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Book Chapter
The Gammatown Crisis Challenge
In this lesson, students synthesize their learning from the previous lessons to address the module’s culminating challenge—the Gammatown Crisis Challenge. Student teams are each challenged to assume the role of one of several stakeholder groups t...
Book Chapter
This lesson introduces students to the module challenge—the Rainwater Roundup Challenge. Through a slideshow and water activity, students learn about water as a scarce natural resource. As a foundation for understanding the relationship between sta...
Book Chapter
In this lesson, students continue to explore rainwater by examining the interconnectedness of Earth’s spheres. Students investigate water handling features at home and in school while conducting surveys. They learn about the need to improvise to bu...
Book Chapter
In this lesson, students continue to address the Rainwater Roundup Challenge as they determine the best shape and dimensions for a storage container for rainwater collection. Students compare their rain gauge data with rainfall data from previous yea...
Book Chapter
The Rainwater Roundup Challenge
This lesson begins with a student email to the teacher for the class bringing to their attention a big problem with the rainwater-recycling project—gravity! Students are challenged to help create solutions for this problem. To move forward with the...
NSTA Press Book
Radioactivity, Grade 11: STEM Road Map for High School
What if you could challenge your 11th graders to figure out the best response to a partial meltdown at a nuclear reactor in fictional Gammatown, USA? With this volume in the STEM Road Map Curriculum Series, you can! Radioactivity outlines a journe...
Journal Article
People with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) become more widely recognized as part of our population every year. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, about 1 in 59 c...
By Katie Slivensky, Ellen Cohn, Alexander Lussenhop, and Christina Moscat
Journal Article
Making On and Off the Spectrum
People have been making since the first human used a tool, and have continued to create things for both fun and function. From building model trains to quilting, from woodworking to baking, people have for centuries been enriching their own lives by ...
By Wendy Martin, Regan Vidiksis, Kristie Patten Koenig, and Yu-Lun Chen
Journal Article
In the last two decades, precollege engineering education has become more prevalent. At the same time, the number of children diagnosed with autism is rapidly growing. Over half a million children with autism will enter adulthood in the next decade...
By Hoda Ehsan, Elizabeth Gajdzik, and Monica Cardella
NSTA Press Book
Picture-Perfect Science Lessons, Fifth Grade
Picture Perfect Science: Grade 5 combines the appeal of children’s picture books with standards-based science content. The series contains lessons, complete with student pages and assessments that use picture books to guide instruction. Lessons a...
By Karen Ansberry, Emily Morgan
NSTA Press Book
Picture-Perfect Science Lessons, Third Grade
Picture Perfect Science: Grade 3 combines the appeal of children’s picture books with standards-based science content. The series contains lessons, complete with student pages and assessments that use picture books to guide instruction. Lessons a...
By Karen Ansberry, Emily Morgan
Book Chapter
The Hybrid Language of the Science Classroom
In this chapter, ways are discussed in which language serves different social purposes. We highlight the social language of science as a unique hybrid that includes four modes—natural language, mathematical expressions, visual representations, and ...
Book Chapter
Inquiry-Based Science as a Context for Communication
In this chapter, ways are examined in which you can make use of science inquiry lessons to support the development of the multimodal language of science. We focus on science as a context for language learning and explore inquiry practices of science....
Book Chapter
The 5R Instructional Model for Science Instruction for Emerging Multilinguals
In our effort to support inquiry-based lessons and hybrid language learning, we developed the 5R Instructional Model. This chapter outlines the Model in general terms, and envisions it as an instructional tool for designing lessons that provide scaff...
Book Chapter
In this chapter, replace is discussed as one component of the 5R Instructional Model. Replacing serves to facilitate the development of more precise ways of meaning-making using the hybrid language of science. Replacements mostly involve a one-to-o...
Book Chapter
In this chapter, reveal is introduced as one component of the 5R Instructional Model. A critical aspect of this “R” is that it supports Emergent Multilingual Learners (EMLs) as they develop language for new concepts using the four modes of the ...
Book Chapter
In this chapter, the role of repeat is examined within the 5R Instructional Model. Repetition is used to provide Emergent Multilingual Learners (EMLs) with multiple opportunities to encounter and express scientific meaning using all of the modes of...
