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“Don’t smile until Thanksgiving.” When I started teaching, that was the advice from a few veterans on the staff. Fortunately for my students, I disregarded that advice and followed the example of my advisor: “Be fair, firm, an...
By Mary Bigelow
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Scoring objective tests is easy: the answer is either correct or incorrect. But with essay questions, lab techniques, writing assignments, reports, cooperative or group work, presentations, or other projects (including multimedia ones), it gets more ...
By Mary Bigelow
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Finding materials for science activities
So many times I wish I had everything I need to do an activity with my five classes of two to five-year-olds—all in a kit. Managing materials in a way that doesn’t distract from the concept being explored, but keeps it foremost in the children�...
By Peggy Ashbrook
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Each chapter in my science textbook is loaded with new vocabulary. How can I help students to deal with this specialized vocabulary? —Dan, Ramapo, New Jersey This task can be overwhelming. High school texts may have more than 3,000 specialized ...
By MsMentorAdmin
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Some of you may remember the pre-Internet days when if you didn’t subscribe to a mailed publication, you had to trek to a public or university library to catch up on your reading on science topics. I must confess that for me back then, it was diffi...
By Mary Bigelow
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Using science notebooks with young students
Science Notebooks can be useful tools, even with young students who are just learning to read and write. See how kindergarten teacher Kathryn Kaatz incorporated science writing and drawing as she took her students on “A Walk in the ‘Tall,...
By ManagingEditorSC
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Weekly Wondering: What Are You Doing to Get Ready for the New School Year?
August is here, and that can only mean one thing: The new school year is right around the corner! Teacher Vision offers some tips for starting off the school year, such as organizing portfolios for students and designing bulletin boards. There is al...
By ManagingEditorSC
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As the new school year is getting underway, are you looking for some experiences to get students focused on scientific thinking and research skills? How can we show students what scientists actually “do” and how they communicate?...
By Mary Bigelow
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Send us your teacher's picks
Each Early Years column features resources selected by real teachers–and we want yours! We’re seeking Teacher’s Picks on the following themes:...
By ManagingEditorSC
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The Summer Early Years column An Invertebrate Garden featured Teacher’s Picks from science resource teacher Fred Arnold of Spencerport, New York, who helps teachers and students raise Painted Lady butterflies, mealworms, super mealworms, and m...
By ManagingEditorSC
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To a science teacher, an ideal summer day might include a stroll through a zoo or botanical garden, a cool afternoon in a planetarium or aquarium, a hike in a state or national park with a pair of binoculars and a guidebook, or a visit to a museum. O...
By Mary Bigelow
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Predator finds caterpillars indoors
Last August I had four monarch butterfly larvae chewing up milkweed leaves on my kitchen windowsill as fast as I could provide them. The caterpillars were borrowed from the elementary school habitat as eggs to show to children in a workshop in a few ...
By Peggy Ashbrook
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Who needs a slug? was the question this week at a program I gave at the public library. The children, ages 6-10, carefully picked through habitat-like containers I had compiled the day before from my yard....
By Peggy Ashbrook
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An invertebrate garden and …
It feels like summer will be over before we know it! Many of you—those who actually had a summer off that is—are busy preparing your classrooms and projects for the coming school year....
By ManagingEditorSC
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Welcome to the new Early Years blog
Early childhood science educators: this is your place! We’re starting simply but hope to expand this site with your help. Here are a few plans for the blog. We hope you’ll chime in with your suggestions. Science and Children editors wi...
By ManagingEditorSC
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The solar system, the metric system, the circulatory system, the system of checks and balances, transportation systems, broadcasting systems, information systems, the Dewey Decimal system – we see the word “system” every day in a variet...
By Mary Bigelow
Blog Post
I’m getting ready for a two-week camping trip to upstate New York for a family reunion, sightseeing, and hiking/birdwatching. I’m also looking forward to propping up my feet and reading in the fresh air. As I add to my bag of reading mate...
By Mary Bigelow
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In the ideal world, every school would have whatever materials it takes to provide quality learning experiences. But our world is not ideal and we teachers have learned to be quite ingenious....
By Mary Bigelow
Blog Post
It’s always amazing to me that there is just about anything you’d want to know (and even things you didn’t know you wanted to know) on the Internet. Just a few clicks in your favorite browser and you’re off on a flight of sere...
