Inspired by her favorite Bob Dylan song of 1964, “The Times They Are A-Changin”—NSTA President Page Keeley’s presidential theme during her 2008-09 tenure will be “From Transition to Transformation—Striving for a Science-Literate Nation.” When she listens to this timeless classic today, she hears the urgent call for change in science education—deep, transformative changes in teaching and learning and the public perception of science. Throughout her presidency she will address several of these transformative changes that she believes are important—beginning with formative assessment. Here she outlines five methods that can be used to transform your professional learning in this area.
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Space Week focuses on concepts that enable students to make concrete observations in the early grades (K—2) and move to concepts that help students develop their internet research and writing skills in middle and upper grades (Grades 3—5), and culminates with the development of science investigation design skills (Grade 6). To help launch your students’ interest in space science, this article presents inquiry-based space lessons, which are aligned with the National Science Education Standards.
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Teaching astronomy concepts to elementary students does not have to be complicated or require expensive materials. As a teacher resource agent for the American Astronomical Society and through involvement with other science- or astronomy-related organizations, the author has discovered through experience that sometimes it’s the simplest hands-on activities that are the most effective in conveying astronomy concepts. In this article, she shares her process for introducing K—4 students to the phases of the moon.
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Ask five-year-olds what they want to be when they grow up and we may hear “astronaut,” “dinosaur paleontologist,” or even “princess.” Rather than repeat all of the more realistic professions surrounding them, they go with jobs that capture their imagination—riding in a spaceship, digging up Triceratops, or being waited on hand and foot. In this issue, we present lessons and programs that will help students realize their dreams of traveling to space.
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This monthly feature contains facts and challenges for the science explorer.
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Young children love the stars and planets. They love the idea of leaving the Earth and traveling to the stars, of meeting aliens and exploring unknown worlds. Our goal in elementary school is to build the ladder to the stars and help students up the first few rungs by engaging them in explorations of the universe through some of the easily observable phenomena in the sky. After all, astronomy is the most beautiful, engaging, and life-enriching science out there!
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Research indicates that people more easily understand abstractions when they are preceded by concrete representations (Lawson 2002). This article describes how educators can use science representations to help students form lasting understandings of abstract concepts. A spectrum illustrating some commonly used representation types and their level of abstraction along a continuum is included. In addition, a sample scaffolding activity for force and motion is used as an example of one way such an instructional sequence might be developed.
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Earth Science Week (ESW) 2008 encourages people around the globe to open doors and investigate new opportunities. This year’s theme, “No Child Left Inside,” is a call to explore our natural environments. The celebration urges everyone—especially young people—to venture outdoors and experience Earth science firsthand.
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Misconceptions are ideas formulated by children as they try to make sense of the world. By focusing on students’ ideas, using the strategies suggested in this article, teachers can help students move toward more accurate understandings of the solar system.
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Reading, Writing, and Rings! was created by a team of elementary teachers, literacy experts, and scientists in order to integrate science and literacy. These free units bring students inside NASA’s Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn. The authors—a science teacher and education outreach specialist and two evaluators of educational programs—have been studying how these materials are being used by teachers, science specialists, and after-school teachers, and share their findings with you in this article.
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Unless you’ve been hiding out in a cave for the last 20 years, you’ve heard that the universe is expanding and it started with a big bang. To put an expanding universe in perspective, it helps to imagine that you live in a two-dimensional universe. There’s a great book for helping you imagine this; it’s called Flatland and was written in 1884 by Edwin A. Abbott. It’s an amazing book of mathematical and scientific fiction and it’s short, so by all means pick up a copy. Given that we can't include a copy of the book in this issue of Science and Children, the author will settle for explaining the major features of living in a two-dimensional (2—D) universe.
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Time is an abstract concept for many elementary students. Add to that the idea that the position of the objects in the sky—Sun, Moon, etc.—changes over the course of the day, and you have a mix ripe for confusion and potential misconceptions. In the following lesson, children have the opportunity to make multiple observations of the Sun’s location in the sky throughout the school day. Such observations help students recognize changes in the sky, notice the repeating pattern of the Sun’s location from day to day, and deepen their understanding of the abstract concept of time.
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The National Science Education Standards (NSES) state that students in grades K—4 are expected to understand that astronomical objects in the sky, including the Sun, Moon, and stars—have properties, locations, and patterns of movement that can be observed and described. They further suggest using an inquiry-based approach to teach these science concepts. However, there are several challenges in teaching space science concepts through actual observation. To address these concerns, the authors share two inquiry-based astronomy lessons for young children using selected trade books and real sky images via computer.
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Physical models in the classroom “cannot be expected to represent the full-scale phenomenon with complete accuracy, not even in the limited set of characteristics being studied” (AAAS 1990). Therefore, by modifying a popular classroom activity called a “planet walk,” teachers can explore upper elementary students’ current understandings; create an environment where students generate questions based on their prior knowledge; and challenge students to think critically about the accuracy and limitations of a scale model of our solar system.
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From the time they are very young, children are naturally curious about the Moon. They may wonder about the different shapes of the Moon when they look up at the night sky. In this month’s primary lesson, students discover through direct observations and reading that the Moon’s shape follows a pattern. In the upper-elementary lesson, students explore the reason for this pattern using a model.
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Space exploration is a high-interest topic for girls and boys. They love to play with space models (toys), pore over space images, talk about what they have seen in the sky or on television, and play astronaut. Use the activities described here to encourage students to engage in imaginative play about space. Explorations like these are the kind of inspiration teachers need to help their students’ science learning blast off!
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In this article, the authors present a new way of teaching the phases of the Moon. Through the introduction of a self shadow (an idea of a shadow that is not well-known), they illuminate students’ understanding of the phases of the Moon and help them understand the distinction between the shadows that cause eclipses and the shadows that relate to the phases of the Moon. Then, they follow with two easy-to-do demonstrations that help students further develop their understanding of the reasons behind the patterns of lightness and darkness in the Moon’s phases.
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