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The Lab ReportA Monthly Newsletter for the Discovery Education Science Techbook

SPECIAL DECEMBER EDITION 2011

Lighting up the holidays one pickle at a time. Picture from the November Science Stream

Our monthly Lab Report will provide you with quick updates, instructional strategies, best practices and professional development opportunities surrounding the Discovery Education Science Techbook. Meant to be a quick read, many of our updates will link you to the the Discovery Education Science Blog where you may dive deeper into the story and explore other posts focused on science instruction. If you’re reading this and thinking I’ve got a great strategy to share, contact us and we’ll feature you in our next issue.

This November was packed with events including Family Science Nights, Seasonal Science Streams, School Assemblies and who could forget Thanksgiving. This month’s cover photo comes from our Seasonal Science Stream on electricity. Yes, even a pickle can help light up our classrooms with holiday cheer. If you missed this past stream, you may access the archive here. You’ll see many hands-on activities demonstrated live from James R. Watson Elementary in Auburn, Indiana.

In the spirit of the season, we wanted to provide a little different

format for our December Lab Report. Instead of our usual sections, we’ve put

together twelve tips and instructional strategies that will help wrap up 2011 and prepare you for a fantastic 2012. If reading our list inspires you, let us know. The Discovery Educator Network is easy access and you can share your thoughts, ideas, best practice, etc... using several methods. Take a look below at some of the places you may connect and share with other educators.

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Let’s Go Beyond the Textbook

Family Science Night

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1. Add closed captioning when playing videos. This improves science literacy and vocabulary development.

2. Have students explain what they know by creating a comic strip that correctly uses as many glossary terms as possible.

3. Start a "Science Sleuth" after school club.

4. Students can “wear their climate glasses” and document evidence of climate change in the environment. You can use images from the Science Techbook to begin the discussion. See this blog post for more information.

5. Have students create a picture story using PhotoPeach.com about their understanding of a concept. See the Photopeach.com blog for more information about its uses.

6. Students can create a flyer or poster about a concept, advertising the importance of the concept to other students.

7. Think-Pair-Share: Have students watch the animation of a glossary term and write a definition for the term in their own words. Students then share with a partner their definition and work collaboratively to come up with a definition for their team to share with the class.

8. Mythbusters: Use the peer review sheet from Mythbusters to have your students evaluate the scientific method Adam and Jamie have used to conduct their experiment. The peer review sheet can be found under the related materials tab of the video.

9. Assignments: Use the Discovery built assignments to create engaging activities for the computer lab, workstations or homework. Every concept has assignments already built using the Assignment Builder which can be found in the orange tabs on the upper right side of the concept page.

10. Ring in the new year with one of the many science songs by Dr. Lodge McCammon. Simply search for Lodge to find them all and engage your auditory and kinesthetic learners.

11. Make the most of the extended break by having students collect data about their neighborhood. Have them observe the variety of animals, how many of each variety and what they are doing. Have them collect this data again during spring break and then compare and contrast the two sets.

12. Writing Prompt: The Discovery Education Science Techbook has a built in writing prompt builder. Add a brief constructed response to the builder to allow students to respond online and add links to outside digital resources.

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The Twelve Days of Techbook