All Blog Posts (50)

National Curriculum in Australia - Mining Industry influences EES course!

I write to you having just returned from the Australian Science Teachers Association annual conference, held in Canberra over four days. This was a fantastic opportunity to hear about contemporary science in action from experts in a variety of fields. However, my observations and discussions over the past few days have been of great concern with respect to the state of education for sustainability in Australia.

I have been the member of several expert panels to provide feedback to… Continue

Added by Britt Gow on July 21, 2012 at 6:06pm — No Comments

Off The Grid

We’re off once again. Trying to contact me, or one of my little band of students, in the coming week will be next to impossible. We’ll be completely off the grid. We’ll be far from the pace that guides us in this country today. We’ll be far from conducting “school” in…

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Added by Sean Nash on April 23, 2012 at 1:30pm — No Comments

A scavenger hunt quiz?

Today my students used the ActivExpression's self-paced option differently than I have done before. Students previously how to measure the mass and volume of different objects. They also had learned to calculate the density using mass and volume.

I set up a “Performance Assessment” that involved the ActivExpressions. The classroom had 21 “Stations” labeled A-U. Each station had the materials needed for the assessment question assigned to it. Questions were assigned to be…

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Added by Glen Westbroek on October 27, 2011 at 4:58pm — No Comments

Softening the Walls of a Science Classroom

If you have never watched Creature Cast, you should. Creature Cast is fun, and fun is good.

Seriously, if you haven’t noticed it, and you teach in the field of Biological sciences, you should notice it, if not for the content,…

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Added by Erin Nash on March 20, 2011 at 10:11am — No Comments

Are You Smarter than a 7th Grader?

Several teachers expressed interest in a common assessment form we use at my school. My school has grades 7-9 and several students often struggle with Science Processes and Skills. My science teaching team decided to come up with a fun way to review these processes and skills. This is done in a bi-weekly quiz we call "Are You Smarter than a 7th Grader?"

I've attached two different…

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Added by Glen Westbroek on November 30, 2010 at 9:00pm — No Comments

Online Learning Networks in Science - An Interview

In keeping with the concept of using my blog as not only a synthesis of what I think, but also of what I do, I add this post. Last week I recorded a telephone interview with the folks at natureEDUCATION on the topic of online learning… Continue

Added by Sean Nash on October 15, 2010 at 4:21pm — No Comments

The Synapse Builds Partnership

A couple of years ago a few of my digital friends and I brought this space to life: The Synapse. A week later I wrote about it here. The site derives its origin directly from a frustrating discussion in the Twittersphere between biology instructors of many… Continue

Added by Sean Nash on October 2, 2010 at 10:30pm — No Comments

Building Research Skills

Another integral part of the scientific process is research. Since 90%

of what student will read as adults will be for information, learning to

locate and analyze information is a skill that will benefit them

throughout their life. Researching promotes critical thinking

processes, enabling students to make informed decisions and solve

problems. The University of Pennsylvania says teaching research skills

can help students gain “confidence and facility in using… Continue

Added by The Scientific Homeschool on September 18, 2010 at 11:46am — No Comments

The Ancient Practice of Observation

A Fundamental Science Skill

Observation has been the touchstone of objectivity in science for thousands of years. It has been used by humanity throughout history to record a hunt or battle, track the passage of time and seasons, detail

the success of an exploration or follow the progress of illness in a

village.

Aristotle said of observation: “We value our sight above almost everything else. The reason for this is that of all the senses sight makes…

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Added by The Scientific Homeschool on September 9, 2010 at 8:33am — 1 Comment

Observations and Inferences

I recently read the…

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Added by Glen Westbroek on August 14, 2010 at 11:09pm — No Comments

What drives change?

This past week, I had the opportunity to participate in the pilot STEM training developed by Intel Teach and Vernier Software. I am impressed with how closely aligned the training was with the proposed National Science Standards Framework.

