Unmotivated, underachieving students pose a huge challenge for teachers. One way to motivate and stimulate student interest in a topic is to use humor. Humor can help students make new connections in learning and improves retention of information (Garner 2006). In this article, the authors describe how they integrated art and literature with science to encourage curiosity through the exploration of rocks, crystals, and fossils; to fuel interest with science trade books; and to translate newly acquired science information into funny cartoons. The cartoon-making activities engage students while they learn Earth science concepts and develop their abilities to visualize and combine ideas in new ways.
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Inquiry practices often involve more student-centered activities where students interact more intensively with materials and with other students during investigations. In addition to monitoring the learning taking place, teachers in an inquiry classroom have to manage more movements of materials and equipment and the social dynamics among students. In this article, the authors share seven successful strategies one teacher used in managing a grade 6 class that gave her confidence in transitioning from a traditional classroom to a more inquiry-based classroom.
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Student learning is directly related to classroom control established the first week of school (Wong and Wong 2001)—what you do the first day counts, and what you do the first 10 minutes counts even more. This article shares the advanced planning aspects of classroom management that should be in place before students enter the classroom for the first time: the physical environment; routines, policies, and procedures; materials management; as well as a review process to extend what students learn.
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To supplement your summer reading, NSTA’s affiliates would like to suggest some recent articles on education research. These articles cover a variety of topics that include diversity, technology, and science teacher retention. The abstracts of these important articles are listed below. Read on to identify important research for your professional development.
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Classroom management is a difficult balancing act. Like Goldilocks, teachers should sample all the classroom management techniques available to them to find the ones that are “just right” for their classroom. Therefore, teachers must quickly establish a classroom management style that fits their personalities and their educational philosophies. This issue of Science Scope presents a variety of classroom management strategies that work for other middle level teachers. Many of these may resemble techniques you currently use in your classroom, but hopefully you will read about different approaches that may help you tackle trouble spots in your classroom or establish a more engaging practice.
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Why do some teachers experience successful teaching in the middle level year after year, while others consider an eighth-grade teaching assignment equivalent to a sentence of hard labor? Why is it that some teachers and their students look forward to the time they spend together each day, while others dread the thought of even coming to school? Why do some teachers brag about what their students are doing and the extra things they are accomplishing, while others can’t get students to complete a worksheet in class? The authors don’t profess to have all the answers, but they would like to share some methods they’ve used successfully to create secure classroom environments that have led to more rewarding teaching experiences and more successful student accomplishments.
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Though it may seem that classroom management comes naturally to some teachers, upon closer examination you’ll probably discover that preparation and adaptation are more important than any innate ability when it comes to successful classroom management. Any experienced middle school science teacher can tell you that successful classroom management is an ongoing, evolving process—teachers need to modify their daily practices based on the observed behaviors and feedback of their students. This article describes some strategies to manage inquiry-based science classrooms effectively.
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The difficulty in teaching about water pressure is how to represent differences in water pressure, changes that are not visible to the human eye. One way is to manipulate containers of water and to observe the flow of water in different settings at various pressures. The following lesson is one that the author has used over the years in teaching middle school students about water pressure.
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Teachers must start with an organized classroom. Think through how you want your classroom arranged, how students will turn in work, and where supplies are located. Students should also be instructed how the classroom is set up and who should be retrieving supplies. Having numbered containers with supplies is a quick way to distribute materials and check that everything has been returned at the end of the period. This article outlines additional classroom management plans that will prepare new teachers for the first day of school and throughout the entire school year.
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Every teacher’s goal should be to create a classroom atmosphere where students know one another, feel safe both physically and emotionally, and enjoy interacting. By creating a good rapport with your students as well as a positive environment in which students can learn, you will enhance their potential for success and decrease the risk of their acting out to gain attention. This article describes some classroom management strategies to help foster a supportive classroom environment that benefits not only your students, but yourself in the process.
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Kyle Maynard’s book entitled No Excuses is an inspirational story that shows how a positive attitude can lead to great achievements, even when against the odds. Here the author describes how she uses Maynard’s “no excuses” philosophy as the one and only classroom rule for her seventh-grade students. When students enter her class for the first time, they see this printed in bold letters across the board. They recite this every day, until they know it well. They say it until they believe that they can do anything, because anything else is just an excuse.
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In this article, the authors describe how they used formative assessments to ferret out possible misconceptions among middle-school students in a unit about weather-related concepts. Because they teach fifth- and eighth-grade science, this assessment also gives them a chance to see how student understanding develops over the years. This year they used the formative assessment probe “Wet Jeans” from Uncovering Student Ideas in Science: 25 Formative Assessment Probes (Keeley, Eberle, and Farrin 2005).
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Corrosion is a broad term that applies when something is being broken down due to a chemical reaction. Rust or wet corrosion is a specific type of corrosion where iron or steel reacts with water. Science teachers often find that over time, laboratory equipment made of metal may tend to look dull and have symptoms of corrosion. In fact, in certain instances, such equipment may become unsafe to use and provide bogus data results on student experiments. There are several strategies that can be used to address corrosion of lab equipment. This article describes some approaches to combating corrosion.
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This summer the planet parade shifts to the morning skies as most of the visible planets are arranged over the southeastern to southwestern horizons before the Sun rises. And only one planet, Saturn, graces the evening skies. All, with the exception of Mercury and Venus, will stay essentially in the same part of the sky throughout our summer months. Mercury and Venus, as the fastest-orbiting planets, will show a noticeable change in position during the coming three-month period. This month’s column will enable you to chart your course through the summer skies with ease.
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Holding students accountable for their work is always on the minds of teachers. Therefore, while attending a science-teaching symposium held by the California Science Project of Inland California, the author learned about the benefits of using playing cards to call on students—a strategy worth its weight in gold. Here she shares this treasured strategy.
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There’s no better way to celebrate 2009, the International Year of Astronomy, than by curling up with a good book under summer skies. To every civilization, in every age, the skies inspired imagination and scientific inquiry. There’s no better place to start your summer reading than under their influence. Here are a few selections identified by NSTA Recommends’ network of reviewers to help get you started.
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