Scholastic Teacher Bookshop provides a wonderful range of titles reflecting current issues in education as well as the most popular primary curriculam areas. Teachers can browse through 'The Bookshop' and choose those titles that meet their particular needs and/or take their fancy! The varied format of titles in this series enables subjects to becovered in a way that is most appropriate to the content. Understanding in science helps children to make sense of the world in which they live. But some things in science can be difficult to grasp. What has happened to the water in puddles? What is the difference between melting and dissolving? Do all empty things float? This book provides a path to understanding particular concepts in science, particularly the more difficult parts. It takes a step-by-step approach to learning, starting from what children already know and building up with each small step to what you want them to know. The book covers aspects from all the areas of the science curriculum. Each science concept covered is provided as a seperate unit and includes: *notes on the science background *examples of specific problems that children commonly have with the concept *suggestions for teaching the concept *ideas for consolidating and developing learning *examples of questions for checking understanding *suggestions for how to teach each area *Practical step-by-step teaching guidance in easy-to-follow format *Science background information included *hands on activity ideas to reinforce understanding *Includes photcopiable illustrated examples to aid teaching and understanding

Authors Susan Koba and Carol Mitchell introduce teachers of grades 3- 5 to their conceptual framework for successful instruction of hard-to-teach science concepts. Their methodology comprises four steps: (1) engage students about their preconceptions and address their thinking; (2) target lessons to be learned; (3) determine appropriate strategies; and (4) use Standards-based teaching that builds on student understandings. The authors not only explain how to use their framework but also provide a variety of tools and examples of its application on four hard-to-teach foundational concepts: the flow of energy and matter in ecosystems, force and motion, matter and its transformation, and Earth's shape. Both preservice and inservice elementary school teachers will find this approach appealing, and the authors' engaging writing style and user-friendly tables help educators adapt the method with ease.

This well-researched book provides a valuable instructional framework for high school biology teachers as they tackle five particularly challenging concepts in their classrooms, meiosis, photosynthesis, natural selection, proteins and genes, and environmental systems and human impact. The author counsels educators first to identify students' prior conceptions, especially misconceptions, related to the concept being taught, then to select teaching strategies that best dispel the misunderstandings and promote the greatest student learning. The book is not a prescribred set of lesson plans. Rather it presents a framework for lesson planning, shares appropriate approaches for developing student understanding, and provides opportunities to reflect and apply those approached to the five hard-to-teach topics. More than 300 teacher resources are listed.

Do you lack confidence in teaching the more difficult areas of primary science? Do you want accessible, well structured support? Yes? Then this handy book is for you... It provides a combination of engaging, practical lesson ideas and subject knowledge to help you teach the trickiest parts of primary science such as materials and their properties, magnetism, circuits, forces and life processes. Using strategies that have been successfully used in primary school classrooms, it explains the most difficult topics in a simple, non-technical style. It includes a range of accessible ideas, hints and tips with a focus on providing a skills-based, problem-solving approach to learning. Each topic area includes advice on: How to link the topic with other areas of learning Identifying and challenging common misconceptions How to effectively pre-assess the learners' ideas to best meet their needs Practical activities for challenging and developing children's ideas Explanatory models to help pupils consolidate their understanding This book provides friendly support and guidance to anyone teaching or training to teach primary science.

A hands-on and fun-filled resource for teaching science to middle and high school students New in the 5-Minute Fundamentals Series, The Science Teacher's Activity-A-Day, Grades 6-12, includes 180 easy, five-minute hook or sponge activities to capture learners' attention and introduce lessons. Divided into three units, Physical Science, Life Science, and Earth and Space Science; the activities cover topics based on the National Science Education Standards. All the book's activities can be done with materials that are inexpensive and easy to find Includes quick and fun "sponge" activities that are designed to engage students All the activities take about 5 minutes to complete The Science Teacher's Activity-a-Day is an ideal resource for middle and high school science teachers.

This book provides a combination of practical lesson ideas and theory, focusing particularly on those areas that research has shown most trainee primary teachers struggle with. Each chapter provides a good range of practical and accessible ideas, hints and tips linked to how children learn.

