Dear Elementary School Teachers and Principals, I know you have an impossible job, and I know you're getting hammered from 73 different angles, and I know the last person you need to hear from is another high school teacher sitting on his throne blaming you for every ill that ever afflicted humans. Your students worship you. Every casual word ...

''The universe is made of stories, not of atoms.'' Muriel Rukeyser This is a lovely quote, and a lovely way of looking at the world, written by a brilliant poet who grew up in a world that saw the horrible consequences of reducing the world to a machine, in a world that slaughtered millions of those who shared her faith, because of their ...

''There can be no such creature.''Daniel Shechtman, 2011 Chemistry Nobel Prize I am attempting to teach my lambs the concept of atoms. Their concept of the atom is much like the adults around them--nucleus of protons and neutrons in the middle, scattered electrons zipping around the ''outside.'' Their misconceptions are understandable--their ...

This is a preview of a review of a must-read book for any teacher who attempts to teach science in public schools. I got a copy back in August, and have been reading (and thinking and doing and arguing and questioning and playing) with it since. It's already scribbled all over, pages dog-eared, then dog-eared again. I do not know the ...

The sandpiper did the unthinkable--it strolled. Then stopped. Then sat at the edge of the ocean. I was sitting a yard or so behind it. I t did not matter. This bird is done. Hurricanes are exhausting. *** We're more intricately tied to nature than we care to admit. We do a pretty good job denying death and denying age, our little pleasure ...

When anyone suggests that we not teach evolution in school, he is suggesting that we not teach biology, and in a broader sense, science. So let's be more frank about the discussion--do we teach science, or something else pretending to be science (which reduces science to superstition), or skip the whole thing entirely? (And no, technology ...

Frank Noschese and Rhett Allain have a good on-going discussion on the Khan Academy's  work with physics. Some excerpts: Science is obvious, but it's not intuitive. Obvious in the sense that we can observe what we observe, even as our brains refuse to accept it. Intuition kept us alive for thousands of generations. There may be real survival ...

''[I]t is quite the rushing through and pointing at.... ''A wise woman's words upon reviewing Newark's 2nd grade science curriculum If you spend most of your time doing things you like, there is no reason to do things quickly. I like slow. Deep, thoughtful living takes time. Slow gardening. Slow teaching. Slow clamming. Slow cooking. Slow ...

Students sing, clap, and dance about solids, liquids and gases. They learned the solar system through song. It's just one example of how having clear standards for students drives innovation in a school. Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education, talking about his children's school Arne really doesn't get science, but he's got a pocketful of ...

Natural science has a funny way of bumping up against high tech. While we are way past the point of  rationally discussing whether we'd be better off without automobiles, industrialized agriculture, or Auto-Tune (I'd vote against all three), not all high tech gadgets are irreversibly entrenched in our culture. King Ludd--waiting for rain to wash ...