and grade the short-answer ones.

Teachers can work together to create and share a common item bank for a website, or you can choose to keep the questions just for your class.

I’m thinking of how I would use this feature. I was never a big fan of the “read the chapter and answer the questions at the end” type of assignment, unless the students knew there was a specific purpose (e.g., review or preview). While taking a SciLinks “quiz,” the student can have the web page open, so questions for which you expect the students to have memorized the answer would not be appropriate. But I could see this used as an application assessment:

• Apply a unit concept or vocabulary to information on the web. What type of rock is pictured here? a. igneous  b. sedimentary c. metamorphic
• Interpret a graph. The independent variable in this experiment is ___.  a. the elapsed time b. the height of the plant   c. the amount of water provided.
• Gather student reflections, feedback, or questions about the information on a site. What characteristics did this scientist exhibit in her study? or What do you think was the most difficult part of this simulation

Feel free to add a comment with other suggestions for using this tool!

Extra value alert: The tutorials were created with Jing—a free online application that captures screens, cursor movements, and voice and creates a file that can be added to a website or blog. I’ve used this for tutorials and demonstrations. The basic version is free (and fun to play with).

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Karen Wood

I’ve been hearing a lot about science notebooks lately, so I went to the Education Development Center’s Pathway Session on Establishing Science Notebook Habits and Skills. It was interesting to hear each presenter’s unique take on the science notebook and see all of the student examples they displayed.

Fifth-grade teacher Karen Wood said structured journals work best with her fifth graders, who typically don’t have a lot of exposure to science. I was shocked to hear that only a handful of her students each year have had any science at all.

Dean Martin

Dean Martin, science specialist for grades 3-5 in the Boston Public Schools, uses a “dual notebook structure” combining free writing with specific questions to explore. With students who have difficulty expressing themselves in writing, he adapts the notebook by letting them take digital photos and write captions. To help kids who think they can’t draw, he provides a few simple drawing lessons to build their confidence, while assuring them that their drawings need not be perfect.

Lori Fulton

Lori Fulton of Jay Jeffers Elementary School in Las Vegas, Nevada, says many of her kindergarteners are English Language Learners, so writing is hard for them. So they work on creating pictures for their notebooks first, then learn how to label the pictures. With older students, she advises not overemphasizing conclusions and encouraging students to describe their observations.

Audience members asked the presenters about how they helped their students make real-world connections using their notebooks and how to determine whether what students put in the notebook represented accurate understanding.

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This is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a Madagascar hissing beetle. I enjoy going to NSTA conferences because I get to see all sorts of denizens of the animal world that I would never get a chance to view ordinarily.

During their workshop on Connecting With Animals in the Classroom, Stephanie Selznick (left) and Suzanne Flynn showed us some of their friends in the animal world and described how teachers could “create the ‘aha!’ moment for students by teaching about animals. Suzanne said treating students to the sight of a mother gerbil giving birth and nursing her baby is something students will never forget—and can inspire a love for science. “Kids love to look at and touch live things,” said Stephanie.

Teaching about animals also provides a vehicle for linking other subjects to science—and “the more links, the more thinks” for students, said Suzanne. Young children can count an animal’s legs and even create Venn diagrams about the animal’s characteristics and compare them with those of other animals, for example. That sounds much more fun than the Venn diagrams I remember doing in elementary school!

Suzanne described how teachers could use the NSTA/CBC Outstanding Science Trade Books and find other books using NSTA Recommends to integrate language arts into lessons involving animals. She praised the scientific accuracy of the books on the NSTA/CBC lists.

Stephanie told us about a 20-minute activity for fifth graders that can be used as an end-of-unit assessment. She has her students choose an animal they’ve studied and write four or five facts about it on a card. Her fourth graders have created “notebooks of cool facts” about their favorite animal, including its physical features, its favorite foods, and how it can be characterized.

Other than two insects that leaped out of their containers and had to be rescued (both successfully!), the workshop went very smoothly, and I heard many teachers say “Great session” as they prepared to leave for their next adventure.