By Mary Bigelow
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Whether it’s a riverbank, a lakeshore, or along an ocean or bay, the water is a popular vacation place in the summer. But what if your classroom could be extended to study these places during the school year?...
By Mary Bigelow
Blog Post
For many teachers, the word “notebook” conjures up an image of a folder or binder in which students attach lab reports, homework, class handouts and notes, tests and quizzes, and/or completed worksheets. The students are given a list of r...
By Mary Bigelow
Blog Post
It’s summer and maybe some of us are involved in writing/revising the science curriculum for our schools. Rather than just creating a laundry list of topics to be “covered” based on a textbook table of contents, you might be looking...
By Mary Bigelow
Blog Post
Teachers (and administrators) love so see the word “free.” FREE in this case stands for Federal Resources for Excellence in Education. This website, maintained by the U.S. Department of Education, has links to hundreds of web-based resour...
By Mary Bigelow
Blog Post
The ocean's hidden worlds
What do you get when you combine knowledge, passion, experience, and some fantastic graphics? A friend sent me the link to a TED video of Robert Ballard’s talk on Exploring the Ocean’s Hidden Worlds. I thought I was fairly knowledgeable, ...
By Mary Bigelow
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In previous entries, I’ve mentioned the online, collaborative projects that are part of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology’s (CLO) Citizen Science program. Well, they’ve done it again!...
By Mary Bigelow
Blog Post
Doesn’t it seem like there’s always something new in technology? How can we keep up with what’s going on? I’ve found a resource that can be very helpful: TipLine – Gates’ Computer Tips. This award-winning blog is w...
By Mary Bigelow
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A different kind of assessment
Several issues of NSTA journals this year have had an assessment theme, including the April/May issue of Science & Children and the January issue of Science Scope. I recently became aware of another assessment project called MOSART, which stands ...
By Mary Bigelow
Blog Post
Assessment to guide instruction
“I don’t have many grades for this quarter, so I better give a few quizzes soon.” “I don’t have time for assessments – just let me teach.” I’m sure we’ve heard comments such as these (or thought them ourselve...
By Mary Bigelow
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At first when I saw this issue, I thought of community partnerships, in which students work with organizations outside of school. But I realized by reading the articles, that the activities and resources also apply to the communities of learners with...
By Mary Bigelow
Blog Post
Well, this conference is history, and I’m exhausted in a good way— both physically and mentally. From talks by astronaut Barbara Morgan, Rodger Bybee, and Bill Nye the Science Guy to the awesome resources in the exhibit area to the sessio...
By Mary Bigelow
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So, you’re a presenter and your time slot is the last one of the conference, and your room is the farthest from the lobby. Will anyone come? In the case of Sami Kahn’s presentation on Wikis in the elementary classroom, she didn’t ha...
By Mary Bigelow
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Sunday morning is a tough time for a presenter. Early departures, church services, brunch dates, or too much Saturday evening make it difficult for some to attend sessions at this time....
By Mary Bigelow
Blog Post
Some presenters had basic lectures with PowerPoints, some provided “think-pair-share” opportunities for participants, some had laptops for participants and guided us through simulations or software tools (an advantage to sitting up front)...
By Mary Bigelow
Blog Post
This session prepared us to lead a one-week unit in which students take a “journey” to the Moon. Facilitators Tara Clopper and Heather Slatoff led us in hands-on activities, including designing our own mission patches. One perk with t...
By Debra Shapiro
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With so much to see and do at the conference, I shouldn’t be surprised by the number of people I see no matter how early I arrive. If there’s a workshop going on, there are people in there....
By Lynn Petrinjak
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ISTE (the International Society for Technology in Education) sponsored a series of seven sessions presented by two of the most dynamic educators I’ve ever met: Ben Smith and Jared Mader of the Red Lion School District in PA....
By Mary Bigelow
Blog Post
The exhibit hall is like a science teacher’s paradise! There are so many new things, as well as some tried and true ones. All of the major textbook and trade book publishers are here as well as many of the lab equipment and supply companies. Th...
By Mary Bigelow
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Virginie Chokouanga, the SciLinks database administrator, did a session on using SciLink’s online assignment tool. This tool allows the teacher to create assignments based on the websites in SciLinks. The students can show what they’ve le...
By Mary Bigelow