The American Academy of Dermatology (2008) reports that our students will experience 80% of their lifetime exposure to the Sun by the time they are 18. Further, research has demonstrated that continued exposure to the Sun’s ultraviolet rays can lead to skin aging, sunburn, immune suppression, ocular melanoma, cataracts, corneal burns, and even skin cancer. However, the first round of defense is knowledge. The activities presented here were developed to raise students’ awareness about the harmful effects of the sun’s rays while increasing their critical-thinking skills.
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A systems approach to science education is one of the powerful interdisciplinary ideas that AAAS recommends be woven through science learning at all levels and in all content areas. AAAS also calls for making systems thinking explicit in middle school and suggests that students investigate biological, electrical, and mechanical systems to determine how they work by identifying their parts and the connections and effects these parts have, not only on each other, but on the entire system as well. To that end—this month’s issue is devoted to incorporating a systems approach to science teaching. Here the Editor highlights the articles related to this interdisciplinary theme.
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It is not enough for students to acquire knowledge about how food is produced and processed; they must also come to understand the biological and environmental contexts in which food production, processing, and transportation take place. Through diagramming, students begin to understand that our food system has a series of interacting parts and that each part depends on the other parts. It also helps them think about the environmental impacts of a system. The food-system diagramming activity described here was part of students’ experiences in the Farm to Table and Beyond module of the Linking Food and the Environment (LIFE) Curriculum Series.
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Structure-Behavior-Function (SBF) thinking considers the different levels of a system in terms of structures, behaviors, and functions, and how these are interconnected (Goel et al. 1996). This article presents an example of helping middle school students use SBF thinking to learn about ecosystems using an aquarium. Students can use an aquarium as a model for natural systems and through the use of questions and simulations—students can use SBF thinking to develop their systems understanding.
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NASA is involved in a project involving the International Space Station (ISS) and an Earth-focused camera called EarthKam, where schools, and ultimately students, are allowed to remotely program the EarthKAM to take images. Here the author describes how EarthKam was used to help middle school students learn about biomes and develop their understanding of the interrelationship of geographical location to climate, weather, and associated experiences.
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In several previous Issues In-Depth columns, science topics deeply affected by population size—such as climate change, fuel and agricultural resources, and ecology—have been discussed. In this column, the authors discuss the issue of population growth in developed and developing countries, why this is an important topic to discuss with young adolescents, and how interdisciplinary connections can be made between science and several other subject areas through an examination of populations across the globe.
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Summer is a time for personal enrichment for teachers. Many travel, take formal classes, or work as interns or volunteers in scientific endeavors. But whatever the schedule, it’s also a time for teachers to get back to basics. Instead of being forced to keep one step ahead of the textbook, teachers find that summer provides opportunities to catch up with the latest developments in science and education. Often, the best way to keep from being left behind is to pick up a good book. To that end, the reviewers of NSTA Recommends and the NSTA/CBC Outstanding Trade Book committee have generated a list of their favorites for your consideration.
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Over the years, many interesting chemical reactions and activities have been used to illustrate the conservation of mass. The reaction of baking soda and vinegar is a common example. The experimental procedure described in this article presents a special case involving buoyancy where the buoyancy effect is exacerbated by the fact that the reaction container expands as the reaction proceeds and a large volume of air is displaced. The data reported here were gathered at a specific pressure and temperature using a certain type of balloon. Specific values will depend on temperature, barometric pressure, humidity, type of balloon, and the amounts of vinegar and baking soda. However, the relationship among variables should remain the same.
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Because eighth-grade curriculum standards focus in part on systems analysis and graphing, a lesson was created to enhance students’ analytical skills with the introduction of a type of graph, the node graph, which can be used to represent the interconnectedness of system components. This lesson is rooted in understanding real-world concepts regarding the transmission of infectious agents throughout a population.
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In August 2007, a report titled “The State of Middle School and High School Science Labs in the Kansas City Region” was issued by the Kauffman Foundation, which is committed to improving student achievement in mathematics, science, and technology subjects in this region. The study uncovered five areas of concern including safety, facilities, equipment and materials, instruction and learning, and district policies. The recommendations were instrumental in improving instruction and safety in the science laboratories audited. This month’s column features the major conclusions of the report.
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This summer, the visible planets will put on quite a display, giving us not only the opportunity to compare relative orbital motions, but to also see some beautiful arrangements and conjunctions among the planets, stars, and our Moon. Some of the celestial activity will conveniently take place during the early evening hours and some during the early morning predawn hours. Use the accompanying calendar to follow the Moon and planets during the summer months.
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This article describes two lessons within the authors’ education module entitled, Ecological Networks, that successfully teaches introductory systems content to middle and high school students. To catch students’ attention when teaching these new concepts, they decided to use a network that was familiar and fun for students—a cell-phone communication network. These lessons can help students move beyond using systems terminology correctly to actually understanding what it means to have a group of interacting parts work together.
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Based on the recommendation of the AAAS and the NRC, middle level science is the rightful introduction for a systems approach, including the study of its parts, subsystems, interconnections, and interrelationships. Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax provides an excellent opportunity to combine ecological consequences within a systems approach (Sweeney 2001). The inquiry-based lesson described here is designed using the 5E instructional model and develops students’ critical-thinking skills as they create concept maps to depict the relationships among components of a larger system.
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The Earth system views the entire planet as a single dynamic entity. Understanding the individual components and their interactions is necessary to completely understand how the planet works. Because the Earth system can be too complex for many middle-level students to initially view as a whole, it is best to look at each of the components separately (Kali, Orion, and Eylon 2003). Cycles such as the rock cycle are important for understanding the interconnections among the spheres. Therefore, the Rock and Rap CD project, which follows the steps of the 5E learning model (BSCS 2006), is a fun activity that helps students to grasp this difficult concept.
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