The Sylvia Shugrue Award for Elementary school teachers honors one elementary school teacher who creates and makes use of interdisciplinary, inquiry-based lesson plans. To qualify, teachers submit a lesson plan with fully referenced sources of information and any relevant National Science Education Standards and benchmarks found in The Atlas of Science Literacy. Since the award’s debut in 2007, NSTA has recognized six teachers (we made two awards the first year… the submissions were THAT good). We haven’t posted the lesson plans, however, so this post is an effort to rectify that shortcoming. Please click through and have a look at the winning entries, and let us know what you think in the comments area below.

2007 Winners

Jennifer Sinsel
Fifth-Grade Science Teacher
Wichita Collegiate School
Wichita, Kansas

In Sinsel’s Smart Consumers unit, students investigate the quality of household products through hands-on activities and inquiry projects that allow them to apply the concepts and skills about which they are learning. Sinsel then works with her colleagues to create interdisciplinary connections that fulfill standards in other subjects. Her students write a Consumer Reports-style article in language arts class, for example, and create spreadsheets in math class. Her principal writes, “Jennifer does all the extra projects and discovery activities that students crave…As soon as she gets one project perfected, it becomes part of the curriculum, and she immediately begins to create the next unit.”

Have a look at Sinsel’s winning lesson plan, which looks at examples of the marketing messages kids see when they watch television, and how teachers can use the tube to spark scientific inquiry in the classroom.

Peggy Carlisle
Open Doors Teacher
Pecan Park Elementary School
Jackson, Mississippi

In her Open Doors program, Carlisle brings science to life for her inner-city students through hands-on, inquiry-based activities and with funding from the many grants she has received. She uses her classroom as a haven for many fascinating creatures housed in aquariums and terrariums; students are able to observe snails, chameleons, and other wonders of nature that also motivate them to read and write about the science they are learning. Interwoven in their studies have been poems to recite and create, figurines to mold, books to publish, and amazing facts and trivia to impress parents with. “There is not a child who leaves her classroom without a love of science,” says a colleague. “It is no surprise that some of her fourth-grade students’ writing scores are among the highest in the district.”

Carlisle’s winning lesson plan looks at the structures of aquatic creatures.

2008

Jennifer Thompson
K-1 Science Teacher
Gastineau Elementary School
Juneau, Alaska

Thompson created Ramps and Marbles: An Inquiry Into the Physics of Motion for Young Children, an interdisciplinary unit that introduces science process skills to young students. Students construct ramps on which they roll marbles; they make predictions, discussion them with other students, write about and draw pictures of their observations, and count marble rolls. This unit succeeds in exciting students about learning physical science because Thompson “puts the best into practice in her classroom,” observes her principal.

Thompson’s winning lesson explores the physics of motion with an inquiry activity using ramps and marbles. It includes examples of student work.

2009

Richard Tabor
Amerman Elementary School
Northville, Michigan

Tabor encourages young scientists to apply process skills to learn through discovery and experimentation. He designed a Solar Sprint activity to challenge them to consider multiple variables, integrate math, and develop technological applications. He has presented workshops to colleagues at his school and to teachers from several educational organizations and shared his ideas through state and national publications.

In Tabor’s winning lesson, students design and build their own solar powered LEGO cars, the goal being to design the most efficient car.

2010

Cathy Kindem
Cedar Park STEM Elementary School
Apple Valley, Minnesota

Kindem’s leadership has not only inspired the students to be engaged in science learning, but the work classroom teachers do with science has been transformed.  Her work has provided the staff with the content, teaching strategies and most importantly the willingness to be innovative.  Kindem has convinced classroom teachers that it is beneficial to go beyond the “boxed” curriculum and to move students’ understanding to important science concepts. She is leading the way for successful implementation of the new standards for not only her school, but for the district and the state.

Here is Kindem’s winning lesson, which examines the types of plants living in the gardens and how they are alike and differ.

