Use a simple experiment to get to know students, demonstrate experimental design and discuss classroom policies about cell phones.
Nora Walsh outlines the interactive notebook pages she uses for her first unit of the school year: Scientific Reasoning. All of the documents and foldables are available for download.
Can Alkaline Water Change the pH of your body? We use chemistry to put this claim to the test!
Rajasree Swaminathan has developed a series of books that combines story-telling and visual representation of the elements as human characters. Along with hands-on activities, these books have created enthusiasm in her chemistry classes.
The practice and the promulgation of science, its ideas, and knowledge acquired about how the biotic and abiotic world works depend significantly on what words are chosen to communicate scientific ideas, methods, thought, and information. This blog post looks at how a recently published NY Times article on the growing evidence that the SARS-CoV-2 virus can be transmitted via the air can be used in the classroom to promote discussion and challenge students to think about the distinction between data and evidence. If applicable, it could be expanded to also include the difference between opinion and information, if desired.
Liquid nitrogen is used to visualize the aerosol particles emitted while speaking, coughing, breathing, and sneezing. The ability of various masks to block these droplets was also tested.
What do scientists have to say about the connection between climate change and the bush fires in Australia?
One aspect of Argument Driven Inquiry that has not been discussed here is the peer editing piece. I have succesfully tried it out with my own students.
The American Chemical Society is offering a new service in hopes of making science more accessible to the public. Each week they issue a short collection of science articles, written in an interesting and engaging style, that you might use with your students to help them make connections between the curriculum and their own lives. The service is called Discoveries!, and it is free.
Stephanie O'Brien took a tip from the elementary school teachers and created literacy stations to help increase the amount of reading and writing in her classroom. Literacy centers support students by arming them with the tools to utilize when examining text documents, charts, graphs, pictures etc. to take the content and make it comprehensible. She provides examples of literacy centers she uses in her classroom.
