While some schools have fancy Madagascar hissing cockroaches, we made do with an American cockroach, the huge one found in norther Jersey. A child volunteered that she her dad had caught one at work, and wondered if she might bring it in. I loved the idea, most of the class groaned, and the next day she waltzed in with a margarine tub poked with ...

There's seems to be some confusion about my role. I am, of course, an agent of the government, of the public, of my town. I am a science teacher, which should mean I teach science. Arne says it means I am the linchpin of our economy. Einstein said I have the power to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge. Governor Christie says it ...

Do not ever follow any advice I give for eating anything. If something has an acetyl group in it, I'll try it. Some folks' skin reacts to the pulp, too. This is the Science Teacher blog, not Fine Foods. My favorite tree on the Bloomfield Green was cut down a couple of days ago, mostly for the crime of doing what its family has done for a quarter ...

An Cailleach Bhearra wandered around back in the 10th century in western Ireland, eating ''seaweed, salmon, and wild garlic'' (my kind of woman), looking for firewood. If the day was bright and sunny, beware--she had gathered plenty of wood and was set for many cold days ahead. If the day was gray, she didn't bother, and she will make the days ...

19th century version:Yesterday I headed for one of my favorite places with one of my favorite people to do one of my favorite things--clamming. The moon is waxing and near full, so I knew low tide would fall in the early afternoon. COST: months of intermittent observing, which I enjoy. 21st century version: Yesterday I checked the computer for ...

Say a prayer every morning honoring a mystery. A prayer for light, for life, for gravity, for cosmic rays, for the source of water. I pretend I know nothing. I want to know what knowing nothing really means. Remind myself every morning, when I wake up, should I wake up, that I am mortal. Not as in some shimmery philosophical sense, but in the ...

I love the Christmas Story, the lights, the glitter, the love. I love that the day coincides with the first glimmer of the rising sun. I love the madness that reminds us how tenuous our grip is. Here's a photo from the latest Vatican nativity scene. It's a lovely crèche, just unveiled on Christmas Eve, and as tradition mandates, the Magi are ...

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 sits on a slide now projected on the screen. A creature, too small to see naked eye, wraps ...

''When using and choosing technology for children teachers should let children pretend with the types of gadgets they see their parents using. Stock the dramatic play area with a non-working mouse and keyboard, cell phone and/or electronic music device.''from the New Jersey Technology Standards Or maybe just give them a box of crayons and let ...

The deeper I dig into how much a child understands a particular idea, the more I  realize persistent misconceptions can be. We have plenty of places for magical thinking in our culture: horoscopes, good luck charms, religious incantations, and the stock market take up a good chunk of our time. So long as your magic does little harm and horoscopes ...