End of the Semester

       Now is the end of the semester. Last one before "official" student teaching. Wow. I had said that I never wanted to re-live high school. It was probably the most trying time in my life thus far. I never would have thought that I would find my passion and calling in life in the same setting that I learned to hate so much as a youth.
       A little more than a year and a half ago, my biggest worry was figuring out what I wanted to do as a career. All summer long, I stressed over where I should take my life, since I figured the path I was heading down was not for me. About this time last year, I had just found out that I was accepted into the full year Professional Development School, a year long student teaching internship. This year my biggest worry: getting some resumes out to schools. It's amazing how much difference one year makes. I never thought that this past semester would have gone as smoothly as it did, especially after giving up alot.

Arsenic and Old Lace?

     Unfortunately, this is not a reference to the old film. This is about some new research that has been taking over the internet! There has been some bacteria found that is using Arsenic instead of Phosphorus.Arsenic is usually thought to be poisionous, as mentioned in the movie, but something is putting it to use. This is a huge discovery which can lead to drastically changing how we are viewing, researching, and teaching about the chemistry of life.

Here is the link to NASA and the article:
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/features/astrobiology_toxic_chemical.html

Scientifically Yours,
 Ms. Weems

The Diagram vs. The Freshman

        So far this semester, we have been navigating through the awesome and interesting world of biology. We have explorered ecology, busted out biochemistry, and are now crankin' out cells! Little did I know how much the honors students that I have been working with would get frustrated by a simple diagram.
       A big part of visual literacy in the science classroom is being able to understand these diagrams. As a college student, these diagrams have been thrown at me left, right, and at the back of my head. Otherwise, to me, they are SOP (Standard Operating Procedure). Diagrams have been what has helped me get through the complexity of science. Clearly, my student do not understand my point of view. While administering a cell part quiz to the students, it became very clear that these students did not understand how to read these diagrams.I would get questions such as "Is that line pointing to this little spot or the whole thing?" or "If there are two lines branching off of one line does that mean that those are the same?". Now, to be honest, the cell is confusing since there are a bazillion and a half parts. But I was not prepared for these types of questions.
       Half frustrated and half disheartened, I decided to do a mini lesson on reading diagrams for my students. After much jumping around and drawing crazy lines and shapes, this was something that was so easily cleared up after the 15 min. lesson. My question is why are Honors level freshmen struggling with this? This is part of our science literacy! Diagrams are designed to simplify and/or illustrate a complex concept. Scientists use them, the newspaper uses them, and  often we see them in pop culture. Our students need to know this.
      As teachers, we need to make sure that our students are literate in not only the text literacies, but also in the visual literacies. If we do not teach these skills, how can our students learn them?

Goal for this upcoming semester: Teach my students visual literacy of using diagrams.

New Literacies and The New Teacher

                As our classes become more “tech savvy”, we as teachers need to follow suit. A great way to teach our students it to teach them in ways that are “culturally” relevant and let’ face it the culture of our students includes these new technologies.  More and more students communicate via Facebook, Twitter, AIM, Skype, etc.  All of these technologies are the result of some awesome science! So let’s use this great science to help our students learn.

                With the onset of the social networks, there has become a new literacy to teach and work with in the classroom. Fortunately, most students are very aware and well versed in this new technology and its conventions. If we can take wikis, Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks into the classroom, we may be able to use the literacy they already understand with this media and help them convert it in to a more formal and academic media. A blog like this is a perfect example of how we can incorporate this media in the classroom.

                On this blog, I will continue to post website and other information about science and literacy, as well as examples of literacy strategies I am using in the classroom. As a new teacher, I am sure not everything will go was well as my little idealistic plan and I am sure you all will hear all about what is working and what has not. My current project is a unit based around science literacy.  I am currently working on a unit plan for genetics and biotechnology which is based around misconceptions and how we can use scientific literacy to alleviate these misconceptions, starting with these students! I am looking forward to them working with a variety of texts including political cartoons, movies, TV shows, articles from newspapers and articles from magazines.

Science Literacy Around the Web

I have found a couple of interesting blogs  about Scientific Literacy!
 Enjoy!


In this blog, Gina Hale discusses the Role of Reading. She makes some great points about how we approach reading as teachers and where we need to be heading.

http://blog.readingapprenticeship.org/2010/04/21/the-role-of-reading/#comment-268

In this blog, the writer discussing the importance of science literacy using a great example of a chemical spill from a truck.

http://learnerempowerment.wordpress.com/2010/03/18/empowering-learners-through-scientific-literacy/#comment-4

Science Literacy

Literacy, as we think of it, is the ability to read and comprehend a text. As I have learned over the past semester, literacy is much broader and more encompassing than just reading and comprehending what one reads.
The National Science Education Standards have set a list of standards for scientific literacy:
     A scientifically literate person can...

1. Ask/find answers to questions that come about in everyday life.
2. Describe and explain natural phenomena.
3. Read science article is popular press and hold a social conversation about the topics and their conclusions.
4. Identify the science in politics and make an informed decision based on a knowledge of science and technology.
5. Evaluate the quality of  information based on its source and methods used.
6. Create and evaluate arguments based on evidence.

These often are paired with a list of Scientific Literacy goals:

1. Ability to ask and explore a question.
2. Collect, organize, present, and analyze data.
3. Draw and evaluate conclusions.
4. Use deductive reasoning.
5. Problem solve.

Never thought that literacy is more than just being able to read and write? Think again! Literacy is everywhere.

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog! This blog will touch on many current on goings in science and how they can be used in the science classroom. It also will touch on science literacy and how to improve science literacy in the classroom.