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 [...]
As I was packing up materials and readying the classrooms for summer storage I reflected back over the year and thought about the next. Developing an on-going inquiry (or overlapping inquiries because more than one class uses the space at this school) is foremost in my mind. I want to find some resources to share [...]
Have you noticed this graphic in an NSTA publication? SciLinks is a database of websites that have been submitted by a corps of “webwatchers“—teachers who search for and review websites related to topics in science. The websites are organized by content and grade level. Teachers can access SciLinks either by using the codes in a [...]
While reviewing some materials from a workshop, I came across a few online gems this week to add to the SciLinks keyword assessment. Even some of the experienced teachers in the workshop had to stop and think about the differences between analytic and holistic rubrics. We were guided to Jon Mueller’s page on Rubrics for [...]
The last few days of the school year are a challenge—the time in between the final projects/assessments and the last day of school. Students assume that the year is over, and to stay “busy,” they are sometimes inundated with videos or word puzzles. I often used this time for science activities we didn’t get to [...]
The devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan is on the minds of all of us, including our students. The event and aftermath is tragic and the continuing nuclear emergency is a reminder of how fragile society can be. As educators, we can help our students make sense of these events and give them the opportunity [...]
Congratulations to all of the teacher-presenters at NSTA—to those who were willing to share their ideas and experiences. It’s a quantum leap from the classroom to the national stage, but in the sessions I attended, my colleagues rose to the occasion. For example, Greg Benedis-Grab from The School at Columbia University (NY) shared ideas he [...]
Does your (or your child’s) early childhood program include science inquiry experiences? Here are a few resources to get started, or to expand on, your understanding of science inquiry. These resources are on my list because I have read them (some—not all, yet), or other works by the authors, or read the reviews on NSTA Recommends [...]
