Grade 6-12 Science

Jenny Nord - Secondary Science Curriculum Coordinator

Email: jnord5257@columbus.k12.oh.us
Website: https://www.ccsoh.us/site/Default.aspx?PageID=2577
Location: 3700 South High Street, Columbus, OH, USA
Phone: 3809970466
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ColumbusCitySchools/
Twitter: @ColsCitySchools

Researches have studied the effectiveness of commonly used techniques on student achievement. Some, like practice testing and distributive testing, show more promise than others, such as rereading.

Taken directly from: 'Improving Students' Learning with Effective Learning Techniques,' Psychological Science in the Public Interest

1. Elaborative Interrogation: Generating an explanation for why an explicitly stated fact or concept is true.

2. Self-Explanation: Explaining how new information is related to known information, or explaining steps taken during problem solving. Example: Explaining each step of a math problem while solving it.

3. Summarization: Writing summaries of various lengths of to-be-learned texts.

4. Highlighting/Underlining: Making potentially important portions of materials to be learned while reading.

5. Keyword Mnemonic: Using keywords and mental imagery to associate verbal information.

6. Imagery for Text: Attempting to form mental images of text materials while reading or listening.

7. Rereading: Restudying texts again after an initial reading.

8. Practice Testing: Self-testing or taking practice tests on to-be-learned material. Example: using flashcards

9. Distributed Practice: Implementing a schedule of practice that spreads out study activities over time, rather than cramming in one night.

10. Interleaved Practice: Mixing different kinds of problems or materials over several study sessions or within a single study session. Example: Solving fraction problems that involve multiplying and division, rather than just one skill.

Education Week: Learning How to Learn Could Be a Student's Most Valuable Skill: https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/learning-how-to-learn-could-be-a-students-most-valuable-skill/2017/09

***Science Takeaway: Which of these might fit in most closely to each cognitive demand?

Education Week:

-20 Ways to Support Students with Learning Differences: https://tinyurl.com/249sdpbf

-8 Instructional Strategies for Promoting Critical Thinking: https://tinyurl.com/rzbrcepb

-Suggestions for Teaching in a Class Where All Students Have Laptops: https://tinyurl.com/394rk5kk

-The Future of Blended Education: https://tinyurl.com/9sw9r2z3

-40 Most Widely Used Tech Ed Products from Last School Year: https://tinyurl.com/3cupdc2n

-How to Manage Laptop Integration: https://tinyurl.com/mp7t7kkt

-Remote Learning Isn't just for Emergencies: https://tinyurl.com/wtmjah5b

-Pandemic Parents Are more Involved. How Can Schools Keep It Going: https://tinyurl.com/a52vs85x

Carolina Biologic:

-Lessons Learned in the Year of the Pandemic: https://tinyurl.com/mmjuabkx

Advancement Courses:

-Learning Differences in the Remote and Blended Classroom: https://tinyurl.com/u9wj9jux

Desire2Learn Blog Series:

Social-emotional learning (SEL) is a key component in enabling student learning growth. Well-being is critical to the future of teaching and learning and will be important to engage students in deeper learning. Focusing on SEL in classrooms will keep students connected to the deeper meaning and relevance of their learning.

In this series, we have outlined the Five Considerations for Building an SEL Classroom Culture to help districts and classrooms focus on student learning growth. These five considerations are:

• You cannot pour from an empty jug
• SEL is a team sport
• There is beauty in our differences
• SEL classrooms are preventative and corrective
• A student’s voice should resonate throughout their life

Manufacturing Day is October 1, 2021. Held annually on the first Friday in October with events that continue throughout the month, MFG Day—Manufacturing Day—helps show the reality of modern manufacturing careers by encouraging thousands of companies and educational institutions around the nation to open their doors to students, parents, teachers and community leaders. As manufacturers seek to fill 4 million high-skill, high-tech and high-paying jobs over the next decade, MFG Day empowers manufacturers to come together to address their collective challenges so they can help their communities and future generations thrive.

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How are we going to address this as a STEM activity this year? ​We are going to concentrate on 7th grade and Materials Science this year with the hope to expand into other grades/subjects next year. Information will be coming. We will give teachers a one-period STEM challenge sometime in the month of October and then a follow up with a virtual meeting the next day with experts in the field. 7th grade will center around energy in manufacturing and Materials Science will work with manufacturing materials and hopefully lead into local partnerships. We will be sending out a google form for you to sign up if you have interest. This is a GREAT way to show your students the relevancy of their studies and make partnerships with local manufacturing companies.