During the week, participating teachers used Vernier probes to model STEM activities their students might do.…

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Added by Glen Westbroek on August 6, 2010 at 10:33pm — No Comments

Future of our Ning

Is our Ning going to continue?

Added by Sharon Padget on April 28, 2010 at 9:50am — 3 Comments

She Might Be Jackson Pollock

Prepare for awesome. Whatever it is you do for that… do it. I have no idea what you may have thought of They Might Be Giants prior to this post. If you are unfamiliar, prepare for awesome. You are hereby twice warned.

What does the scribble drawing above have in common with the video below? Today's post is a closeup look at a toddler's handheld digital learning experience. This experience is a fun little mashup of content from TMBG… Continue

Added by Sean Nash on March 28, 2010 at 11:13am — 2 Comments

It's not the 18 minutes

Passion

I implore you to take a few minutes of your day to check out a rather passionate professional, Princeton Professor of Molecular Biology, Dr. Bonnie Bassler Ph.D. Dr. Basler's 2009 TED talk is worth watching. If you are a biology teacher, the content is crucial. Even if you just happen to be interested in the world around you- then this talk is for you. It… Continue

Added by Sean Nash on March 22, 2010 at 3:00pm — 1 Comment

The Extended Value of Classroom Networks

Connected

An interesting thing happened on the way home from Educon 2.2 last Sunday night. Walking through the terminal and against my exhaustion, I reflexively checked my mail. Lazy eyes lifted open, I flicked my thumb scrolling… trolling for a demand of action. I’m hyper-connected. I pay for it. And yet, I’m a better teacher and leader because of it. Cutting to the chase, here is the simple, yet interesting email I…

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Added by Sean Nash on February 5, 2010 at 3:30pm — No Comments

Is This a Sluggish Strategy?

The following verse was created in response to and in reflection on the following mass-media story: Sea Slug Surprise: It’s half-plant, half-animal. Overall, this post starts with a bit of participation and play, continues with the story of how the “Sci-Po” fun began, how I gave it a shot in the classroom, and why this sort of thinking matters. It then ends with a few specific resources for biology teachers. Before you read it... (assuming you can choke it down) you're going to ask: "Why on… Continue

Added by Sean Nash on January 20, 2010 at 10:07pm — No Comments

Uses of Wordle in a Science Classroom.

I thought I'd share my most current uses of Wordle.

First - Teacher Planning: I was just assigned a student teacher. To help her comprehend the "big ideas" of our state core, we pasted the sections of the core she will teach into Wordle. When the Wordle was created, the maximum number of words was lowered to 35 from the "Layout menu." This helped her see the main ideas she should spend the most time on during her teaching time in… Continue

Added by Glen Westbroek on January 14, 2010 at 6:46pm — 2 Comments

BioChem Blog

I am teaching both sciences and enjoying both as I begin to see the vibrant interchange between the two subjects.

I am also teaching Honors Anatomy and Physiology which is a challenge. I am approaching it with not only didactic but also case studies to engage students in applying the content knowledge.

I have a great site: http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/projects/cases/ubcase.htm

This allows… Continue

Added by Mary J. Berger on December 26, 2009 at 11:34am — No Comments

Science Content Day

Today my district had a professional development day focused on content areas. We had 120 science teachers at my building. They really enjoyed the opportunities provided. In the morning, we had an opening session followed by three breakout sessions. Teachers selected three sessions to attend. The choices were:

Creating Class Web Pages
Designing Online Surveys
Digital Lab Reports
Emergency Lesson Plans
Google Docs for…

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Added by Glen Westbroek on October 5, 2009 at 7:38pm — 7 Comments

Looking for ways to engage students

One of the requirements in my state core for science is for students to identify predators and prey. In the past, we've read from our textbook or done a game relating to predators and prey. While these both met the state core requirement it has not "engaged" my students in a way I've enjoyed. This year, I looked at possible online tools that could be used for this core requirement. I decided to use Motivator from… Continue

Added by Glen Westbroek on October 4, 2009 at 5:29pm — 1 Comment