2011

Melissa Collins
John P. Freeman Optional School
Memphis,Tennessee
Elementary teacher

A Presidential Awardee and National Board-certified teacher, Collins has served on or spearheaded committees to engage parents and community members, so they can learn from and assist with experiments, evaluate students’ work, and share their expertise. She helped develop a “night out with science and math” and hosted a health fair at her school. She also created a Physics Carnival that has helped many disadvantaged students understand the physics of carnival rides.

She provides her students with field experiences; for example, when learning about sound, she arranged for her students to interview a musician. She encourages her students to think of themselves as scientists and ensures that they understand safety regulations.

Her principal says she “motivates K-8 students to participate in science fairs, plant gardens, and take nature walks to observe living and nonliving things. She takes the initiative to ensure students’ success.”

Have a look at Collins’ winning lesson and some examples of student work. In the course of the lesson, students are expected to create an instrument that produces a sound. The instruments will be: a tambourine, sand blocks, maracas, a drum, and a guitar. To motivate students, they can bring items from home.

2012

Sergio de Alba
RM Miano Elementary School
Los Banos, California
Elementary teacher

De Alba has received many awards, including the Amgen Award for Science Teaching Excellence and the Entomological Society of America Foundation President’s Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Primary Education. His love for science has inspired him to create schoolwide programs that help students succeed in school and in life. For example, his inquiry-based Arachnid Mania research program has enabled thousands of students to learn the science behind arachnids. His Outdoor Science Lab Gardens provide students of all grade levels with hands-on lessons on plant science, history, math, and language arts. And his “Doctor Is In” club affords the school’s top science students a vision of a future in medicine.

“His extraordinary drive and dedication to the success of the youth of Los Banos is unparalleled,” declares his principal. By the end of his first year at his school, “he was able to raise the $35,000 required to create the first of his 12 outdoor science labs and had singlehandedly developed a research program that inspired 15 teachers to adopt…Though our district does not have the budget to pay him for his extra efforts, he has maintained and continues his programs because he believes in what he is doing. Throughout the years, he has found great success with getting local businesses to help his causes. He has won many grants that have helped to create the infrastructure of his programs, and when other funds are needed, he pays for many things out of his own pocket.”

Give de Alba’s lesson a try. It also includes some samples of student work, through which students show a basic foundation of how plants change (adapt) to increase their chances of survival and continued success.

This year, K–5 teachers from the Baltimore City (Maryland) Public Schools went from thinking they couldn’t teach STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) and their students couldn’t learn it to expressing confidence in their skills and in their students’ abilities. This sea change resulted from an Elementary STEM Teacher Clinic held by STEM Master Teachers for teachers from struggling elementary schools with many high-poverty students and a predominantly African American population. The clinic provided 130 teachers from 22 schools with hands-on professional development during the summer and also with equipment, supplies, and books from the NSTA Picture-Perfect Science Lessons book collection, which contains standards-based science content and ready-to-teach lessons.

This morning in New Orleans, as part of the Urban Science Education Leadership (USEL) session, presenters from Baltimore City Public Schools described the clinic and how it transformed the teachers. One key to its success was “every teacher had a coach…having that coach is the most critical component,” said presenter Katya Denisova. When the teachers returned to school in the fall, they had the coach available in their school to help them operate software and equipment and answer their questions. Most of these teachers “had not been exposed to teaching rigorous STEM,” she pointed out. By the end of the clinic, however, their self-assessments showed they greatly increased their knowledge of and skills in scientific inquiry.

Presenter Linda Evans declared, “How great is it to see the kids actually touching things and doing things [in class]!” She said the curriculum was based on Common Core state standards, “infusing literature and using [Picture-Perfect Science Lessons] as the anchor” to “push in STEM, touch on all those content areas.”

Adren Kornegay of Baltimore’s Garrett Heights Elementary Middle School said the curriculum “hit all four of the types of science,” and engaged students as young as kindergarteners in engineering design challenges. Kindergarteners developed a recycling program; second graders designed habitats for hermit crabs and worms; fifth graders created wind turbines. Terrell Davis of Montebello Elementary Junior Academy said even the fifth graders enjoyed the curriculum’s picture books, which helped them “relate to the [STEM] concepts.”

