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I totally agree with the editor of TST this month, concerning the status of the earth sciences in many of our high schools. Many years ago when I was in high school (and when dinosaurs roamed the earth, as my students would say), I started my science...
By Mary Bigelow
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“Are you teaching today or are the students just doing a lab or taking a test?” I used to dread this question from a former principal when he wanted to observe a class. He was implying that the only classroom activity worth observing was ...
By Mary Bigelow
Blog Post
Properties of objects and materials
Inquiry is not as dependent on equipment and technology as it is on the willingness of the teacher to model the process and to move from being a sage on the stage to be a guide on the side (or better yet – a partner in the process)....
By Mary Bigelow
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Talk about an interesting day in the age of electronic information! This afternoon in a listserv I belong to, I read about a report by the National Academy of Sciences on the teaching of evolution in the classroom. There were two news articles, but I...
By Mary Bigelow
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Mathematics and science seem like natural partners when designing interdisciplinary lessons or units. This issue of Science Scope has some suggestions for making these lessons authentic and purposeful, integrating science with geometry, scaling, grap...
By Mary Bigelow
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This month’s Science Teacher is a collection of ideas from low-tech card sorts (a wonderful way to get students thinking) to high-tech investigations that take advantage of technology....
By Mary Bigelow
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It will soon be the time when many schools go into Science Fair mode, with reactions from students (and perhaps some teachers) that range from cheers of excitement to groans of despair. This month’s Science and Children should be required reading f...
By Mary Bigelow
Blog Post
One of my favorite benefits of being an NSTA member is being able to view all of the journals electronically, even though I must confess that I do like the feel of holding an actual book or magazine. I subscribe to the hard copies of The Science Teac...
By Mary Bigelow
Blog Post
This month’s issue has a theme that is appealing to most middle school students – the human body....
By Mary Bigelow
Blog Post
As part of a project I am working on, I was visiting the science classes of teachers who participated in a summer professional education project. One of the elementary teachers indicated that I should wait until April to visit hers. She said that in ...
By Mary Bigelow
Blog Post
From cyberspace to SciLinks: website design
I’ve described a few components of the SciLinks rubric so far: the accuracy and appropriateness of the content, the credentials of the sites owner/author/sponsor, and “interactivity.” The overall design or “look” of a page or website is an ...
By Mary Bigelow
Blog Post
The article Using Japanese Lesson Design to ANTicipate an Invasion on Maui caught my attention, not as much because of the topic of fire ants as an introduced species, but for the description of “Lesson Study.” What I found interesting was how th...
By Mary Bigelow
Blog Post
Bringing biology instruction to life
Here is an interesting coincidence. The other day, I was reading the Science Teacher article on “The Life and Work of John Snow,” with suggestions for an inquiry-based unit of study that focuses on the history and nature of science....
By Mary Bigelow
Blog Post
In the local newspaper, an organization advertised its Haunted House event for Halloween. One of the chambers is the laboratory of a “mad scientist.” I’m sure it was full of the usual stereotypes from horror movies....
By Mary Bigelow
Blog Post
Another Fall event – Mole Day
In a previous entry on fall activities, I forgot to include Mole Day, celebrated on October 23 (10/23) from 6:02 a.m. to 6:02 p.m. The timing of this event celebrates Avogadro’s number — 6.02 * 10^23 For more information on the concept of a “m...
By Mary Bigelow
Blog Post
This is the theme of the October Science and Children....
By Mary Bigelow
Blog Post
From cyberspace to SciLinks: website interactivity
It took me a while to get used to this part of the rubric. When I first became involved with software design back in the 1980s (yes, light years ago!), “interactivity” meant that the user could explore the program (there were no websites then) by...
By Mary Bigelow
Blog Post
It’s October already–the air is getting a little cooler, the leaves are changing color, and the number of daylight hours is decreasing. Some birds have left for their winter homes, and others are arriving or passing through. And, of course, the W...
By Mary Bigelow
Blog Post
September publications and SciLinks
Each month, I’ll mention some sites that relate to that month’s themes of the three K-12 NSTA journals. These are sites that illustrate what I think is a good use of the technology. Science and Children – Animals – I’d certainly like to ...
By Mary Bigelow
Blog Post
From cyberspace to Scilinks: content and credibility
How does a website become part of SciLinks? Potential topics are identified from the content of SciLinked textbooks or NSTA publications. (The SciLinks homepage has a list of textbooks). Sites are then selected from the database, or spotters are aske...
By Mary Bigelow
Blog Post
For many of you, the school year is starting, or will soon. Summer flies by in a blink. But if you have a little prep time left and are looking for new materials to add to your curriculum, I encourage you to try SciLinks, NSTA’s online sourc...
By Mary Bigelow