I was at a science conference recently and overheard several conversations between teachers who were frustrated that science time was being cut at their school to allow for more time to drill reading, writing, and math. I came home and decided to put together one more video to directly address why that's a loss for … Continue reading Getting Administrators Interested in Science
Are you familiar with GSTA's Georgia Standards of Excellence Phenomena Bank? A phenomenon is an interesting "hook" for a topic that students can use to drive exploration. For example, The Blue People of Troublesome Creek introduces a (real life!) family in rural Kentucky who were blue. Students can work from this unusual example to studying … Continue reading Cool hooks and phenomena to drive explorations!
Joining a pilot study, field test, or research study can be a fun great way to learn new content and new teaching skills. Typically, you get access to interesting, new curriculum and you get to implement it while working with a team. It's more social than traditional teaching, and it causes you to reflect on … Continue reading Participate in a Research Study
I wrote Once Upon a Life Science Book: 12 interdisciplinary lessons to create confident readers back before the NGSS (or even the Common Core) had come out (my Earth Science book is tightly aligned with both sets of standards). Teachers have asked me to write up the correlations between the new standards and Once Upon … Continue reading NGSS standards for Once Upon Life
I have two books for science teachers that integrate science content, reading, and writing: Once Upon a Life Science Book and Once Upon an Earth Science Book (obviously, Physical Science is coming...). The NSTA rep for Georgia asked me to prepare a list of Georgia standards met by each chapter of the books. So if … Continue reading Once Upon the Georgia Standards
