by Lisa Hegdahl

If you are like me, you are being asked to begin implementing the Common Core Standards in my science classroom.  With the help of district trainings, and a curriculum coach to observe delivery of my literacy instruction, I have managed to do so.  Although the lessons have been reasonably successful, I realized I tended to move quickly back to science processes where students are doing science – asking questions, making predictions, and testing hypothesizes.  This past week, though, I had the opportunity to visit a literacy lesson taught by the 8^th grade science team at Rancho Medanos Junior High in Pittsburgh, California.  I ended the day knowing it’s possible to combine science processes with reading literacy in a way I had not considered before.  (more…)

by Lisa Hegdahl

Even though I received this lab from my Master Teacher 22 years ago, I’ve never seen it presented at any conference or seminar I’ve attended.  The lab itself is a little long for a full write up here, but with the basics, you can develop an activity to suit your needs. This lab uses the skill that we all learned as kids: picking up liquids with a straw.  However, in this activity students pick up two different liquids to check relative density.  In a nutshell:

• Prepare four solutions of different densities with varying amounts of saturated saltwater and tap water.  One container has only saturated saltwater, one container has only water, one container has half of each, and the last container has ¼ saltwater and ¾ tap water.
• Color the liquids so they can be identified easily.  (TIP: If you use yellow and blue as two of your colors, don’t use green.  I use red, blue, yellow, and I leave one clear.)

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by Lisa Hegdahl

Karis McFarlane is an environmental scientist who has been using radiocarbons to study and better understand the carbon cycle since 1999. By studying Earth’s carbon cycle—the exchange of carbon between the planet’s land, atmosphere, and oceans—scientists are trying to understand the role played by huge tropical rainforests such as the Amazon River basin. In particular, they want to determine how long an ecosystem stores atmospheric carbon dioxide in its plants, soils, and rivers. At the 2012 CSTA Conference, Karis McFarlane will discuss the ways radiocarbon is used to study carbon cycling in ecosystems, and why it’s unique and important for climate change. She will focus on the importance of understanding how much, and for how long, carbon is sequestered in soil, as well as the role it plays in the carbon cycle. Environmental science educators and other conference attendees will find this lecture informative and thought provoking. (more…)

by Laura Henriques

Learning Physics by Doing Physics

As California science teachers we’ve all heard of the Exploratorium, and I am hoping that most of us have had the pleasure of spending some time there. The Exploratorium is the Grand Dame of hands-on science museums. In addition to the wonderful facility, The Exploratorium hosts workshops for teachers, and publishes books. Their vision includes a focus on learners exploring and making sense of their world through inquiry. A key contributor to that exciting edifice of science education is 2012 California Science Education Conference Focus Speaker Paul Doherty. (more…)

by Amanda L. Smith

Gardener’s: Linguistic; Visual-Spatial; Bodily-Kinesthetic; Interpersonal; Logical-Mathematical
Bloom’s: Knowledge; Comprehension; Application

CA State Standards:
Investigation and Experimentation (Middle School grades 6-8)

Anticipatory Set/Objective:

• Students will be able to: State the values of and abbreviations for each of the prefixes used in the metric system.
• Students will be able to: Convert from one subunit to another subunit within a given unit of the metric system.

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by Donna Ross

In the last installment of Technology for the Classroom, I considered the value of TED-Ed for classroom use.  This issue will examine several uses of YouTube.  Among people with computers and smart-phones, YouTube has become ubiquitous. Even late-night comics mine YouTube videos for humorous gems.  Most students, including those at the elementary grades, have searched for YouTube videos and many have posted their own creations.  However, as I watch those funny cat videos I inevitably seem to be bombarded with material that makes me question the appropriateness for a school setting.   For example, I searched for a video on DNA replication and I was faced with thousands of videos, many with comments that definitely were not school-friendly. Along with some reasonable choices, I also was presented with “popular videos” that, based on the content and the number of views, caused me to despair for the future of our society. But, before despair takes over, let me share some ways to make better use of YouTube for educational purposes. (more…)

by Donna Ross

Technology has become a central component of the science classroom, but it can be overwhelming to consider the vast array of resources. During the next few months I will review a few of my favorite free or low-cost options for teachers. This month I am starting with TED-Ed. In case you haven’t used TED talks, I will start with a brief overview before exploring their new educational initiative.

