Save the River, a grassroots advocacy group established in 1978, lobbies for policies to preserve the upper St. Lawrence River and uses the community’s help to keep an eye on the existing habitats. Recently, they procured the Fresh Sound Foundation grant to support the development of new K–12 ecology curricula by local area teachers to educate students about the St. Lawrence River habitat and the dangers it now faces. What has developed thus far by a small group of science teachers gives students a chance to examine the scientific issues involved in this local resource—an authentic, inquiry-based experience that is both enjoyable and interesting.
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National Lab Day (NLD) was launched by President Obama on November 23, 2009, and is a collaboration of more than 200 education, science, and engineering organizations, including NSTA. Teachers can use the NLD network to develop ongoing collaborations with local STEM professionals to mentor students, obtain help with lab facilities and equipment, and conduct projects that inspire students to follow STEM careers. NLD is meant to culminate in a series of events that highlight local, regional, and national exemplary projects and recognize outstanding community volunteers.
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In the first months of 2009, the International Year of Astronomy, the authors developed an educational project for middle-level students connected with the first astronomical discoveries that Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) made 400 years ago. The project included the construction of a basic telescope and the observation of the Moon. The project, if completed in full, can be accomplished in about 20 hours over the course of a month.
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Being green means different things to different people. Some suggest that being green means saving energy, not wasting paper towels, going solar, harnessing wind, using less fertilizer, or buying products that are organically grown. Given that being green can mean a lot of things, what does “being green” or “going green” mean to both you and your students? To find out, we need to make informed decisions by collecting data. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to become familiar with some of the basic steps involved in designing a survey to identify people’s attitudes, feelings, beliefs, or knowledge about environmental issues and being green.
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What makes an outstanding book for a young reader? Although it would be hard to create a rubric for every book, experienced teachers recognize them quickly. They fascinate and captivate with both their content and style. Award-winning trade books inspire young readers to want more… more information, more books, more inquiry, more science. The Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K–12 lists the best science trade books published in 2009.
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Situating instruction in a local context, socioscientific issues (SSIs) offers students an opportunity to become active participants in the community and has the potential to encourage them to authentically and critically participate and engage in understanding, caring for, and transforming the world to which they belong. Photovoice is one way teachers can empower students and reach these goals. This article describes how this active, project-based, constructivist SSI teaching method was incorporated into one middle school science classroom.
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Unfortunately, middle school students often view human impact as an abstract idea over which they have no control and do not see themselves as contributing to the Earth’s environmental decline. How better to uncover students’ ideas concerning human impact in their local community than to have them take photographs. With this objective in mind, the authors developed a program called Picture THIS: Taking Human Impact Seriously, which asks middle school students to take photographs documenting human impact.
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This lesson was developed for middle school students using actual research on grass shrimp (Palaemonetes pugio) to illustrate the process of a scientific investigation. The research was conducted at Savannah State University and funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office of Education through the Living Marine Resources Cooperative Science Center. The lesson had wide applicability and could be used as training on the processes of scientific inquiry, as part of the life science curriculum on crustaceans, or as part of an Earth science/environmental science curriculum.
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The objective of the termite experiment is to walk students through the process of designing and conducting an experiment while allowing them to use inquiry-based methods to infer why, in this lab, termites follow the line of blue Bic or Paper Mate brand ballpoint pens. This experiment also reinforces the concept of observation versus inference and introduces independent and dependent variables. Students not only identify variables, but also identify constants in their experiment.
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Project Citizen is a program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education’s congressionally funded Center for Civic Education, which sponsors both domestic and international programs. The Center for Civic Education’s Civitas International Programs pair U.S. states with countries around the world based on a variety of factors; including geographic similarities. In 2005, Wyoming and Bolivia were paired with one another as the Wyoming–Bolivia Partnership. Since then, both partners have shared cultural exchanges centered on the civic education program. The project described in this article allowed the social studies and science teachers to partner in light of the content being addressed (civic engagement and environmental issues).
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During the month of May, the author’s eighth-grade physical science students study the six simple machines through hands-on activities, reading assignments, videos, and notes. At the end of the month, they can easily identify the six types of simple machine: inclined plane, wheel and axle, pulley, screw, wedge, and lever. To conclude this unit, students participate in an inquiry activity to create and race small junkyard vehicles.
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Batteries commonly used in flashlights and other household devices produce hydrogen gas as a product of zinc electrode corrosion. The amount of gas produced is affected by the batteries’ design and charge rate. Dangerous levels of hydrogen gas can be released if battery types are mixed, batteries are damaged, batteries are of different ages, or batteries are inserted incorrectly. The hydrogen gas can cause the battery compartment to rupture, allowing the hydrogen gas to mix with oxygen. This mixture of gases can cause a powerful explosion in the presence of a spark or excessive heat. However, when used properly, batteries are quite safe for classroom use. To reduce risks associated with batteries, consider the guidelines in this month’s column.
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While science is certainly language based, it is also bilingual in the sense that mathematics is also “spoken” in science classes. There are many opportunities throughout the school year to integrate the language of mathematics with science lessons and activities. This month’s column provides some measurement activities that can be incorporated into the science classroom.
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This inquiry-based activity provides a real-world example that connects to students’ everyday seafood choices. In fact, many students went home and insisted to their parents that they should only buy “green” seafood choices. It was also an effective activity because students were able to use what they learned about ocean ecosystems and apply it to a diagram of a local terrestrial ecosystem. As a result of this activity, students have a better understanding of how we impact food webs and why they are important for a healthy, functioning natural world.
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