Then the presenters gave the attendees some supplies and turned them loose to explore a motion-and-force activity related to the book Sheep in a Jeep. Groups of three teachers created ramps and rolled a tiny plastic sheep in a plastic jeep down them, then measured how far the sheep traveled. Just as their students would do, they varied the heights and lengths of the ramps and tried using sandpaper to see how it would affect the jeep’s motion. This “inquiry allows students to think for themselves,” observed presenter Evelyn Tolliver. Her students “connected all the ramps and were rolling cars across the classroom,” she said, smiling.

Denisova mentioned that the attendees and other K–5 teachers around the country could take advantage of the clinic’s curriculum, even though they won’t be in the next cohort. “We want you to be STEM advocates,” said Evans. “A lot of our elementary teachers are not comfortable with the content…They really do need support.”

Oil Spill, Gulf of Mexico (NASA, International Space Station Science, 05/04/10)

Oil is a stew of hydrocarbon molecules. Oil doesn’t sink, it floats, and when it spills, it spreads out in a thin sheen. Parts of the oil spill, asphaltenes, froth up and emulsify in waves, becoming tarry globules of hydrocarbon chains mixed with other molecules (nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur, as well as trace amounts of vanadium and nickel.). The spill byproducts get sticky and messy.

With 4% of the world’s population, we in the U.S. use 25% of the oil produced, spending nearly half a trillion dollars each year on oil. Neither a spike in prices, nor footage and news reports from last year’s BP oil spill changed oil usage significantly–we have cut it by just 2.4%. So, we’re not going to stop using oil any time soon, and since spills occur at every step in the oil production pipeline, they’re going to continue to occur.
So, how can chemistry help us deal with those spills?

You may have seen Dawn commercials  last summer showing workers cleaning ducks with Dawn detergent. Dawn works as a surfactant, breaking the hold the oil and tar has on the duck’s feathers, and allowing it to rinse away in water. Those are cute commercials–these oil-covered brown pelicans don’t look so cute– but how do we deal with spills on a larger scale?

That’s what this week’s Chemistry Now videos are about. The fall release of the weekly, online, video series “Chemistry Now” is under way, and we’re uncovering dispersants as a source of interesting video and lessons. As we’ve written before, please view the video, try the lessons, and let us know what you think.

Photos: NASA Marshall Space Flight Center

U.S. Geological Survey

MindfulWalker

Through the Chemistry Now series, NSTA and NBC Learn have teamed up with the National Science Foundation (NSF) to create lessons related to common, physical objects in our world and the changes they undergo every day. The series also looks at the lives and work of scientists on the frontiers of 21st century chemistry.

Video: On the anniversary of the final capping of the gushing oil well in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, NBC Learn explains the chemistry of dispersants and immiscibles, in “How to Wash an Ocean.” They also mark the International Year of Chemistry with a video outlining chemistry’s “10 Big Questions,” as selected by their content partner, Scientific American. 

Middle school lesson: In The Chemistry of Oil Spills, students evaluate several methods of cleanup used in the recent BP oil spill, and learn about the importance of chemistry in oil spill cleanup.

High school lesson: In the high school version of the lesson, students conduct an experiment to determine the contributing factors to the solubility of a system and the role of polarity in the solubility of a system, so that they understand the effect of dispersants on the system.

You can use the following form to e-mail us edited versions of the lesson plans:

