Science Teaching K-12

Writing skills are high on the list of real-world requirements for all students, including science students. Every scientific discipline needs professionals who can ably communicate in writing. Scientists must be able to describe their proposed studies for funding considerations, track their peers to replicate, and synthesize their work to the wider world community. Yet setting aside the time to develop these important skills in an already jam-packed science curriculum is often difficult. And even when teachers can carve out such moments, what do science writing lessons look like? This valuable compendium, which collects articles originally published in the award-winning journals Science and Children and Science Scope, highlights the importance of science writing and attempts to help elementary and middle school teachers of science tackle the topic with confidence and ease. Outlining both the process and the methods for teaching science writing, articles cover lab reports, science journals, field guides, interactive science notebooks, blogs, and even creative nonfiction and environmental poetry. Practical, and time-efficient, assessment ideas are also covered.

A must-have resource for grades 3 to 8, this book helps teachers guide students in communicating their scientific thinking through writing and speaking. Included in this resource are exemplar writing samples and a Digital Resource CD featuring student activity sheets and rubrics.

This resource helps teachers understand how to embed the inquiry process in their instruction across the content areas. Helps students learn vital inquiry tools for success outside of the classroom with stories and examples from real teachers across the grade levels.

Although there are several new books about alternate, authentic, or performance-based assessment, few focus on science assessment and provide practical information on developing, interpreting, and scoring these new alternatives to traditional tests. In addition, many school districts around the country are adopting hands-on science programs and are looking for guidance around assessment. Active Assessment for Active Sciencemeets the needs of teachers faced with the task of assessing hands-on science. Some new science curriculums come with assessments, but many others do not and it is unusual to find guidelines for interpreting and scoring them. This book combines practical discussion with theoretical information on the rationale for active assessments. It enables classroom teachers to develop and score their own assessments and answers the following questions: Why should you use active science assessments? What kinds of assessments are there? How do you manage these assessments in the classroom? What evidence of learning can you find in written student work? How do national curriculum developers develop assessments? How do you score them? How do assessments tie in with educational values? The book's numerous classroom examples of assessments and student work provide teachers and staff developers with materials for workshops as well as individual reflection. Teachers will gain ideas that they can immediately use in their classrooms, as well as an appreciation for the careful, methodical work that is required to develop an assessment system.