Video game flying the Wright brother's glider

It is always exciting to experience the sites and sounds of an NSTA conference. From my first science teacher conference, it was an awakening for me to find out that there are others like me who share my passion for science and education but who did not have an abundance of money to buy materials and who feel time compressed—despite perceptions that teaches have a lot of free time.

I brought my family along for this trip because it corresponded with my sons’ spring break from school. Okay, I admit, I probably wouldn’t have taken them to New Orleans if not for these reasons. I do think, however, exposure to other cultures is a good thing, and New Orleans’ has more than its share of culture. We were even able to go to a locals only crawfish boil (see photo). That my sons might be too young to appreciate New Orleans culture could be suggested by both of them liking the cool stuff in the conference exhibitor’s hall better than any other part of their visit. They were particularly taken by the science curiosities of “Steve Splangler Science” store, where the energetic folks did some intriguing square bubble demonstrations for them and then they were able to activities including tossing bubbles with gloves and making gummy worms. They also liked Flinn Scientific where they watched an engaging rep make foam, just like the stuff I use to close holes in and around my house. Now, they are flying home with a bag full of free materials from Insect Lore including two butterfly larvae that should form a chrysalis in two weeks.

It seems that the giving of t-shirts has achieved greater popularity. I don’t recall, in my first ten years of conference going, ever getting a t-shirt. Then the tech folks started giving away t-shirts and now so are the science folks. My wife doesn’t understand my interest in getting t-shirts, and she has already placed two of them (from Learning.com) in the piles of stuff to give to our son’s teachers. But there is one shirt I intend to keep; it is by far the nicest t-shirt I received, and it was a gray-background and white lettering SPARK t-shirt. I received it from Pasco when I attended a presentation on their SPARK system. Pasco seems to have a great understanding of the needs of a science teacher! So often science technology companies seem like they are devoted to the AP physics or chemistry teacher, who doesn’t have a family, social life, and is not pursing coursework. These rare folks might be able to take the time to figure out how to use complicated tech stuff to do one lab, but most regular teachers find it daunting. SPARK appears to be a solution that is easy to implement, cost effective, and has lots of uses. It acts like a mini-computer with a monitor, and it has its primary function—using probeware. So the yearbook teacher won’t want to borrow your class set!

“Ribosomes make protein.                                                                        A GUEST BLOG

Lysosomes keep it clean.

Endoplasmic Reticulum

transports things to and from. 

Nucleus runs the show.

Keeps control don’t you know!”

The kids wouldn’t stop rapping “Made of Cells”, an educational song I threw together to reinforce vocabulary, even a week after the exam.  It actually got to the point where I had to settle them down each time they walked into my classroom. 

Auditory comprises the “A” in Fleming’s VARK model for different styles of learning (others are Visual, Reading and Kinesthetic) and can explain why we remember things more easily if it encompasses a rhyme or a melody.   Recall when you were first introduced to the alphabet song: “a, b, c, d, eee, eff, geeee…”   It was easy to memorize 26 separate sequence specific letters as a preschooler when it took the form of music.  This technique is also implemented in learning the names of the continents (sung to the tune of “Frère Jacques” a.k.a. “Where is Thumbkin?”):

“There are se-ven, there are se-ven,

con-tin-ents, con-tin-ents:

Europe Asia Af-ri-ca

 North and South Amer-i-ca

Austral-i-a, Antarc-tic-a.

Advertisers have been using the power of jingles for decades in both private

“You deserve a-break-to-daaayy.”

and public sectors:

 “Be…All That You-Can-Be.”

Many scientists credit neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) for how the mind processes information.  The theory states that we can potentially incorporate all of our senses during cognition of a word, idea, or set of specific tasks.  The more senses bombarded through VARK when attaining that piece of information, the easier for it to “stick” in the brain and recall later.

Whether you call it an earworm, a jingle, or a catchy tune, using educational rap in the classroom is extremely effective.  This is especially true in a subject area like science where much of the terminology is derived from Greek and Latin.  So start formulating rhymes in your classroom today so your students can memorize that:

“All plants and animals are made up of cells.

Each is made up of parts called organelles.

So tiny you need a microscope to see.

About 100 trillion cells make up you and me.”   

Guest Post by Joseph Ocando, who was an 8^th grade science teacher in New York City as a member of Teach for America.  He has started a business called Rhyme ‘n Learn.  His raps can be ordered from http://cdbaby.com/cd/rhymenlearn

With a partner, my secondary science methods students selected a tree and then combined their ample knowledge, creativity, and critical thinking and came up with several methods to determine the height of the tree.

Linda Dee and Karen Schedler were helping my students learn about Project Learning Tree (PLT) and its many science activities. My students now have the assignment to develop a lesson plan using a PLT activity and then teach a high school or middle school class using this lesson plan.

This class of students has already earned my respect for their knowledge, abilities, and great attitudes, but it was still exciting to see them apply what they know with their creativity and critical thinking. Indeed the process was just as important as the result. Their tree-height-measurement methods included (a) having a partner of known height stand by the tree and estimating how many of them it would take to reach the top of the tree; (b) measuring the shadow length of the partner and the tree and using ratios; (c) holding a vertical ruler up, with the partner at the tree, and using the marking of the ruler to determine ratios for the heights, and (d) comparing the tree height to a building and then counting brick segments on the building to determine height. Of course, if a protractor was on hand we could have used the distance from the tree, angle to the top of the tree, and some trigonometry to make this estimate.

The tree height estimates were compared to a value found by using clinometers. These nifty devices, we were told, give a pretty accurate reading. You measure off 66 feet and look through the viewer with one eye and line up a horizontal line with the other eye. There were two scales for viewing the height of the tree, one in feet and the other in meters.  In many cases, my students’ estimates were pretty close to the clinometers’ readings.

I was glad to see my students using metric measurements because we had talked about this before our spring break. My advice is to have their future students do all their measurements using the metric system and NEVER convert back into the imperial system. But with the “66 feet” distance and foot scale on the clinometer, it seems like our forestry colleagues, at least in the US, are not fully metrified. Prior to this, I had thought that the only people of science who were not completely immersed in the metric system were US meteorologists. It is obvious that some science traditions don’t change easily.