The July 2011 release of the Framework for K-12 Science Education, from the National Academies, places new emphasis on the topic of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in the discussion of K–12 education priorities. The Framework recommends building science education in grades K–12 around three major dimensions: scientific and engineering practices; cross-cutting concepts that unify the study of science and engineering; and core ideas in four disciplinary areas (physical sciences; life sciences; Earth and space sciences; and engineering, technology, and the application of science). The September 2011 issue of NSTA’s Book Beat anticipates this growing emphasis on STEM education by highlighting lessons that can help science teachers demonstrate to students—in ways both fun and enlightening—the strong connections among science, technology, and engineering.  Included in the issue are links to free lessons like “Imaginative Inventions” from More Picture-Perfect Science Lessons (grades K–4), which helps students explore the invention process and then test toys with both fun and safety in mind. Middle and high school students can delve into the intriguing study of science at the nanoscale through the free lesson “Nanomedicine” from Nanoscale Science: Activities for Grades 6-12, by Gail Jones and colleagues. Nanotechnology has opened the door for medical applications that work at the molecular level to diagnose, treat, and prevent disease. In the “Nanomedicine” activity, students investigate through the use of gelatin-based cell models how nanotechnology is being used to treat cancer without harming the surrounding tissue. There’s also a free e-book offer and a preview chapter of the new NSTA Press book STEM Student Research Handbook. Read this month’s issue of NSTA’s Book Beat to download these STEM-related resources and more.

What can be a poison in one form can be therapeutic in another, which begins to explain why researchers would look to the biotoxins produced by warm water dwelling snails for solutions to chronic pain and a host of other neurological conditions in humans.

The venom of some snails has been shown to be 1000 times as powerful as morphine, a potent painkiller. Other snail venoms could be used as potent pharmaceuticals, and could be effective in treating postsurgical and neuropathic pain, and even accelerating recovery from nerve injury. But research into these potential uses is still in early phases. As recently as December 2004, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) first approved a painkiller derived from cone snail toxins  under the name “Prialt.” Other drugs are in clinical and preclinical trials, such as compounds of toxins that may be used in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and epilepsy.

We have reached the 16th week of the weekly, online, video series “Chemistry Now,” and we’re sticking with nature as a source of interesting video and lessons. As we’ve written before, please view the video, try the lessons, and let us know what you think.

Photo: Richard Parker

Through the Chemistry Now series, NSTA and NBC Learn have teamed up with the National Science Foundation (NSF) to create lessons related to common, physical objects in our world and the changes they undergo every day. The series also looks at the lives and work of scientists on the frontiers of 21st century chemistry.

Video: In this 21st Century Chemist profile City University of New York chemist Mande Holford explains her research on the toxins produced by venomous sea snails, and her work to synthesize these long-peptide toxins for eventual use in treating chronic pain in humans.

Middle school lesson: In Vinegar and Baking Soda Investigation, students investigate the chemical reaction of vinegar and baking soda, demonstrating prior knowledge of concepts of chemical changes, and the laboratory skills of measuring volume, mass, and temperature.

High school lesson: In Mystery Solution Identification, students learn about solubility rules and use this knowledge to identify unknown solutions.

You can use the following form to e-mail us edited versions of the lesson plans:

In a sea of green vegetation, you’ll find reds, yellows, oranges, blues, and purples—a beautiful range of colors that pop out, saying to insects and other pollinators, “visit me, visit me, no, not that one…. me!” Flower colors have evolved to attract  certain kinds of insects and birds, which ensures they can propagate the next generation of pinks, daisies, and other vegetative offspring.

How do they do it? With such pigments as porphyrins, carotenoids, anthocyanins and betalains. In addition to making flowers attractive to specific pollinators, these compounds also help plants sustain photosynthesis by gathering wavelengths of light not readily absorbed by chlorophyll.

We have reached the 14th week of the weekly, online, video series “Chemistry Now,” and chemistry returns to nature as a source of interesting video and lessons. As we’ve written before, please view the video, try the lessons, and let us know what you think.

Photo: T. Brown

Through the Chemistry Now series, NSTA and NBC Learn have teamed up with the National Science Foundation (NSF) to create lessons related to common, physical objects in our world and the changes they undergo every day. The series also looks at the lives and work of scientists on the frontiers of 21st century chemistry.

Video: Roses are red; violets are…well, violet – but why? “The Chemistry of Flower Color” explains how pigment molecules – carotenoids and anthocyanins – give flowers the colors we see. Also in this collection: news stories from the archives of NBC News and Scientific American on desert wild flowers, pollination, the cut-flower industry, and why flowers have scents.

Middle school lesson: In What Color Is Your Flower? (middle school), students separate the pigments in red flower petals and determine if all red flowers contain the same pigments.