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In the March issue of NSTA Reports,  Dr. Robert Yager shares his perspective on the six domains for teaching and assessing science learning in the Educated Opinions column.

“A View of the Importance of Six Domains for Teaching and Assessing Science Learning”

By Robert Yager

Four years ago, the National Science Education Standards (NSES) resulted from the collective brainpower of thousands of concerned science educators from around the world at a cost of $7 million. Sadly, little has changed since then. Alan McCormack, 2010–2011 NSTA President, and I have proposed six “domains” as a way to get the attention of teachers and students and to encourage them to experiment with school science programs as they try to move to the “more emphasis” conditions central to the NSES. These “domains” can be used to explain how the eight facets of science content (as defined by the standards) affect people’s everyday lives. Teachers, schools, and state departments of education rarely focus on all eight when considering the science curriculum and how it should look and what teachers need to do for the reforms to succeed. It is rare to find state standards that even mention these major changes. It is important for all science educators to identify the specific features that indicate real changes central to current reform efforts.  Read the full article here.

What do you think: Can the six domains improve science learning in your classroom/school/district? Why or why not?

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Photo uploaded to Flickr.com’s Creative Commons by marcusrg

In the award-winning documentary A Private Universe, education researchers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics sought to answer this question: Why don’t even the brightest students truly grasp basic science concepts? Teachers and teacher educators alike continue to search for ways to overcome students’ science misconceptions and to determine how they develop in the first place.

Get some insight on students’ “Private Universe” in Philadelphia. You’ll find sessions addressing misconceptions at all grade levels, in a range of science fields. Use the session browser with the keyword misconception to find them. Here’s a sample:

• Centering Around the Science Standards, Grades K–2 (March 18). Find out how hands-on centers incorporate the learning cycle to address common misconceptions.
• Everyone Knows That Heavier Things Fall First (March 19). Use misconceptions to teach intermediate-level physical science? You can do it with these classroom demonstrations and activities.
• Using Diagnostic Assessment to Address Preservice Teachers’ Science Misconceptions (March 20). It’s never too late to identify these deep-seated incorrect beliefs. Learn how to create inquiry-based lessons to improve scientific understanding.

And picking up where A Private Universe left off, Neil Comins—astrophysicist, astronomer, and professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Maine—has identified nearly 2,000 commonly held misconceptions about astronomy and physics and has figured out “their origins, why we develop them, how to avoid them in the future, and how to get rid of old ones (which is the hard part).” Hear how he conquers them on March 20 at the Shell Science Seminar.

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I’m hoping that secondary teachers will take a look at the articles that describe authentic investigations conducted by young scientists in their communities: Creative Soil Conservation and Boulder Creek Study. The latter has examples of student work as they studied the water quality in their communities, using various indicators, including the presence of aquatic invertebrates. The authors noted that their students did not have much background in the topic of a “watershed.” If your students need this information also, use the keyword watershed in SciLinks. SciLinks also has websites with information and activities on topics related to soil for grades K-4 and 5-8 (e.g. types of soil, soil erosion, microorganisms in soil).

From hurricanes to earthquakes, forest fires mudslides, and record-setting snowstorms and rainfall, children often ask “Can it happen here?” Three articles are related to this topic. Along with Can We Protect Our Communities From Natural Disasters?,  check out the SciLinks keyword disasters for grades 5-8. Even if you’re not in an earthquake zone, activities such as those in Shake It Up and The Built Environment tap into the creativity of future engineers. SciLinks has lists of related websites on the topic of earthquake resistant structures and the science of bridges. One of my favorites is Building Big: All About Bridges from PBS.

If you like the ideas in the article How It’s Made, SciLinks has more information on pencils (5–8).  Action Figures describes how to hook students into a study of the skeletal system. Even though my curriculum did not include human anatomy, I learned that a brief review of the human skeleton helped students to connect to the skeletons of other vertebrates. In SciLinks, search for bones (5–8) or skeletal system (5–8), which includes other systems of the body. Three examples include Bird Skull Collection, the Mr. Bones interactive puzzle, and Virtual Body, which is also available in Spanish

To extend your activities on growing seeds, check out From Mystery Seed to Mangrove Island (I wonder what other variations on the mystery materials teachers who do not live in Florida can come up with!) and The Farmer in the Lab, which makes the investigation more complex and challenging for older students.