If you have microscopes/3 beam balances that need to be repaired or serviced, please let Jenny Nord know. We will get in touch with our provider. Since we are in a time of Covid, in order to safely get him into your school for the repairs, we need you to designate a room in which he can work that has no access to students and others. Perhaps you have a conference room, large multi-prep room, etc. He should not be in a classroom. Thank you for your assistance in keeping our staff and students safe.

Project Learning Tree:

-Nature of Fire Activity Collections for Grades 6-8: https://tinyurl.com/4uy59rnj

-Activities and Experiments to Explore Photosynthesis in the Classroom: https://tinyurl.com/26e52e3w

-STEM Strategies: Habitat Pen Pals: https://tinyurl.com/fpae3t6c

Ditch that Textbook:

-20+ Ways to Use 10 BIG Flipgrid Updates: https://ditchthattextbook.com/10-ways-to-use-flipgrids-newest-features-in-the-classroom/

-50+ Ways to Use Flipgrid in your Class: https://ditchthattextbook.com/catch-the-flipgrid-fever-15-ways-to-use-flipgrid-in-your-class/

-10 Engaging Lesson Introduction Ideas: https://ditchthattextbook.com/lesson-hooks/

-10 Ways to Make Lessons more Hands-On: https://ditchthattextbook.com/10-ways-to-make-lessons-more-hands-on/

-20+ Interactive Digital Lessons: https://ditchthattextbook.com/applied-digital-skills

-160 Digital Lessons: https://tinyurl.com/rb4mcfbd

-14 Social Media-Inspired Google Slides Templates: https://ditchthattextbook.com/social-media-templates

Ed Puzzle:

-How to Flip your Classroom with Edpuzzle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2qw_zHK380&list=PLKl8fZYdu71EvAcD8MTKRCFNSYN0TC1Sl&index=2

NSTA:

-Freebies: Scroll down to the middle school or high school sections: https://tinyurl.com/57c3t924

-Introducing OutSCIder Classroom

-Join host Chris Anderson as he explores our incredible National Parks and meets awesome scientists, all while learning how the world around us works!

https://tinyurl.com/bfhyrktk

Carolina Biological:

-Thermoreceptor lab (need aluminum probe): https://tinyurl.com/3ya5e4jk

-Trickiest A&P Lab Techniques (do NOT conduct labs using student cheek cells): https://tinyurl.com/5dzhkvye

-The Metric System: https://tinyurl.com/b872r6md

-How to Perform Serial Dilutions Infographic: https://tinyurl.com/wtux7pw

CK-12:

-Science Interactives

Explore enhanced learning for biology, chemistry, and physical science through our colorful and captivating FlexBook® 2.0 interactives.

View Sample Interactive

-FlexLets™ are curated mini courses shaped from our interactive lessons. Built on the essentials, these FlexBook® 2.0 courses are a great source of bite-sized refreshers, lesson previews, and study aids.

Explore FlexLets

Favorites that might interest you:

Disney, Kennedy Space Center free online activities
Disney and the Kennedy Space Center are stepping in to help keep students busy while schools remain closed. Kennedy Space Center has launched science lessons on Facebook Live. KSC teaches lessons on rocketry from the Saturn 5 center and teaches students how to make rockets at home from recycled materials that are probably lying around the house.

NASA Virtual Tour
Visitors view the NASA facility in virtual reality. Get an inside look at NASA Langley Research Center’s Virtual Tour.

PhET Science Simulations

PhET provides fun, free, interactive, research-based science and mathematics simulations. PhET extensively tests and evaluates each simulation to ensure educational effectiveness. These tests include student interviews and observation of simulation use in classrooms.

National Geographic Kids
Find amazing facts about animals, science, history, and space, along with fun competitions, games, and more from National Geographic Kids.

National Education Association Lesson Plans
A place where teachers, parents, school support professionals, and community members share ideas and resources to improve student success. It is free and open to all!

Stem Rising
The U.S. Department of Energy’s STEM Rising is an initiative to inspire, educate, and spark an upwards trajectory to lifelong success in STEM through sharing the Department’s National Labs, National Nuclear Security Administration, and program office’s programs, resources, competitions, events, internship opportunities and more. View STEM resources for students, teachers, and the energy workforce on this site and sign up for the monthly newsletter to keep in touch.

