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New worlds


07 December 11 09:21 PM
As various factions wrestle with various standards for various (and occasionally dubious) reasons, I find myself in a classroom with a couple dozen young humans at various stages of cognitive development, learning about the world. A drop of pond water Read More...
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"A Framework for K-12 Science Education" released today


19 July 11 01:13 PM
A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas was just released. One of my few frustrations with teaching science at the high school level are the misconceptions kids carry up from lower grades, or from life Read More...
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Perennial projects


30 April 11 11:05 AM
At the start of the school year, back when the sunlight was fading and squirrels were fattening up, each student picked a tree to watch. Call it phenology, call it botany, call it whatever you want, but it's really just observing, and few of us do that Read More...
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Cheap tools for kindergarten (Part 6)


13 April 11 06:16 PM
Yes, I know, and I will get back to part 5--language trumps all--but I'm jumping ahead for the moment. I got to spend some time with a couple of Real Live Scientists ® yesterday, and it turns out that one of them does curriculum work for the pre-pubescent Read More...
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Cheap "science" tools for kindergarten (Part 1)


26 March 11 12:39 PM
Blank thermometer: No numbers, no calibration marks, just a blank thermometer--essentially a thermoscope. A child can follow changes in temperature by watching the fluid rise and fall. Everybody alive today was born into a world with calibrated thermometers--they're Read More...
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Elementary education science, Part 1


21 February 11 11:34 AM
I am sitting on a committee put together to help redesign our elementary school science curriculum. I'll be tossing out various posts on the topic. The posts do not reflect the views of anyone except me. By the end of Grade 4: Science has unique norms Read More...
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6:38 P.M.


21 December 10 08:04 PM
6:38 P.M. here--the sun stood still, shifted its mass, and headed back north. 6 months ago, when we sat on the opposite side of the sun, I celebrated the summer solstice, a joy tinged with the weight of knowing the sun would start its slow, long course Read More...
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Science ***


12 December 10 06:57 AM
No 8 year old in her right mind is curious about Neptune. She does like to make Mommy happy, though. If a young adult told you in class that she does not believe that the Earth revolves around the sun, what would you say? Who's the better scientist, the Read More...
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Thoughts shared after hearing Galwall Kinnell speak in his 9th decade


10 December 10 05:31 AM
19° degrees outside, and the furnace decided to nap. A reminder, but not an omen. There's a difference. I love Galway Kinnell . I am fascinated by snot. The two are not unrelated. I saw Galway speak last night, which is like saying I saw Pavarotti sing, Read More...
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A response to a technophile


04 December 10 10:13 AM
Whenever I post about the ludicrousness of using tools at inappropriately young ages, I get animated responses with similar themes. These replies are often anonymous, and often thoughtless. I got one from my previous post that was neither anonymous nor Read More...
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The widening gyre


30 November 10 07:44 PM
Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best Read More...
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More "New Jersey World Class Standards"


26 November 10 06:50 AM
5.2.2.A.2 By the end of Grade 2: Identify common objects as solids, liquids, or gases. Throw plasma in there, the most common state of matter known in the universe. You have common examples in the classroom, the incessant hum of fluorescent lights above. Read More...
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It gets worse...


25 November 10 09:32 AM
More "science" from the NJ Core Curriculum Content Standards: 5.3B: Matter and energy transformation: Food is required for energy and building cellular materials. Organisms in an ecosystem have different ways of obtaining food, and some organisms obtain Read More...
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Un-teaching "science"


25 November 10 03:23 AM
I am a high school un-teacher. I spend more time un-teaching than I do teaching. I cannot hope to get kids to think if they walk around life believing much of the nonsense they learned during their impressionable years. The idea of teaching a room full Read More...
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Why AP Bio may become great


20 November 10 07:19 AM
I have mixed feelings about teaching AP Biology. See the last post... I love teaching, I love science, and I prefer to keep the two together in my classroom. Alas, my hands have been tied a bit by the AP auditing process, but I get the reasons. If my Read More...
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