Many teachers are looking for ideas to integrate science with other content areas. It’s challenging to keep the project focused on a theme or essential question, rather than merely putting together a collection of “activities.” Living Off the Land dispels some of the misconceptions children have about Native American cultures as they focus on the relationships between people and natural resources. Outdoor Classrooms has suggestions and resources to use a corner of the schoolyard, a window box, or an outdoor center. And check with a local rescue or rehabilitation center if you have students similar to the Turtle Girls and want to give them ownership of their project.

I’m going to reread Using Learning Progressions to Monitor Progress Across Grades. I wonder how this way of assessing students in science processes is interpreted in schools where science takes a back seat to test prep in reading and math? I’m also curious as to how students beyond grade 4 would “score” on this. This article has related resources in the Connections for this issue, along with ideas for handouts, background information sheets, data sheets, rubrics, for several of the other articles.

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I’m looking for suggestions for formative assessments.  Do you have some unique ideas to assess students quickly and adjust instruction accordingly?
—Karen, Arizona

Formative assessments are ongoing, classroom level assessments critical to discovering what students are learning during the instructional process so we can move on (if students have learned a topic) or revisit our instruction to correct any misconceptions or to fill in any gaps. These quick and focused check-ups can provide just-in-time information on what students know or can do prior to end-of-unit tests or yearly exams.

I’m not sure I have any “unique” ideas and you may already have many activities that could be part of a formative assessment process. These can be varied so they become an integral and enjoyable part of the learning process, not just special events. Formative assessments are usually not graded to provide a safe way for students to ask questions and reflect honestly on their learning—and not be penalized for a mistake, a misconception, a question, or an incomplete understanding during the learning process. Here are some formative assessments I like:

• Frequent quick thumbs-up/down/sideways responses from students can give instant feedback during a discussion or activity. If you’re concerned this is a self-assessment, you can ask a thumbs-up student to explain briefly or use some probing questions with a thumbs-down student to find out the source of the confusion (which other students probably share, too).

• Some teachers use small white boards or half sheets of paper on which students write and display short responses and hold them up. A brief scan of the room lets you see the responses and know all students are involved. This is a low-tech version of the “clicker” systems that allow students to respond electronically for an instant check of student understanding. The advantages of the electronic system are that students may be more forthcoming is they feel their answer isn’t being broadcast to the class and you have a record of the student responses to analyze.

• In a variation of the think-pair-share strategy, students do a quick write in their notebook/journal, share their writing with a partner, and then summarize to the class. If the summaries start to sound the same after the first several ones, you can ask other teams if they have questions or anything new to add. As you listen to their summaries, you can get a feel for what students are learning, and the other students get to hear the information in different words or from a different perspective.

• Students could work on a graphic organizer or summary as a warm-up or a ticket-out-the-door activity to give you a glimpse into their thinking.

• When students are working in pairs or teams, you can walk around with a checklist of communications skills and lab behaviors or a notepad to record your observations to discuss with the class. Spend a little time with each group to observe their work, ask a few questions, or provide any clarification. This could also be a time to do a quick scan of some science notebooks.

Regardless of what activity you use for formative assessment, it’s important for students to get feedback beyond whether the response was correct or incorrect. Giving specific suggestions for improvement, asking probing or follow-up questions, encouraging the students to correct their mistakes, and helping students to self-assess their work authentically are part of the formative assessment process.

So what does a teacher do if the students didn’t get it? It may be tempting to assume they weren’t paying attention (which may be true) or to repeat the information in a louder or slower voice. But you need to have a few extra tricks up your sleeve to adjust your instruction: alternative explanations, extra practice activities (once any misunderstandings are cleared up), other visuals, additional examples and non-examples of a concept, graphic organizers, think-alouds, or alternative readings. Of course, if all the students get it, it’s okay to move on to the next part of the lesson. (Although I found sometimes their understanding was fragile and some additional assessment and review was necessary later.)

