This week, I had the good fortune to meet with Conrad Storad, who is well known in Arizona for his children’s book Don’t Call Me Pig! We didn’t talk about javelinas, but we did talk about science education. Conrad reminded me and my dean (Mari Koerner) about the widespread use of the ASU science magazine, Chain Reaction, by middle grade children in Arizona.

Conrad and his staff, who produce the ASU Research magazine, also produce Chain Reaction. At their website, teachers can request class sets of Chain Reaction magazine, and it is all free. The magazine issues are thematic, with the following topics developed: urban ecology, solar system, Sonoran Desert, Weather Station, and Biotechnology. For teachers outside of Arizona, there is the electronic option, downloading the stories from the website.

On the website are the science standards (see Teacher Tips) addressed and some complimentary activities. But the best part is the lively presentation of the science content in the articles. Conrad has data that suggests that language arts teachers commonly use the magazines as a way to bring nonfiction reading in the classroom. This seems like a great tool for teachers to compliment other forms of instruction.

For example, after students used Adaptive Curriculum’s Activity Object “Greenhouse Effect,” they could follow it up with reading of “carbon-dioxide-questions” from Chain Reaction’s issue on Urban Ecology and in the process learn about ASU plant biologist Tad Day.

Duke and Bennett-Armistead summarize six reasons for having students read nonfiction as a normal part of instruction.

1) Provides the key to success in later schooling 


2) Prepares students to handle real-life reading 


3) Appeals to readers’ preferences 


4) Addresses students’ questions and interests 


5) Builds knowledge of the natural and social world


6) Boosts vocabulary and other kinds of literacy knowledge

Whatever type of instruction is used in a classroom, Chain Reaction can be a useful resource for middle grade science learning and literacy. It brings science alive and helps students meet real scientists. 

About the Images

First image: The cover of Chain Reaction’s issue on Urban Ecology. 

Second Image: A scene from Adaptive Curriculum’s Activity Object called “Greenhouse Effect,” This scene is summarizing the results of an interactive experiment where students compare the warming of the air in a container with a lid to a container with no lid. 

 I was teaching a middle school lesson on static electricity on Halloween so I dressed up as “StaticElectricity.” We did the usual activities with balloons, such as picking up paper, rice crispies, and coffee grounds. I used water balloons, but of course, we filled them with air. I liked their shape better, but some students had difficulty blowing them up. One variation that one of my university students found was to draw two circles on opposite sides of a balloon. After that, one side was rubbed on hair, and the other was not. Students could accurately predict that the circle rubbed would pick up stuff, but most did not accurately predict about the other circle. It didn’t pick up anything, as the balloon was an insulator and the charges stayed where they were placed.

I found a good applet on static electricity. It is from PhET, the makers of The Circuit Construction Kit, which I positively reviewed in a previous blog. It is fine for a teacher to demonstrate that electrons move but positive charges do not, however, as a student activity it has limited potential. When you start, the balloon has no net charge. When you rub it on the wool sweater the balloon picks up electrons (shown in blue) and the sweater loses electrons. Now the balloon will stick to the sweater because positive and negative charges attract. if you move the balloon towards the wall it repels the electrons in the wall and it sticks to the wall. 

Other Resources for Static Electricity

Adaptive Curriculum’s Activity Object “Electric Force“ 

Kurtus, Ron. (2008). “Basics of Static Electricity.”

NASA, “Cling On“

The Circuit Construction Kit (CCK) is a great electricity resource for middle grade and high school students to conduct science investigations and learn about electricity. This FREE resource allows students to produce simple circuits using cells, light bulbs, resistors, and switches. Students can complete series and parallel circuits and they can observe the varying brightness of the light bulbs. CCK also allows students to move into the quantitative realm. Clicking on some additional buttons enables voltmeters and ammeters, and thus measurements of voltage and current can enhance investigations.

Well equipped elementary and middle schools will have batteries, light bulbs, switches, and wires to give students real experiences in constructing circuits. CCK can compliment the physical activities with virtual activities to enhance understanding. Unfortunatley, many schools will not have these physical resources so CCK is a way to help students explore electricity. And, I have not yet come across elementary or middle schools that have class sets of ammeters or voltmeters, so this is a welcome component.

Putting CCK to use

With my middle grade students we are using CCK to discover how to make series and parallel circuits, how to use ammeters and voltmeters, how current and voltage vary in different types of circuits, what are short circuits, and to observe that the ratio voltage/current is equal to resistance (Ohm’s Law).

Of course, the possibilities of how to use CCK are vast. Teacher goals, creativity, and experience level will make this a great resource in some classrooms. Most high school physics teachers will be able to instantly employ this tool. I wish that there were more structured lesson plans for using this tool at the elementary and middle school level so that teachers who are not yet comfortable with electricity could help their students have meaningful experiences. Some lessons can be found at the teaching idea page but these are almost all high school and university lessons.

The diagram above is one of the circuits I asked my middle grade students to construct. Then using a non-contact ammeter, they measured the current through all the branches of the circuit. They later used the voltmeter to measure the voltage across each of the branches.

Reflections in teaching

Working with middle school students, I found that they had few problems in using CCK. We started off constructing real circuits and then reproducing them in CCK where they used the ammeter to measure current at different places in the circuit. Although I know the importance of “free exploration” and wrote about it before in this blog, my regret is that I didn’t allow for free exploration with this virtual tool. Students really wanted to explore lots of things on their own, without me specifying what circuits to create. So, I should have allowed time for this before directing their explorations.

The Circuit Construction Kit is a simple but powerful tool that has a lot of utility in the upper elementary, middle school, and high school classrooms. It is a rich environment for free exploration and it presents many possibilities for guided-inquiry investigations.

In my “Physics for Teachers” class, when student groups present hands-on lessons, they sometimes start with a YouTube video. They are usually well selected and they turn out to be interesting and short. These videos are easy to find and in a university setting easy to display. While some schools have blocked YouTube as a website because of some content, there are workarounds for downloading the videos as .flv files (such as TechCrunch) and playing or converting them with flv players (my favorite for the Macintosh is the free iSquint.

On August 12, 2008, Smartteaching.org posted their 100 top YouTube videos for teachers. Below, I present their science list.

Resources

Adaptive Curriculum’s “Making Sperm and Eggs: Meiosis” Uses Flash-based animations and interactions.