High school lesson: Students go a step further in What Color Is Your Flower? (high school) and determine which of the pigments they separate out exhibit acid–base indicator properties.

For another great pollination activity, see “Please Pass the Pollen,”  through which your students learn the sorts of pollinators that visit plants around your school and which flowers are most often visited, and then they return to the classroom and report their findings.

You can use the following form to e-mail us edited versions of the lesson plans:

“Though wholly fabricated from such common raw materials as coal, water and air, nylon can be fashioned into filaments as strong as steel, as fine as the spider’s web, yet more elastic than any of the common natural fibers and possessing a beautiful luster.”

A Dupont Press Release announcing the development of nylon

Strong as steel? Yet finer and more elastic? Hyperbole? Nope, chemistry.

Polyamide (PA),  better known by its trade name nylon, was the first purely synthetic fiber, introduced by DuPont Corporation at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York City.

It took DuPont 12 years and $27 million to refine nylon and to fine tune the industrial processes for  manufacture. With such a major investment, Du Pont spared little expense to promote nylon after its introduction, creating a public sensation, or “nylon mania”. This ended abruptly in 1941 when the U.S. entered World War II. Production capacity that had been built up to produce nylon stockings switched to the manufacture of parachutes for fliers and paratroopers. After the war ended, DuPont went back to selling nylon to the public, engaging in another promotional campaign in 1946 that resulted in an even bigger craze, triggering the so called nylon riots.

Nylons remain important plastics, and not just for use in fabrics. In its bulk form it is very wear resistant, particularly if oil-impregnated, and so is used to build gears, plain bearings, and because of good heat-resistance, increasingly for under-the-hood applications in cars, and other mechanical parts.

We have reached the 14th week of the weekly, online, video series “Chemistry Now,” and chemistry has moved to industry as a source of interesting video and lessons. As we’ve written before, please view the video, try the lessons, and let us know what you think.

Photo: Joost J. Bakker IJmuiden

Through the Chemistry Now series, NSTA and NBC Learn have teamed up with the National Science Foundation (NSF) to create lessons related to common, physical objects in our world and the changes they undergo every day. The series also looks at the lives and work of scientists on the frontiers of 21st century chemistry.

Video: The 1930s invention of nylon revolutionized the global textile and materials industry. “Fabricating Fabric” outlines the molecular structure and impact of the first all-synthetic fiber. Also profiled is 21st century chemist Malika Jeffries-EL from Iowa State, who devises energy-efficient organic semiconductors and LEDs.

Middle school lesson: in the Polymer Density lesson, students compare the density of various samples of polymers with liquids of known density and use their data and observations to determine the approximate density of the different polymers.

High school lesson: through the Nylon Investigation lesson, students discuss the formation of nylon, investigate its physical properties, and research the history of a polymer.

You can use the following form to e-mail us edited versions of the lesson plans:

Activities that focus on food and cooking can help students see how relevant and fascinating science can be in everyday life.  In a recent illustration of the enduring appeal of food’s scientific underpinnings, one of the most sought-after classroom slots for Harvard undergraduates is in the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences’ course “Science and Cooking.” Last fall in the class and accompanying public lectures, 13 well-known chefs dished on how they use food science in their celebrated restaurants, creating foams, spheroids, and other avant-garde features of their culinary offerings. Why not infuse your own lessons with a cooking activity to stir up students’ interest and appetite for science?  Author Sarah Young’s new book Gourmet Lab: The Scientific Principles Behind Your Favorite Foods is a collection of hands-on experiments that challenge grades 6–12 students to take on the roles of scientist and chef as they boil, bake, and toast their way to a better understanding of science concepts from chemistry, biology, and physics. Read the May 2011 issue of NSTA’s Book Beat for a free lesson from the book, “Cold Milk,” in which your students will measure the energy transfer in the creation of ice cream.  May’s Book Beat also offers grades 3–6 lessons on food-related topics  like chemical change in cooking pancakes and measuring the relative acidity of everyday foods like corn, lemons, and apples.