Book Chapter
In this chapter, reposition is introduced as a component of the five Rs.The critical aspect of repositioning is to provide Emergent Multilingual Learners (EMLs) with extended opportunities to assume the complexities of the hybrid language. Reposit...
Book Chapter
In this chapter, the “R” of reload is discussed. The critical aspect of reloading is that it provides Emergent Multilingual Learners (EMLs) with opportunities to revisit words they have previously encountered within a lesson. Reload differs from...
Book Chapter
This chapter brings the work full circle. We provide the voices of teachers who have used the 5R Instructional Model as a tool in developing their own science lessons. Thinking of this model as an overlay when using the learning cycle, these teachers...
NSTA Press Book
Supporting Emergent Multilingual Learners in Science, Grades 7–12
Many middle and high school teachers are educated to teach science content—they don’t anticipate that one day they may be teaching it to students who need to learn both content and English. If the day has come when you’re facing that two-pronge...
By Molly Weinburgh, Cecilia Silva, Kathy Horak Smith
NSTA Press Book
A Head Start on Science, Second Edition: Encouraging a Sense of Wonder
Imagine what fun it could be for 3- to 7-year-olds to engage in a game of Prism Play or Magnetic Scavenger Hunt or Where Did the Shadows Go? Then imagine how convenient it would be for you if such activities came with the connections, standards, and ...
By William C. Ritz, William Straits
Book Chapter
This activity focuses on using magnifiers to look closely at objects. Encourage students to use them in any part of the classroom or outdoors to help in their investigation. Magnifiers should always be kept in the science center as a reminder that it...
Book Chapter
This activity focuses on students looking at their skin, fingernails, hair, and clothes through a magnifier. Give each student a magnifier and ask them to look at their hands through the lens. Listen to their comments to see what they are discovering...
Book Chapter
This activity is about discovering that sunlight shining through a prism produces rainbow colors. Prisms work best in natural light so ask students to place pieces of white paper on the ground and show them how to hold their prisms so that the sunlig...
Book Chapter
This Color Walk activity is to look for objects in the environment that are a particular color. Green is chosen here but other colors may work well too, depending on the season and your location. Pictures may be taken or ask students to draw what th...
Book Chapter
This Shape Walk activity is to look for objects in the environment that are a particular shape. It’s best to choose a shape that will be found often in your environment. A square is a good one to start with, as it is among the most common and one ...
Book Chapter
This activity is about discovering that our eyes need light to see and in order for something to be seen, we need light. The activity works best on a cloudy day when not much sunlight is lighting the room, but make your room as dimly lit as possible....
Book Chapter
This activity uses the sense of sight to find matching objects. Take the students outside and ask them to find some items that look the same as the ones you collected and put in their bags. Back in the classroom, ask them to look at their items with ...
Book Chapter
This activity is for observing and tasting foods that are salty, sour, sweet, or bitter. Give each student a piece of four different foods, such as tortilla chip, pineapple, pickle, and green apple. As children taste each one, encourage a conversatio...
Book Chapter
This activity is for using the sense of smell to observe and identify different scents. At the start, discuss with the students how our sense of smell is very important and can help us identify different objects. Then distribute one set of “smelly ...
Book Chapter
This activity is for sorting flowers based on their scents. Have children arrange their flowers in a Sorting Box with all the flowers that smell on one side and those that don’t on the other side. Ask them to talk more about the sense of smell, wha...
Book Chapter
Sound: Shake, Rattle, and Roll
This activity focuses on exploring, comparing, and identifying sounds. Ask children to close their eyes and focus on their sense of hearing while making different sounds and letting them guess the sound. Then give a set of clear sound containers to ...
Book Chapter
This activity takes the children on a sound walk around the school grounds or surrounding neighborhood to listen for different sounds. The children should walk without talking until they hear some sounds. Once back inside ask them to draw a picture o...
Book Chapter
This activity explores sound and vibrations using rulers. Children are asked to observe and describe how the ruler moves or “vibrates” as it makes sound. After noticing that different sounds are possible, children will change the position of thei...
Book Chapter
This activity is about reusing materials to make sounds. In the activity, children use their used cups and paper towels to make a noise maker that results in a very realistic duck sound! Children will want to continue this activity all day long. Inst...