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Hello out there! Ann Cutler begins blogging for JCST
Most of the time, the inside of my head feels twenty five years old. In the same way that human height seems to reach an apex at about that time, I believe our minds develop a sort of default value for our imagined age. From behind my eyes, I don’t...
By AnnC
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I was in an elementary school where scientists from a nearby university visited the schools periodically to work with the students on a variety of activities and to describe their own research. The students were impressed with meeting “realR...
By Mary Bigelow
Blog Post
Request for resources for guiding teachers to become more inquiry based in their teaching
The NSTA Elementary Science List had an interesting query last week: Steve Geresy asked if anyone has any great books on Early Learning Inquiry that have concrete examples for teachers to guide them through the process of becoming more inquiry based ...
By Peggy Ashbrook
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Next year there will be an opening in the middle school science department. Although I love teaching high school chemistry (my current assignment), I’m tempted by the opportunity to try something different. What should I consider to help me dec...
By MsMentorAdmin
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I was facilitating a workshop once, and I overhead these statements from two science teachers: My students are so busy, they don’t have time to think and We have so much fun, the students don’t know that they’re learning....
By Mary Bigelow
Blog Post
Give children tools for exploring a concept and they almost always show me a new way to teach it. In a session of flashlight and mirror exploration, Walter began building by putting a flashlight on top of a single-eyepiece, single-mirror periscope....
By Peggy Ashbrook
Blog Post
Overcoming socioeconomic hurdles
Do you have any advice for working with students in a low-income school? This is my first year in this school, teaching 9th grade environmental science. Classroom management is not an issue and I have a good rapport with the students, but I haven’t...
By MsMentorAdmin
Blog Post
I was in a school once where the teachers did a “winter” unit on penguins with activities that included trade books, puzzles, writing activities, and the showing of several popular films. But there was not a lot of science involved, and o...
By Mary Bigelow
Blog Post
I would like to curl up in a cave until this sore throat and runny nose goes away. And I would like to know exactly how to prevent the spread of cold viruses—me and every other early childhood teacher! Here are some resources on cold germs: A ...
By Peggy Ashbrook
Blog Post
A classic activity to show that air is matter and takes up space is to tuck a piece of tissue into a small clear jar, up end the jar and lower it into a larger container of water....
By Peggy Ashbrook
Blog Post
I’m mentoring a new science teacher. I’ve never done this before, so I’m asking teachers, “What’s the best advice your mentor ever gave you?” -Frank, Clarksville, Tennessee...
By MsMentorAdmin
Blog Post
Invertebrates in the classroom
Children often do not think of invertebrates as animals. If we can train ourselves to talk about insects and other invertebrates not as “bugs” but as “small animals” we’ll help children make that connection....
By Peggy Ashbrook
Blog Post
Playing with magnets and learning about the property of materials
Playing with magnets is a useful science activity in early childhood classrooms because it fosters conversation, exploration of materials, and learning to make predictions....
By Peggy Ashbrook
Blog Post
It’s one thing to get students to recite definitions for the states of matter. But what do they really understand? For instance, the word “gas” is confusing. My students had to stop and think whether the word was referring to a state of...
By Mary Bigelow
Blog Post
Setup day for NSTA staff here in Cincinnati and all is going smoothly. We’re looking forward to thousands of attendees engaging in outstanding professional development and returning to their classrooms full of ideas and energy! Not-to-miss eve...
By Howard Wahlberg