news & tips for teachers
The Science of Teaching
Black Light
September 8th, 2010
I was asking a group of energetic 6th graders what questions they had about science. I will detail more of the questions in a later blog but one in particular stood out. One young man with a father deployed overseas asked why …
Inquiry from The Start
August 16th, 2010
The students will be marching or sauntering into your classroom this week or the next. There will be a thousand administrative things to do. I think that a good inquiry might be the best way to start the year. You can take …
Hot Topic
July 17th, 2010
The sun is beating down today and so we are thinking about solar energy. We are actually thinking about going to the pool but at 112 heat index inside in air conditioning writing a unit on solar energy is a bit saner. …
Decisional Thinking in Science
July 13th, 2010
I am still tackling the task of tweaking my lessons from last year to make them more effective. That task never seems to end but it is made easier by a file cabinet full of idea sheets that I have saved from …
Photo Essays
July 6th, 2010
I love interesting photos almost as much as I love a good lab. I know the labs teach more but there is some really unexplored teaching potential in photography. This is especially true with the cheaper digital equipment that is available today. …
Building Your Own Science Equipment
July 1st, 2010
With the mid summer time coming into view most of us are up to our ears in home projects and if you are like me you may need a break from those painting, plastering, sanding, and cleaning tasks. I needed a break …
The Science of Floods
June 24th, 2010
Many of you will experience an overabundance of rainfall sometime in your lifetime. Here in the Midwest we call those floods. When a significant amount of rain falls on already saturated ground the water tends to cause the rivers to overflow their …
The Big Story of 1952
June 15th, 2010
Sometime in the 1980’s my school brought in a staff development video (remember videos?) that was titled “What you are Now is What You Were When”. The gist of the video was that the way we view the world is shaped by …
A Few Thoughts on Assessment
June 6th, 2010
Most of us are so busy grading assessments that we seldom have time to fix what might not be working in each assessment so that next time we test over a unit or chunk of content we have a much better device …
The Well Stocked Elementary Science Classroom
May 25th, 2010
My Father wanted a new chair and being a Depression Era baby he wanted to get one for a very low price. So, I scheduled a little garage sale shopping in my week. This got me thinking about an old course I …
National Lab Day
May 20th, 2010
May 12th was National Lab Day and while its name seems to mean one day it is actually an ongoing project that has some real value to those of us who teach science. There are some excellent resources and some ongoing connections …
Oil Spill
May 11th, 2010
There is no way to put a positive face on the disaster looming in the Gulf of Mexico with the BP oil disaster. We can use it as a teachable moment as the event will likely last well into the summer and …
Space Day
May 4th, 2010
NASA and their budget cuts has been a news topic this week. Not many of my students are tracking the changes to the US space program but those of us who sat spellbound while Neil Armstrong walked on the moon may view …
Iceland Volcano
April 29th, 2010
From the blogs of this last 6 months it seems I have a fondness for earth science. That is a bit true but the current events in Iceland gave us all a teachable moment that was simply too good to pass up. …
Earth Day
April 19th, 2010
Happy Earth Day! This week folks around the globe will celebrate the 40th Earth Day. A quick search will show you what might be going on in your city. There should be some activities that you may want to participate in with …
T-shirt chromatography
April 13th, 2010
The year is going to come to a close pretty soon for many. For those in the Midwest or east the year may be extended due to snow days. For those who will be in school longer you may need a …
Growing New Scientists
April 6th, 2010
Good science teachers are a curious lot. We are liberal and conservative, all shapes, sizes, ethnic groups and all sort of crazy. But, one thing we all share is a passion for out subject. We eat dream and sleep science and have …
Fantastic Plastic
March 29th, 2010
Spring is here and there are a host of clean-up projects going on in elementary classes in my city. We did help at a local lake and the volume of plastic we collected filled 3 trucks. Several years back that prompted me …
Science Timelines
March 22nd, 2010
We tend to take for granted the science that has been with us for over a decade. Most kids cannot imagine life without refrigeration or TV. However, most of those inventions are relative newcomers in the technological timeline. I am old enough …
Reasons for The Seasons
March 18th, 2010
Spring has finally made a guest appearance in most parts of the country. That is an attention grabber for any kids who have lived through what is the 9th coldest winter in recorded history for the USA. So, to capitalize on that …
Adhesive Science
March 10th, 2010
There is a whole branch of chemistry and materials science that deals with adhesives. If you had a degree in chemistry you could specialize in that field. What we take for granted on one side of tape is actually pretty rich with …
When the Earth Shakes
March 1st, 2010
On Saturday morning miles off the coast of Chile and 22 miles under the surface of the earth there was a shift in the plates that form the boundaries of our planet. This shift released some pent up energy, much like snapping …
Bird Watching in Winter
February 22nd, 2010
Outside my home and classroom the birds are slowly starting to return. It is easier to see them against the backdrop of snow that still remains from the winter storms. The kids in your classroom will be anxious to turn their attention …
Famous Scientists
February 18th, 2010
Many times we insert a famous scientist into our curriculum to satisfy some state or district level requirement. The students learn about Einstein, Franklin, Galileo or maybe Marie Curie. However, there are thousands of others who had contributions that just might ignite …
What, More Snow?