Reds and pinks, oranges, yellows, greens, blues, purples, browns, even grays and blacks, these represent a spectrum of colors that we take for granted thanks to synthetic dyes, but once weavers and fabric makers took great pains to extract these colors and fix them to textiles. Dyers made the colors from lichen, henna, rose madder and juniper, saffron and pomegranate, woad and indigo, acacia and pinon trees.

But a chance discovery, as you’ll learn from the Chemistry Now video, made these colors cheaper to obtain and more effective. In 1856, 18-year-old William Henry Perkin was given the assignment of developing a synthetic route for the production of quinine, which previously could only be extracted from the bark of a cinchona tree grown in South America. He was working with coal tar, and reacted it with potassium dichromate. The result was a black precipitate.  When cleaning it up, he discovered it left a rich purple color on the cloth he was using, and the rest is history. Or is it chemistry?

We have reached the 13th week of the weekly, online, video series “Chemistry Now,” and chemistry has moved to industry as a source of interesting video and lessons. As we’ve written before, please view the video, try the lessons, and let us know what you think.

Photo: Corey Holms

Through the Chemistry Now series, NSTA and NBC Learn have teamed up with the National Science Foundation (NSF) to create lessons related to common, physical objects in our world and the changes they undergo every day. The series also looks at the lives and work of scientists on the frontiers of 21st century chemistry.

Video: An 18-year-old London chemistry student tries to make synthetic quinine for malaria treatment, and instead creates the first synthetic dye. View a video that  tells the story of the 1856 Chance Discovery that transformed the textile industry worldwide. NBC Learn also profiles a 21^st century chemist, Purdue’s Mary Wirth, whose nanomaterials research makes cancer “markers” easier to detect in blood tests.

Middle school lesson: in the Dye Chemistry, students use natural dyes to carry out an investigation to determine which natural products will produce the desired color on eggs or fabric.

High school lesson: the Natural pH Indicators lesson uses household solutions to teach about pH indicators, pH, and properties of acids and bases.

You can use the following form to e-mail us edited versions of the lesson plans:

Ammonia is one of the chemicals that feeds the world. No, you shouldn’t drink it from a bottle, and mixing it into your flan would be a bad idea, but about 83% of ammonia produced industrially is used as fertilizers, either as salts or as solutions, and it is estimated that fertilizer generated from ammonia sustains one-third of the Earth’s population, and that half of the protein the world eats grows from nitrogen produced from ammonia, while the remainder was produced by nitrogen fixing bacteria.

Fritz Haber and and Carl Bosch, developers of the Haber process, were the brains behind the industrial use of ammonia in the 20th century, allowing manufacturers to pull the nitrogen needed to make up ammonia out of thin air. Haber is also known as the “father of chemical warfare,” and you can read a review of a short biographical film about him if you’d like to learn a little more about this complex and controversial figure.

As you’ll learn from the Chemistry Now video, ammonia is also used in household cleaners because of its ability to break down fatty acids so surfaces may be wiped clean. It also has the handy (or problematic, depending on your point of view) tendency to vanish back into the thin air, leaving a sparkling surface behind.

We have reached the 12th week of the weekly, online, video series “Chemistry Now,” and the chemistry of the kitchen moves under the sink as a source of interesting video and lessons. As we’ve written before, please view the video, try the lessons, and let us know what you think.

Photo: Rae Allen

Through the Chemistry Now series, NSTA and NBC Learn have teamed up with the National Science Foundation (NSF) to create lessons related to common, physical objects in our world and the changes they undergo every day. The series also looks at the lives and work of scientists on the frontiers of 21st century chemistry.

Video: It’s a staple of Spring Cleaning: all-purpose ammonia cleaner. “The Dirt on Ammonia as a Cleaning Agent” explains how ammonia works with water to dissolve fatty acids, like stearic acid, in greasy dirt.

Middle school lesson: the Sugar Cube Investigation allows students to understand factors that affect the rate at which a solute dissolves.

High school lesson: the Solubility and Bonding lesson describes the  relationship between types of bonding, polarity, and solubility.

You can use the following form to e-mail us edited versions of the lesson plans: