My mentee just finished his first year as an elementary teacher. I’d like to give him some suggestions for how to reflect on his experiences and plan for next year.
–—Cindy, Coral Springs, Florida
A beginning science teacher had a similar question a few years ago. Here are my suggestions to her (with some updates):
Congratulations for completing your first year! You’ll find the end of the year is as hectic as the beginning, with exams, grades, inventories, and lab clean-up. You’re also looking forward to vacation time with family and friends, graduate courses, home improvements, a summer job, or some much-needed rest. But while your memory is fresh, take some time now to review, reflect on, and learn from your experiences. Record your thinking in a journal or in your planning files.
Start by celebrating your successes. Which students seemed really engaged in your classes? Ask yourself what you did to encourage student learning and engagement. How effective were your strategies to connect with students and parents? Are there any new strategies you would like to try next year? Do you need to revise your classroom management routines and procedures?
If you haven’t done so already, add the Framework for K-12 Science Education and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) to your reading list. Consider these as you review your lesson plans. How do your lessons support these standards and your school’s curriculum? Should you change the amount of time or emphasis you put on some units? Were your lesson plans detailed enough to be adapted or updated for next year, or will you have to recreate them? Based on your assessment data, what instructional strategies should you change (or keep)? How well were activities aligned to the unit goals and lesson objectives? Did your lab activities help students to develop their inquiry and problem-solving skills? How well were you able to access and use the technologies available in your school? What kinds of interdisciplinary connections did you make?

Identify any gaps in your own knowledge base to supplement this summer with online courses, readings, websites, or visits to local informal science institutions (museums, zoos, planetariums, and so on). Take advantage of social media and other online sources (including NSTA)  to keep informed of and share ideas and resources.
As you complete final evaluations/grades for students, ask yourself how well the grades reflect student learning. Or did you factor in things not related to course content? How well did your assessments align with the unit goals and lesson objectives? Did you provide opportunities for students to reflect on their own learning (e.g., through a science notebook, rubrics)?
On a practical note, check with your principal or department chair for any end-of-year checkout procedures. Your classroom may not be secure during the summer months, so stow your lab equipment in locking cabinets or storage rooms. Take valuable or irreplaceable personal belongings home or lock them in a cabinet. Label any large personal items such as a desk chair or stool with your name. If you have personal documents, tests, grades, communications, or other sensitive information on an unsecured hard drive, transfer them to a network drive or to a flash drive. Some schools allow teachers to take their assigned technology home for the summer, but do not remove any school equipment without permission.
Update any equipment and textbook inventories and note if anything needs to be discarded or repaired. Keep your requisition list for next year handy so you can check in new materials arriving over the summer. Make sure items such as glassware, cages, aquariums, sinks, or tabletops are clean and ready for next year. If you can, turn off the gas and water in your lab.
Send a note of thanks to those colleagues and administrators who were especially helpful to you this year.
Based on your reflections, this might also be a good time to formulate your goals for next year. It’s tempting to say, “I’ll think about this in August.” But if you take some time now for thinking, reflecting, and planning, you’ll have more time in the fall to get your second year off to a good start.
 
Photo:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/jjlook/7152722/sizes/s/in/photostream/

During my volunteer stint at a nearby nature center, which is part of a public park, I observed the people coming in and out. Many of them were focused on using the restroom, but many others did take time to look at the exhibits or ask questions of the staff members and volunteers. The visitors ranged from little ones in strollers to senior citizens equipped with binoculars and guidebooks. And another group was involved in a bird banding program with one of the naturalists, who has made some notable discoveries herself as a bander of hummingbirds.  Even though the park abuts a major highway and transportation center with noise from trucks and freight trains, it’s a wetland oasis of green with resident animals–waterbirds songbirds, turtles, snakes, frogs, and a few wary weasels.
Regardless of their ages, everyone was enjoying a beautiful day out of doors at many different levels. That led to a conversation among us about the value of outdoor experiences and using the natural world as a platform for lifelong learning.
There is a wealth of information about nature-related projects that can be implemented in schools and communities. For example, the SciStarter site featured on the NSTA home page describes citizen-science projects that involve students in real investigations and data collection.  I’ve found a few others entlythat might be of interest:
Many teachers and schools plant vegetable gardens as a way of teaching young children about plants and nutrition. School Gardens for the Birds describes another focus for school gardens—adding plants that attract birds and insects.
Explore.org has several live cams that let viewers “visit” different places. (I especially like the osprey cam in Maine). The information about each indicates the best time for live viewing. These could be used to fine-tune observations skills or as discussion prompts.
Bird Tales describes a program that brings the natural outdoor world of birds to people living with dementia. Watch this video clip to see how people’s eyes light up when they see and listen to birds. Their smiles indicate that they are enjoying the interactions with nature. The program resources and guides can be purchased at a minimal cost. Could this be a community service project for interested students or service clubs?
 
 

When I’m introducing young children to a small live animal, such as a worm or a beetle, I may first offer them a chance to use a magnifier to look at a photograph of the animal, up close. From there we may progress to looking at the worm inside a small clear container (with some moisture for its comfort), and later, if the children are interested, they may hold a worm in their hand. “Later” may be in five minutes or in five weeks—it’s important not to rush this hands-on investigation. This gradual introduction may not be necessary for many children (and adults). Author John McCormick tells of his sons’ exposure to cicadas in “Parenting Lessons From Nature’s Creepy Crawlers”.

If you live on the East Coast you may have heard that the periodic cicada Brood II mature nymphs are now emerging from the ground in large pockets from North Carolina to Virginia to New Jersey to New York and Connecticut. They climb onto a leaf or other structure and cast off their “shells” or exoskeletons, which are exuviae—the remains after an insect molts from the nymph stage into an adult form, and slowly unfold their wings. You can report cicada sightings to help map the extent of different broods:
http://project.wnyc.org/cicadas/
http://www.magicicada.org/report/report.php
Or use maps to find out if you will be lucky enough to see more than a few of these interesting insects:
http://www.cicadas.info/
http://www.cicadamania.com/wedding.html
http://www.wjla.com/blogs/weather/2013/04/get-ready-for-swarmaggedon-the-emergance-of-the-cicada-18631.html
If you aren’t lucky enough to have huge numbers of periodic cicadas in your neighborhood, watch and listen to this short video narrated by Sir David Attenborough who gets a close up visit as he relates information about their lifecycle.
Comment below to describe your children’s close encounters with small animals and to list your favorite cicada website.
 

From reading various tweets and blogs, I often find interesting projects and applications. Some are definitely related to science and math, while others have more of a tangential application. I recently found one of the latter (and it’s pretty cool).
On the Open Culture site, there was a posting about music visualization, specifically one of Bach’s Brandenberg Concertos. This features the work of Steven Malinowski in translating musical sounds into graphics. As you play the music, shapes and colors move across the screen to illustrate the notes.
Although one could follow the notes in a score or a piece of sheet music (assuming one can read music), this is a different experience. I can read music and I’ve played a lot of Bach’s organ music, but seeing colors for each instrument or voice is fascinating. The patterns, intricacies, tempo, and overlaps are more evident. There is a link to a YouTube page with even more of these visualizations from other composers.
My colleague and I often played classical music in the background as students worked on projects. The first day we tried this, a student closed his eyes and said “Ahhhh…Mozart.” This was a student we would never have suspected as knowing much about classical music! My colleague loved opera, but we found (with student feedback) that students preferred instrumental music (“The words confuse our thinking.”) I’m wondering how these visualizations might be used to calm down or transition at the beginning of class or as a demonstration of patterns? Or just for fun?
 

What can tell us if an animal is using a plant for food or for a place to rest or live? What will we see if a caterpillar has been eating a leaf  a bird has been roosting on a tree branch? These questions were posed to kindergarten and first grade classes who were about to walk around the school grounds.
The young children went on a “nature walk” looking for evidence and they found it: holes in leaves, insect eggs on a leaf, bird “doo-doo” and ants going into holes in trees. By drawing their observations, the children were able to refer back to them when they returned to the classroom. Discussion with the teacher in the field prepared the children to discuss with other students back in the classroom.
Sitting in a whole class circle, the kindergartners were reminded that they were going to talk together by taking turns. They were asked to share their evidence of animals using plants for food or shelter. Ms Tingler sat back, occasionally acknowledging the next speaker and giving reminders to speak to all (not just the teacher), and the children shared what they saw and thought. They thought that some animal (maybe a caterpillar) had been eating those leaves, and the bird that made the droppings might have been sitting on the branch above, and the ants were using the tree as shelter. There was a lot of repetition, reinforcing the group nature walk experience.
The student science talk shows their beginning understanding that patterns in the natural world (holes in leaves) can be observed and used as evidence, and that animals need food in order to live and grow—part of the practices, core ideas and crosscutting concepts defined in the Next Generation Science Standards.
When asked if we humans are animals, some children said yes, some said no, and some said “Kind of like animals.” To try to clarify their thinking, I asked, “Are people in the same group as animals or as plants?” Evidence given for being plants was that babies come out from mothers, just as seeds come from fruits. Evidence given for being animals was that we have “fur” and eyes, ears, mouth and nose, “like animals.” The children made a great start discussing the question. Further investigation and collecting evidence will be the basis of more discussion. I think they will conclude that people are animals, and like plants, are living organisms that reproduce.

I am the only science teacher at my school and I do not have anyone to ask for help. How can I post a question to all the members of NSTA? (I became a NSTA member in September.) I see there are forums and [e-mail] lists, but I do not know how to participate. For example, right now I’m looking for resources on dissections.
—Chris, Kutztown, Pennsylvania
You may be the only science teacher in your school, but you have thousands of colleagues through NSTA. You’ll find NSTA members are eager to help you and share their experiences and resources—we want all of our students to be successful! In addition to the NSTA blogs, Facebook, and Twitter (#nsta), there are several ways of tapping into this collective expertise:

• NSTA’s Community Forums are threaded discussions on topics submitted by the participants. The forums are divided into Science Disciplines (chemistry, earth and space science, elementary science, general science and teaching, life science, physical science, and STEM) and Pedagogy and Research (evaluation and assessment, new teachers, NGSS, professional development, and research in science education). Choose a forum to examine an existing topic, search for a topic or concept, or post a new topic/question. If you’re looking at an existing topic, you have the option to post your own reply to the group or send a private message to a responder for more information. There is an option to be reminded via e-mail if someone responds to your topic. I searched the community for “dissect” and found several threads that you might start with for your question about dissection:
  • Virtual Dissecting (New Teacher forum)
  • Teacher-Guided Dissections vs Instruction-Sheet Guided Dissections (Life Science forum)
  • Which Dissections Are Best? (Life Science forum)
  • Dissections (Life Science)

• Use NSTA’s E-mail List Server (under the Member Services tab) to access group e-mail discussions that allow members to exchange information in a peer-to-peer environment. NSTA members can subscribe to any (or all) of the 14 topic areas: biology, chemistry, computer science, Earth science, elementary, environmental science, general science, pedagogy, physical science, physics, technology education, new teacher, retired teacher, and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS–the newest list). Colleagues on the list can share ideas, get information, and ask questions. The lists are active 24/7, so information from your colleagues is readily available when you need it. In your case, go to the biology list and ask about activities or lesson plans related to dissections. Include specifics such as the grade level, learning goal, and time frame so your colleagues get a better idea of what you need. I’d suggest setting up a separate e-mail account (e.g., gmail) for the list so your school or personal e-mail accounts don’t get overwhelmed, especially if you subscribe to more than one list.

• NSTA’s SciLinks does not have a keyword for dissection. So another option would be to search NSTA publications. There have been several articles in NSTA journals on the topic of dissection. I’ve put together a collection in the NSTA Learning Center to get you started.