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Exemplary Science in Grades 5-8: Standards-Based Success Stories


Edited by: Robert E. Yager
$11.96 - Member Price  
$14.95 - Nonmember Price

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$9.72 - Member Price  
$11.21 - Nonmember Price
Details

Type of Product:NSTA Press Book (also see downloadable PDF version of this book)
Publication Title:Exemplary Science Monograph Series
Publication Date:1/1/2006
Pages:237
Stock Number:PB192X2
ISBN:978-0-87355-262-8
Grade Level:Elementary School, Middle School
Read Inside:Read a sample chapter: Teach Them to Fish
NSTA Recommends
Our reviewers—top-flight teachers and other outstanding science educators—have determined that this resource is among the best available supplements for science teaching.
[Read the full review]


Description

Do the Standards really matter in middle school? Nine years after the National Science Education Standards’ release, just how well do science teachers in grades 5 to 8 actually use them to plan content, define improved teaching, and assess real learning? Find out the answers to these key questions in this groundbreaking collection of 15 essays by teachers, researchers, and professors whose specialty is middle school. Nine years after the release of the Standards, these educators describe what they’re doing to achieve the visions for the reform of teaching, assessment, professional development, and content. All the visions correspond to the Less Emphasis and More Emphasis conditions that conclude each section of the Standards, characterizing what most teachers and programs should do less of as well as describing the changes needed if real reform is to occur.

Among this collection’s wide-ranging essay topics: “Teaching Science With Student Thinking in Mind,” “The Relationship Between a Professional Development Model and Student Achievement,” “Creating a Classroom Culture of Scientific Practices,” “Traveling the Inquiry Continuum: Learning Through Teacher Action Research,” “What Do We Get to Do Today? The Middle School Full Option Science System Program,” and “Teach Them to Fish.” This volume is the third in NSTA Press’s Exemplary Science monograph series, which provides the results of an unprecedented national search to assess how well the Standards’ vision has been realized.


Ideas For Use

Middle school teachers typically are organized with grade level groups and discuss and plan for the total curriculum. It is not uncommon for science teachers to work only tangentially with other science teachers and instead focus on the whole program for students in one grade level. With such a focus it is easy to organize projects around issues and problems where the concepts and skills from all areas of the curriculum come into play.

Additional Info

Science Discipline: (mouse over for full classification)
Analyzing data
Collecting data
Communicating
Interpreting data
Measuring
Modeling
Observing
Intended User Role:Administrator, Curriculum Supervisor, Elementary-Level Educator, Middle-Level Educator, New Teacher, Professional Development Provider, Teacher
Educational Issues:Achievement, Assessment of students, Classroom management, Curriculum, Educational research, Inquiry learning, Instructional materials, Learning theory, Professional development, Student populations: Early childhood, Teacher preparation, Teaching strategies

Contents

Introduction:
Implementing the Changes in Middle School Programs Envisioned in the National Science Education Standards: Where Are We Nine Years Later?
Robert E. Yager

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1 Teaching Science With Student Thinking in Mind
Jacqueline Grennon Brooks

Chapter 2 Do You See What I See? The Relationship Between a Professional Development Model and Student Achievement
Charlene M. Czerniak, Svetlana Beltyukova, Janet Struble, Jodi J. Haney, and Andrew T. Lumpe

Chapter 3 Teaching Science With Pictures
Barbara Kay Foots

Chapter 4 Finding Out What… and How They Know
Margaret Foss, Mary Reescano, and Karl Spencer

Chapter 5 Teach Them to Fish
Hector Ibarra

Chapter 6 Creating a Classroom Culture of Scientific Practices
Joseph S. Krajcik, Ann M. Novak, Chris Gleason, and Jay Mahoney

Chapter 7 More Emphasis on Scientific Explanation: Developing Conceptual Understanding and Science Literacy
Joseph S. Krajcik, Elizabeth Birr Moje, LeeAnn M. Sutherland, Alycia Meriweather, Sheryl Rucker, Paula Sarratt, and Yulonda Hines-Hale

Chapter 8 Traveling the Inquiry Continuum: Learning Through Teacher Action Research
Alyssia Martinez-Wilkinson

Chapter 9 Modeling: Naturally Selecting an Effective Teaching Method
Karen Mesmer

Chapter 10 Unlocking the National Science Education Standards with IMaST
Marilyn K. Morey, Richard E. Satchwell Franzie L. Loepp, Tracy Hornyak and Jim Pilla