TED is a nonprofit that began nearly 30 years ago as a conference. The underlying goal was that there are some ideas so important that they are worth sharing. People were invited to come and give a brief talk that would be shared with others. Since then, the conferences have continued, generally two per year with up to 100 presenters sharing talks that last from six to eighteen minutes. Eventually, the goal became even bigger. It seemed that if the ideas were worth sharing, they were worth sharing even more widely. For the past five years, many of the talks have been shared with the world on the TED website http://www.ted.com/talks. (more…)

by Lisa Hegdahl

You enter the science classroom.  As you walk around, you see students working diligently collecting and analyzing data; creating data tables and graphs.  While writing final thoughts, students use evidence to draw conclusions.  Since the very first science class, students have used collected evidence to support their statements.  Students can also use evidence to explain how they come up with answers to every question they encounter in class.

This subtle approach to checking for understanding in my classroom took shape one year when students reviewed for their chemistry final exam.  The difference between elements, compounds, and mixtures was a topic explored at length approximately a month before the test.  Frustrated that some students were identifying substances as compounds that were clearly on the periodic chart, I started asking students to give evidence for how they decided a substance was an element, compound, or mixture.  Not only did this approach compel students to think about why they answered a certain way, it allowed me to understand how students were coming up with the answers to the questions. (more…)

by Lisa Hegdahl

When looking through my files for an article idea this month, I ran across a lab I did years ago when I taught summers at a Science camp.  (more…)

by Lisa Hegdahl

When I was in grade school, I helped my older brother with a homework assignment.  Inside a shoebox were a variety of objects he told me to sort into two piles.  (more…)

by Lisa Hegdahl

It’s almost October!  Along with the cold weather, pumpkins, and scary costumes, it is also time for the annual California Science Education Conference (October 21-23).  And this year, for the first time ever, it is in beautiful Pasadena, California at the Pasadena Convention Center.  I have been an 8^th grade Science teacher for over 20 years; it is a conservative estimate to say that 90% of the educational materials I use on a regular basis have come from the CSTA’s annual conferences. (more…)

For middle and high school students, ages 13-18, who attend school in the San Francisco/Bay area-the NSTA/Applied Materials Clean Tech Competition offers a real-world problem to solve that demonstrates the powerful potential of clean technology. The inaugural year’s challenge will involve students in two of the world’s most historic centers of innovation-the San Francisco/Bay Area and Xi’an, China. The competition will engage youth of all skill, ability and interest levels in a common challenge to highlight the roles that science and technology and the strategy of design play in solving problems that transcend national boundaries and to help prepare students for success in life.  Teams in each region will compete for $17,000 in cash prizes. (more…)

by Lisa Hegdahl

California Science Content Standard 1c for 8^th Grade states: “Students know how to solve problems involving distance, time, and average speed.” (more…)

by Lisa Hegdahl

When I first began teaching, I struggled with classroom management.  When my principal called me into her office that first October and told me that I had written more detentions than any other teacher, she proceeded to send me to a 3-day classroom management seminar.  Over the next few years, I studied many management techniques, and the behavior of my students improved.  I came to realize that good classroom management comes primarily from well-designed lessons, not any one particular “bag of tricks.”

During one of my first years as a BTSA Support Provider, I attended a workshop on non-verbal communication which shared the strategies from a book titled ENVoY: Your Personal Guide to Classroom Management, by Michael Grinder & Associates.  Grinder’s message – to decrease verbal management tendencies and increase attentiveness to our non-verbal messages – has had the biggest impact on the behavior of my students than any other single strategy I have used.  Grinder quotes NEA published research that says 82% of all teacher communications are non-verbal messages.  It would follow that we would want to be sure those messages are clear, consistent, and elicit the desired behaviors. (more…)

by Bonny Ralston, CSTA Middle School Director

Introduction

All science students need to practice the skill of detailed observation.  In describing an object or an observation, it’s important to cite as many details as possible.  In order to engage students to observe all details, it is necessary to have them practice what they should be looking for.  Shape, color, and amount are the most common observations. (more…)

by Rick Pomeroy

This is a simple scenario-type lab that addresses the same concepts and processes that the traditional “e” microscope lab addresses but in a way that engages students in using evidence to solve a simple problem.  (more…)

by Bonny Ralston

Looking at the geologic time scale can be overwhelming for younger students; 4.6 billion years ago has little meaning on its own.  Students can be introduced to large periods of time by accessing information a little at a time. (more…)

by Sue Pritchard

I am sure you have noticed that education looks a bit different these past two years.  The recession has played havoc in how districts assign teachers, and fluctuating student populations make teacher placement even trickier. (more…)