A Companion to Interdisciplinary Stem Project-Based Learning by
This text contains 25 Project-Based Learning (PBL) lessons written by a combination of undergraduate preservice teachers, inservice teachers, and graduate students. Everyone who wrote a chapter strives to improve STEM education to help others implement standards-based STEM instruction that takes learning in isolation to greater accountability through integrated and meaningful tasks that answer the question every teacher dreads: When am I going to use this? The PBLs were written to implement in middle and high-school classrooms. All of them are interdisciplinary in nature. We have divided them into six themes: construction and design, water, environment, mixtures, technology, nutrition and genetics. Each lesson contains a "schedule at a glance" and the "well-defined outcome" so you can quickly see how a particular PBL fits into your curriculum. Objectives are listed along with STEM connections written as objectives. We have included all materials needed and then each day of activities including an imbedded engagement, exploration, explanation, evaluation (including rubrics), and extension. We have tried to include everything necessary for successful implementation. This practical book is the perfect companion to the handbook for learning about implementing PBLs: Project-Based Learning: An Integrated Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Approach - second edition
Early Childhood Activities for a Greener Earth by
More than 100 classroom activities to help children learn about and care for the earth Educate young children about the environment through experience and play. These activities encourage children to develop a sense of wonder, curiosity, and joy for nature. Each chapter focuses on a common and important environmental topic--from waste reduction and recycling to air quality, weather and climate change, and energy reduction--and provides information to help you present these topics to children in developmentally appropriate ways. Early Childhood Activities for a Greener Earth will help you excite children, engage families, and encourage your community to be green. Early Childhood Activities for a Greener Earth is a 2014 Teachers' Choice Award for the Classroom winner!
You Want Me to Teach What?: Sure-fire Methods for Teaching Physical Science and Math by
Problem: You feel shaky about being assigned to teach upper-level science and math and need to get up to speed fast. Solution: Follow this concise book s tried-and-true methods, which you can integrate into your classroom and lesson plans starting from the first day of class. You Want Me to Teach What? avoids long discussions of education theory and specific lesson plans. Instead, it concentrates on general techniques for approaching a variety of problems and enhancing your teaching skills in science and math. It covers student psychology, classroom management, planning, instruction, problem-solving techniques, laboratory methods and reporting, assessment, and professional development. Without feeling inundated, you'll find a wealth of sensible guidance whether you're a preservice education major wanting to teach physical science or mathematics, a new teacher looking for practical methods to integrate into your instruction, or an experienced teacher in search of fresh ways to improve in the classroom.
The Science Teacher's Toolbox: Hundreds of Practical Ideas to Support Your Students by
The Science Teacher's Toolbox is a classroom-tested resource offering hundreds of accessible, student-friendly lessons and strategies that can be implemented in a variety of educational settings. Concise chapters fully explain the research basis, necessary technology, Next Generation Science Standards correlation, and implementation of each lesson and strategy. Favoring a hands-on approach, this book provides step-by-step instructions that help teachers to apply their new skills and knowledge in their classrooms immediately. Lessons cover topics such as setting up labs, conducting experiments, using graphs, analyzing data, writing lab reports, incorporating technology, assessing student learning, teaching all-ability students, and much more. This book enables science teachers to: Understand how each strategy works in the classroom and avoid common mistakes Promote culturally responsive classrooms Activate and enhance prior knowledge Bring fresh and engaging activities into the classroom and the science lab. Written by respected authors and educators, The Science Teacher's Toolbox: Hundreds of Practical Ideas to Support Your Students is an invaluable aid for upper elementary, middle school, and high school science educators as well those in teacher education programs and staff development professionals.
A Head Start on Science: Encouraging a Sense of Wonder by
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 assessments today's early childhood educators need most. Your dream resource comes to life in this revised and expanded edition of A Head Start on Science: Encouraging a Sense of Wonder. It builds on children's innate curiosity through 89 developmentally appropriate, teacher-tested activities in life, Earth, and physical science. Like A Head Start on Life Science (p. 46), this book emphasizes child-centered development of science practices and skills. Children can explore the natural world as they take advantage of lively opportunities for science learning. But here's what sets this book apart: It's an all-in-one resource for caregivers and teachers from preK to grade 2. Each lesson includes a follow-up activity, connections to centers and children's literature, assessment guides, and bonus activities written in Spanish and English that let families continue the fun--and the learning--at home. Each activity also supports both the 2015 Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework and the Next Generation Science Standards. Whether your young scientists are building bird nests or making bubbles, A Head Start on Science, Second Edition will enrich what the editors call "your noble and indispensable work--providing children with opportunities to follow their own curiosity as they joyfully explore the natural world."
Teaching K-12 Science and Engineering During a Crisis by
The COVID-19 pandemic is resulting in widespread and ongoing changes to how the K-12 education system functions, including disruptions to science teaching and learning environments. Students and teachers are all figuring out how to do schooling differently, and districts and states are working overtime to reimagine systems and processes. This is difficult and stressful work in the middle of the already stressful and sometimes traumatic backdrop of the global pandemic. In addition, students with disabilities, students of color, immigrants, English learners, and students from under-resourced communities have been disproportionately affected, both by the pandemic itself and by the resulting instructional shifts. Teaching K-12 Science and Engineering During a Crisis aims to describe what high quality science and engineering education can look like in a time of great uncertainty and to support practitioners as they work toward their goals. This book includes guidance for science and engineering practitioners - with an emphasis on the needs of district science supervisors, curriculum leads, and instructional coaches. Teaching K-12 Science and Engineering During a Crisis will help K-12 science and engineering teachers adapt learning experiences as needed to support students and their families dealing with ongoing changes to instructional and home environments and at the same time provide high quality in those experiences.