What are some of your challenges when teaching the revised science curriculum?  Throughout our district, there are many combined classes. The elementary science committee put together a document last year to help teachers and schools cope with this issue.  You can find it here. The document will hopefully assist you in sharing the curricular competencies and content in your combined classes.  

Perhaps you are looking for some cross curricular resources? Picture Perfect Science–both the teacher books and the student books–are available through the DLRC.  As you know, picture books give students a context for the concepts they are exploring in the science classroom. They often have interesting storylines that can help students understand and remember concepts better than they would by using textbooks alone. Contact me if you would like to have a planning session or demo class in how to use them.

Another challenge you may have is supplies and equipment.  Don’t forget to use our fabulous District Learning Resource Centre to borrow equipment. And if you are looking for something specific, give me a call or e-mail and I will try to help track things down or put you in touch with someone who can help.  

In the new year, I will be hosting a series of after school session on major curricular areas in elementary science.  These sessions will include resource lists and lesson ideas to help you explore the Big Ideas using inquiry.  Check the Staff Development Calendar after Dec 15th for more details.

Low NSTA fees for First Year Teachers

If you are a first year teacher, the American National Science Teachers’ Association (NSTA) is offering discounted memberships for only $29. This gives you a one year subscription to the journal of your choice (which ranges by age level) and access to everything on the NSTA website, which includes many science teaching resources. You also get a discount on the many publications. In addition to joining our local BCScTA, I highly recommend the NSTA for the resources they have.

Biointeractive

The HHMI Biointeractive website is a source for great videos and lessons across the breadth of biology.  Most useful for Grade 7 teachers (evolution) and high school, the high quality videos are a joy to watch and are scientifically accurate.

New on the Website

I’ve added a page for Burnaby teachers to share resources and ideas–check the tab above called SD41Shares.  If you have things you have used that can be shared, e-mail me the link or even the document, at Donna.Morgan@sd41.bc.ca and I will share it.

How do you set your students up for inquiry learning? There are a lot of resources available, but when it comes to science topics, it is often hard to know exactly where to start.

One good resource with lots of real-world, thought provoking questions is Predict, Observe and Explain from the NSTA press.  A sample of the forces and motion section of the book is available here.  

Another way to start is to get your students generating questions about their environment.  In fact, the First Nations Education Steering Committee has included in its Science First People’s resource a new learning cycle–the 7 E’s (which adds Environment and Elder to the previous 5 E’s of science learning). Take students for walks and stimulate their science thinking by asking thought provoking questions:

• Where is there evidence of heating and cooling?
• How is water travelling around our neighbourhood?
• Where do we see chemical reactions?
• Why did the leaves fall? What happens to them? What service do they provide to the ecosystem?
• Where is the sun in the sky today? How is that different than in September? Can we see the moon today? Why or why not?
• What is the impact of our school on the land?
• What is the impact of the land on our school?

Stay tuned to this blog and the staff development calendar–after the winter break, I will be holding some workshops focused around inquiry and the big ideas of elementary science.

Need a little help with the new curriculum and the way it has re-organized topics? Well, in addition to the resources being updated on this site, you might want to check out Comox School District’s science site. Besides having a range of videos, activities and information, many of the topics also have resources available in French, something I know has been a difficulty for those of you teaching immersion.

If you would like to work on developing your knowledge of Indigenous science and technology, this wonderful resource Knowing Home: Braiding Indigenous Science with Western Science puts a wealth of knowledge at your fingertips.

For secondary teachers looking for some resource to teach unfamiliar physics, you can check out the Perimeter Institute.  Recommended by district physics teachers Mati Bernabei (Burnaby North) and Steve Fuerderer (Byrne Creek), this website covers a wide range of physics topics with great ideas and resources.

By the way, if you attended a session on Curriculum Implementation Day, I’ve added you as a subscriber.  That means you will get a newsletter from this Science Blog once every two weeks, IF and ONLY IF, there is new content.  It is also very easy to unsubscribe.