Kids Discover
This is a cross-curricular online platform for Elementary and Middle School learners. You can sign up for a free account or subscribe to one of their paid plans.

Exploratorium
From educational media to classroom activities, from a behind-the-scenes look at the museum’s exhibits to the Explore section, the Exploratorium’s teaching tools support educators and provide hundreds of ways to play and learn. For all ages, in both formal and informal learning settings, these essential tools spark curiosity, exploration, and understanding.

TED Ed
To support students, parents, and teachers, TED-Ed is working with expert educators and TED speakers throughout the world to create and share high-quality, interactive, video-based lessons daily.

You can also sign up for their newsletter to get lesson plans organized by age group that spans all subjects delivered to your inbox every day. Each newsletter will also include insights and tips collected from TED-Ed’s global community of students, parents, and teachers.

NSTA Daily Do
Daily resources are available from NSTA. In this new age of distance learning, students must be provided with experiences with relevant, intriguing phenomena that invite them to engage in science learning and help them to answer questions about what they’ve observed.

Both parents and teachers want students to do science outside of the classroom, and teachers need to give them something to figure out. The NSTA Daily Do does both.

Free K-12 Science Competition for Students and Teachers

The Toshiba/NSTA ExploraVision competition challenges K-12 students to envision a future technology while engaging in Next Generation Science Standards. Inspire a lifelong love of STEM and discovery in an engaging, hands-on way! It’s not too late to register your teams. Deadline for submissions is January 31.

Download our free lesson plans for teachers and register online today! Keep up with the latest Toshiba/NSTA ExploraVision news through Facebook and Twitter.

The Ohio American Waterworks Association Young Professionals Committee is holding a virtual career panel on October 5th. The attached flier below has additional information and a link to registration.

Holly St. Myer from the New Albany Community Foundation has extended an invitation for Columbus City School students to participate in the New Albany Student Lecture Series 2021-22 both as avid spectators and through advanced submission of thoughtful questions. If you would like students from your school to participate in any of the following lectures, contact Holly at holly@hinsonltd.com. Here are the upcoming lectures:

October 5th event is open to the public--REGISTER HERE.

The Toshiba/NSTA ExploraVision competition challenges K-12 students to envision a future technology while engaging in Next Generation Science Standards. Inspire a lifelong love of STEM and discovery in an engaging, hands-on way! It’s not too late to register your teams. Deadline for submissions is January 31.

Download our free lesson plans for teachers and register online today!

The Toshiba/NSTA ExploraVision Team

Keep up with the latest Toshiba/NSTA ExploraVision news through Facebook and Twitter.

Remember...if you use any lab or activity that you/we find online, be sure to follow all safety guidelines. Make sure that it is safe and appropriate to our safety guidelines before you ever attempt it (ie eg: Physics teachers, if doing the exploding pumpkin, do NOT allow the students to place the rubberbands and keep them at a safe distance with goggles.). Be careful that it is age appropriate for your students (ie eg: MS teachers, do NOT use any chemicals we deem unsafe for our MS population.). If showing something virtually, be sure to caution students NOT to try these at home.

HS STEM activities: https://www.sciencelessonsthatrock.com/blog/halloween-science-ideas

MS Science Bob: Scroll down to see science experiments that are fun for the kids to watch virtually. https://sciencebob.com/free-halloween-science-ideas/

Carolina HS Chemoween: https://www.carolina.com/knowledge/2020/09/30/chemoween-and-other-spooky-science

MS Education World: https://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/halloween-inspired-science-experiments.shtml

HS Phy Sci and Chemistry: https://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/halloween-inspired-science-experiments.shtml

31 Days of STEAM Activities: https://www.steampoweredfamily.com/activities/halloween-stem-activities/

Office of Teaching and Learning (614-365-5727) is located at 3700 S. High St.

Leslie Kelly , Executive Director, Teaching and Learning

Brian Morton, Director of Secondary Curriculum

Katy Myers, Secondary Curriculum Supervisor

Heather Allen, K-5 Coordinator, hallen704@columbus.k12.oh.us

Jennifer Nord, 6-12 Science Coordinator, jnord5257@columbus.k12.oh.us

Geri Granger, K-12 Spruce Run Coordinator, ggranger9556@columbus.k12.oh.us