I would recommend the book Science Formative Assessment: 75 Practical Strategies for Linking Assessment, Instruction, and Learning from NSTA Press. I showed this to some of my colleagues in other subject areas, and they saw quite a few strategies that could be adapted to their subjects, too. Uncovering Student Ideas in Science, Volume 1: 25 Formative Assessment Probes (along with Volumes 2, 3, and 4), also from NSTA Press, focuses on determining what students already know about a science topic, including misconceptions.

The results of summative assessments (state tests, end-of-course exams, unit tests, or final projects) can help us make decisions about our courses and curriculum, but they don’t tell us much about which individual students are having problems or have developed misconceptions during our instruction. And by then it could be too late to go back and review or reteach.

Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/demibrooke/2550349404/

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Did I tell you how happy I was to see the returning three-year old students use magnifiers appropriately? Because this half-day preschool for 2-5-year-olds had moved to a new space over the summer, the “usual place” for everything had to be determined. It is one thing to design a preschool in a set of rooms and another to put it into action. That’s what the children did and showed us that our design needed adjustment. So I did not get magnifiers into use until late October when I brought a container of Tenebrio beetles and larvae (mealworms although they are not worms, just baby insects like caterpillars). I was all set to have the children practice using the magnifiers before getting out the beetles but these former two-year-olds showed that they remembered how to use magnifiers by immediately holding the instrument close to their fingers to view, saying, “It’s bigger!”. The beetles looked bigger too, and the children counted the tiny legs.

Here is how children often approach magnifiers (and beetles) on first encounter:

Here are experienced beetle wranglers using magnifiers expertly:

The Science Shorts columns in the National Science Teachers Association’s elementary school journal describe classic classroom activities that emphasize science-process skills. Larger Than Life: Introducing Magnifiers by Tracy L. Coskie and Kimberly J. Davis (Science and Children, Summer 2009) is a valuable discussion and activity about magnifier use.

Now the magnifiers are easily available for self-serve in the two-year-old class room, at the light table, and in the centers room. It is so gratifying to see that the lessons of last year are retained and used by the children to learn more about their world.

Peggy

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I’m interested in your opinions on what should be included in early childhood science standards. We don’t want to underestimate the abilities of young children to understand relationships in natural systems, nor overestimate their ability to understand the concepts of a “fair” test or the importance of collecting data. Many states have early learning standards, and the National Science Education Standards (National Research Council, 1996) begin in kindergarten.

Is anyone very satisfied with their state or program content standards for preK-grade 2 science?

The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards describes a rigorous delivery of science curriculum that is the mark of an “accomplished” early childhood teacher: “This NBPTS Standards document describes in observable form what accomplished teachers should know and be able to do.” It sounds wonderful to me, but perhaps out of reach for the majority of early childhood teachers who have not studied science in college. Read the Early Childhood/Generalist Standards, for teachers of students ages 3–8, Second Edition (2001) by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards  (science on pages 35-37).

A sample of the expectations that are part of Standard V: Knowledge of Integrated Curriculum, science content:

[Accomplished early childhood teachers] understand that discussions can transform a class from a collection of individuals into a community of learners sharing their interpretations of the natural world with their peers. Such experiences help children reform and refine their theories and explanations—to learn how to think through their ideas, to pose additional questions, and to reconsider their ideas on the basis of others’ views.

They realize that science is everywhere and that it can be integrated into the curriculum in a variety of ways. They provide sufficient time to develop a deep understanding of essential scientific ideas rather than a superficial acquaintance with many isolated facts.They show a love for science and generate in children curiosity and wonder about the world around them. The importance of having ongoing exploration, investigation, and inquiry in science is clearly understood by accomplished teachers.

Teachers design learning experiences that will help children build their knowledge and understanding of science and uncover for themselves the counterintuitive nature of many scientific principles. They incorporate a variety of experiences from each of the three major categories of science. They realize the importance of safety, environment, and conservation. They understand the scientific method and provide experiences in which the children can explore the scientific method and document what they observe.