Chapter 11 Achieving a Vision of Inquiry: Rigorous, Engaging Curriculum and Instruction
Barbara Nagle, Manisha Hariani, and Marcelle Siegel

Chapter 12 Adapting the JASON Project: Real Science. Real Time. Real Learning.
Warren Phillips

Chapter 13 “Re-Inventing” Science Instruction: Inquiry-Based Instruction in a Fifth/Sixth-Grade Classroom
Melissa Rooney and Deborah L. Hanuscin

Chapter 14 What Do We Get to Do Today? The Middle School Full Option Science System Program
Terry Shaw

Chapter 15 ARIES: Science as Discovery… and Discovery as Science!
R. Bruce Ward, Janice Catledge, and Kathy Price

Chapter 16 Successes and Continuing Challenges: Meeting the NSES Visions for Improving Science in Middle Schools
Robert E. Yager

Appendix 1 Less Emphasis/More Emphasis Recommendations From the National Science Education Standards

Appendix 2 Contributors List

Index


This Title Also Available as Part of a Set:
Set: Exemplary Science Series
The eight-volume Exemplary Science Series includes Exemplary Science in Grades PreK–4, Exemplary Science in Grades 5–8, Exemplary Science in Grades 9–12, Exemplary Science: Best Practices in Professional Development, Revised Edition, Exemplary Science in Informal Education Settings, Inquiry: The Key to Exemplary Science, Exemplary Science for Resolving Societal Challenges, and Exemplary Science for Building Interest in STEM Careers. Buy all eight together and save!
Member Price: $113.70 Nonmember Price: $142.15

Book Series
View other books in the Exemplary Science Monograph Series.
Exemplary Science in Grades PreK–4: Standards-Based Success Stories
Exemplary Science in Grades 9-12: Standards-Based Success Stories
Exemplary Science: Best Practices in Professional Development, Revised 2nd Edition
Exemplary Science in Informal Education Settings: Standards-Based Success Stories
Inquiry: The Key to Exemplary Science
Exemplary Science for Resolving Societal Challenges
Exemplary Science for Building Interest in STEM Careers

National Standards Correlation

This resource has 17 correlations with the National Standards.  
[VIEW CORRELATIONS]

This resource has 17 correlations with the National Standards.  
[HIDE CORRELATIONS]

  • Context of Professional Development
    • Leadership
      • Support the sharing of teacher expertise by preparing and using mentors, teacher advisers, coaches, lead teachers, and resource teachers to provide professional development opportunities. (NSES)
  • Process Standards for Professional Development
    • Data-Driven
      • Uses disaggregated student data to determine adult learning priorities, monitor progress, and help sustain continuous improvement. (NSDC)
    • Research-Based
      • Use inquiry, reflection, interpretation of research, modeling, and guided practice to build understanding and skill in science teaching. (NSES)
    • Design
      • Introduce teachers to scientific literature, media, and technological resources that expand their science knowledge and their ability to access further knowledge. (NSES)
      • Uses learning strategies appropriate to the intended goal. (NSDC)
    • Learning
      • Build on the teacher's current science understanding, ability, and attitudes. (NSES)
      • Incorporate ongoing reflection on the process and outcomes of understanding science through inquiry. (NSES)
  • Content Standards
    • Quality Teaching
      • Deepens educators’ content knowledge, provides them with research-based instructional strategies to assist students in meeting rigorous academic standards, and prepares them to use various types of classroom assessments appropriately. (NSDC)
  • Teaching Standards
    • Teachers of science guide and facilitate learning. In doing this, teachers
      • Encourage and model the skills of scientific inquiry, as well as the curiosity, openness to new ideas and data, and skepticism that characterize science.
      • Focus and support inquiries while interacting with students.
      • Challenge students to accept and share responsibility for their own learning.
    • Teachers of science engage in ongoing assessment of their teaching and of student learning.
      • Use student data, observations of teaching, and interactions with colleagues to reflect on and improve teaching practice.
    • Teachers provide students with the time, space, and resources needed to learn science.
      • Create a setting for student work that is flexible and supportive of science inquiry.
      • Make the available science tools, materials, media, and technological resources accessible to students.
    • Teachers of science actively participate in the ongoing planning and development of the school science program.
      • Participate fully in planning and implementing professional growth and development strategies for themselves and their colleagues.
    • Teachers of science develop communities of science learners that reflect the intellectual rigor of scientific inquiry.
      • Structure and facilitate ongoing formal and informal discussion based on a shared understanding of rules of scientific discourse.
      • Model and emphasize the skills, attitudes, and values of scientific inquiry.


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