February 10th, 2010
It is winter and if you live in the Midwest or the east you are about ready for spring to melt the 3 feet of snow outside your door and watch the bulbs bloom. But, the long term forecast you we may …
The Olympics
February 1st, 2010
The Olympics are here soon and the excitement in my classes is electric. How could I not capitalize on that enthusiasm? So, for this week’s blog it is all things scientific about the Olympics. First, I love alpine skiing. There is …
Calorie Science
January 25th, 2010
January is usually a time when people begin diets and try to work off the extra cookies and snacks they ate over the holidays. Students are interested because either they are looking more closely at their own nutrition or their parents are …
Disaster Science
January 18th, 2010
The catastrophe in Haiti is going to be in the news for months. Your students and mine will be paying attention and interested in what is going on. Many schools have organized fundraising activities. For those reasons and hundreds of others it …
Clocks in the Classroom
January 11th, 2010
In January many students, and teachers, will believe that time moves more slowly. Not true but the short days and the cold weather often plays tricks with our sense of time. That opens an amazing teachable moment for science.
The Daily Calendar
January 5th, 2010
One of the great joys of the new year is selecting a new calendar for my desk and wall. The good part about doing it in January or late December is that we get to buy them at a discount. Teachers love …
Grading in the New Year
December 29th, 2009
With only a week left in most holiday breaks most teachers are passing by a stack of papers on their way to take care of family needs and dreading digging into the grading in preparation of the start of a new semester …
Temperature Map
December 21st, 2009
It is that time of year when the kids will do a tap dance on your last nerve. The weeks before vacations seem to bring out the hyperactivity in all. I try to plan some activities that keep the kids moving. That …
The Joy of Toys
December 8th, 2009
Every teacher should have a box of toys on their desk. Mine has an old top, a yo yo, a few home made spinning things, some great silly putty, a Koosh Ball, a pair of happy/sad balls and an odd assortment of …
The Periodic Table of Thinking
December 1st, 2009
This week is the infamous periodic table of something assignment. I ask my students to select a group of items like candies or soft drinks and ask my students to group them into a table that has a trend that tracks from …
National Lab Day
November 25th, 2009
The White House is launching a new lab initiative that should help link some of the research labs to K-12 schools. The program is called “The National Lab Day Initiative”. This is a good idea but many of these plans fail because …
Making Content Sticky
November 16th, 2009
We all face the dreaded day when our kids face an exam that is heavy in content and we hope they will be able to remember all that they have experienced and be able to apply that content on the exam. The …
Black Boxes
November 11th, 2009
I always tell my students that all of chemistry is guided by those pesky little electrons. Since you cannot see them it is tough to teach kids about how them. All of the evidence you can present is indirect. So, I start …
Clearance Bin Science
November 2nd, 2009
The Halloween candy is almost all gone, except for the kinds that usually do not sell, and all the items in that frightening isle at the store are half off. That is the perfect time to use some creativity to whip up …
Look Until You Really See
October 27th, 2009
We often underrate the power that simple observation can play in our science lessons. We look at a flower or a diagram or a tree or a leaf and we see the macro view. When kids get to play around with microscopes …
Balloons and a Boy
October 19th, 2009
Unless you have been on another planet you know about the Balloon Boy hoax. This is where the little 6 year old guy in Colorado was believed to be in a helium balloon shaped like a flying saucer. However, it turns out …
Virtual Journey with a Plastic Boat
October 13th, 2009
The science news this week is mostly centering on weather but the environment is cranking up the importance scale. It is not because of any single event but because of the rising importance and cost associated with garbage. I sit here drinking …
Disaster Science
October 7th, 2009
In the wake of the devastating earthquake I thought it would be appropriate to give my kids some science related to disasters. We always have a current events folder and bulletin board and it seemed to be full of disaster related news.
Tracking the Sun
September 30th, 2009
It is fall in my part of the world and the Aspens are starting to change color. The changing colors of the leaves provide an excellent opportunity for me to teach a bit of chemistry, climate or seasonal patterns. I, like many …
Soda Pop Science
September 24th, 2009
In my chemistry class we have been measuring the density of lots of different liquids. By far the most interesting seems to be soda pop. Regular Pepsi will float in a tank of water and diet Pepsi will sink. We have found …
New Year, New Resources
September 11th, 2009
The start of every year brings some surprises. As teachers we are always adjusting to increasing and decreasing class sizes and kids who switch classes like most folks switch clothing. How do we cope with the changing nature of the start of …
September 7, 2009
September 8th, 2009
I have been thinking a fair amount about connecting kids to something that will interest them long after science class. I know that there are lots of connections but the one that I keep coming back to is Astronomy. This was fostered …
One Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
September 4th, 2009
What can you do with one good photo in a science class? The answer is actually quite complex. If you have access to a photo site like National Geographic Photo of the Day (http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-of-the-day?source=email_inside_20090903) or MSN Photos of the Week (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3842331/ ) …
Teaching the Big Ideas in Science
September 1st, 2009
For years I have had countless revisions in my curriculum as the standards and benchmarks for my district and state evolved. Lots of districts have tests that must be addressed in the curriculum. A few years back I began to rearrange my …
Starting the Year Right
August 13th, 2009
OK folks! It is time to start your engines for another year and a new batch of fresh young minds. This is the time of year when we cannot walk past a back-to-school sale without buying a few things for those kids …
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