If you have become Board Certified as an Early Childhood/Generalist, please let us know about your experiences and your favorite science standards. Anyone who is very satisfied with their state or program content standards for preK-grade 2 science, please let us hear from you too!

Peggy

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July is a distant memory of 6am wake up calls for my high-schooler who took PE over the summer, balanced with my getting more than five minutes of peace and quiet—time to read about early childhood and science, to think my own thoughts and get hungry for conversation. Summer school is a wonderful thing and I thank all the teachers who work it.

July’s reading, Thinking BIG, Learning BIG: Connecting Science, Math, Literacy, and Language in Early Childhood by Marie Faust Evitt, with Tim Dobbins, and Bobbi Weesen-Baer (Gryphon House 2009—also the publisher of my book), has become September‘s lesson plans. This book of activities reinvigorated my thinking which was in limbo because a building move had one of “my” schools on tenderhooks about our opening date and the use of space. Aligned with national standards in reading, literacy, math, and science, Thinking BIG helps me see where the science activities I know and love can incorporate more language and math goals. With intriguing, classroom-tested activities which are insightful about children’s desire to explore and imagine, Evitt also meets teachers’ needs for activities which are possible, teach concepts, and come with detailed directions for how to implement. Her approach expanded my thinking—although I usually think of sprouting seeds as an early spring activity, Evitt explains that children are curious about the seeds they discover in fall from flowers and inside apples and pumpkins. The playful spirit throughout the book is so enjoyable—predicting how far popcorn will fly, playing air hockey, and making a giant rainbow! The authors understand that children are attracted to all things BIG and they will remember the concepts they learn through those activities!

Marie and I became penpals before her book was published, and we collaborated on a workshop for an NSTA area conference. She’s a fun presenter—look for Marie Faust Evitt and Mr. Tim at the NAEYC national conference in Washington, D.C. this November.

Here’s what I found especially useful in Thinking BIG, Learning BIG: Movement ideas, Insights into children’s thinking, Teacher-to-teacher tips, games, book lists, skills assessments, and Discussion Starter questions.

• Instructions that involve movement with language—clapping when first saying vocabulary words (SCAD system of “Say, Clap, Act out, Do again”), crouching down to “become” a seed and then sprouting a root (leg), and using American Sing Language to say the new word.
• Insights about children’s thinking are on every page. For example, when children graph, they want to remember which object they put on the graph so teachers should make the graphs big, or should I say, BIG. For example, if graphing favorite flavor of apple (green, yellow, or red), give each child an apple shape big enough for them to write their name on before they add it to the graph. The graph is poster size, made from more than one sheet of paper. In the seeds chapter, a “How Our Seeds Germinate and Grow” number line chart with days 1-12 (more age appropriate than a calendar) is used for both predicting if anything will happen with the soaked bean seeds, and recording what is actually observed each day.
• Teacher-to-Teacher Tips are full of details, specific information to implement the activities. In the Seeds chapter, Evitt recommends using pre-cut bean shapes for children who become frustrated if they have difficulty drawing their predictions and observations, and describes steps to teach children to draw the bean shape.
• The games and stories (used in every chapter) creatively convey concepts. Children predict which square on a grid will catch the most popcorn kernels as they fly out of the popper, and act out The Little Red Hen while learning about seeds we eat, and play a “Traveling Seeds” game to learn how seeds travel.
• An extensive book list for every chapter (sometimes 2+ pages!) with descriptions takes the guesswork out of which book to read.
• The useful Skills Assessments are in the form of questions directing the teacher to reflect on the children’s abilities and understanding: What kind of pencil grip does the child use? Can the child use the vocabulary? Does the child see the connection between the wheat seeds and flour? Can the child count correctly the number of dots on the card?
• Use the Discussion Starters (in the form of questions) to “spark children’s thinking during and after the activity”. Sometimes I write such questions on an index cue card so I remember to ask specific questions, such as “How many more days is it until we think we will see leaves?”

This book is going to help me make the transition to the new physical space and to incorporating more specific math and language focus during science activities. Hope you get a chance to view it online or at a conference.

Peggy

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