Do you need quick and easy access to great ideas for teaching primary science? If so then this is the book for you! Creative Ways to Teach Primary Science draws on the best ideas about teaching primary science, using an evidence-based approach which recognizes that there are some proven and more effective methods for teaching primary science. Creativity is one of the most powerful indicators of successful teaching, and the key is a willingness to take risks and to accept uncertainty. This can be tricky for busy teachers, so this book lends you a helping hand! The authors explain why the methods presented are successful and encourage you to apply these creative techniques to new situations. The book: Offers a handy 'one stop shop' of creative ideas for teaching primary science Provides a 'helping hand' for you to get started in the classroom by presenting a range of teaching methods that are proven to work Encourages creativity and experimentation, regularly recognized as features of outstanding teaching Inspires you to develop all the ideas for yourself Providing a highly practical and accessible handbook to the creative aspects of teaching and learning primary science, this is invaluable reading for trainee and practising primary teachers.

In the science classroom, there are some ideas that are as difficult for young students to grasp as they are for teachers to explain. Forces, electricity, light, and basic astronomy are all examples of conceptual domains that come into this category. How should a teacher teach them? The authors of this monograph reject the traditional separation of subject and pedagogic knowledge. They believe that to develop effective teaching for meaningful learning in science, we must identify how teachers themselves interpret difficult ideas in science and, in particular, what supports their own learning in coming to a professional understanding of how to teach science concepts to young children. To do so, they analyzed trainee and practising teachers’ responses to engaging with difficult ideas when learning science in higher education settings. The text demonstrates how professional insight emerges as teachers identify the elements that supported their understanding during their own learning. In this paradigm, professional awareness derives from the practitioner interrogating their own learning and identifying implications for their teaching of science. The book draws on a significant body of critically analysed empirical evidence collated and documented over a five-year period involving large numbers of trainee and practising teachers. It concludes that it is essential to ‘problematize’ subject knowledge, both for learner and teacher. The book’s theoretical perspective draws on the field of cognitive psychology in learning. In particular, the role of metacognition and cognitive conflict in learning are examined and subsequently applied in a range of contexts. The work offers a unique and refreshing approach in addressing the important professional dimension of supporting teacher understanding of pedagogy and critically examines assumptions in contemporary debates about constructivism in science education.

Worried about teaching natural selection, submicroscopic particle models or circuits? Keith S. Taber explores a range of issues faced in secondary science teaching and discusses strategies for teaching the nature of scientific knowledge, making practical work effective and challenging gifted young scientists. MasterClass in Science Education shows how to become a master science teacher by developing and adopting the habits and mind-set of a teacher-as-scientist. The author introduces the three pillars of this approach: subject knowledge, pedagogic knowledge, and classroom research. The body of subject knowledge in the sciences is both vast and constantly evolving as it is challenged, updated and developed, and this text supports you to understand the dynamic nature of knowledge and the implications this has for your teaching. Taber shows how to use a knowledge-in-action approach, enacting knowledge in the complex and dynamic classroom environment. He supports you to critically examine classroom experiences, drawing on a wide-range of research-informed perspectives that offer insights into facilitating effective student learning. He also guides you to understand how to use recommendations from published research studies as components of a toolkit to improve your teaching and learning.

To most of us, learning something "the hard way" implies wasted time and effort. Good teaching, we believe, should be creatively tailored to the different learning styles of students and should use strategies that make learning easier. Make It Stick turns fashionable ideas like these on their head. Drawing on recent discoveries in cognitive psychology and other disciplines, the authors offer concrete techniques for becoming more productive learners. Memory plays a central role in our ability to carry out complex cognitive tasks, such as applying knowledge to problems never before encountered and drawing inferences from facts already known. New insights into how memory is encoded, consolidated, and later retrieved have led to a better understanding of how we learn. Grappling with the impediments that make learning challenging leads both to more complex mastery and better retention of what was learned. Many common study habits and practice routines turn out to be counterproductive. Underlining and highlighting, rereading, cramming, and single-minded repetition of new skills create the illusion of mastery, but gains fade quickly. More complex and durable learning come from self-testing, introducing certain difficulties in practice, waiting to re-study new material until a little forgetting has set in, and interleaving the practice of one skill or topic with another. Speaking most urgently to students, teachers, trainers, and athletes, Make It Stick will appeal to all those interested in the challenge of lifelong learning and self-improvement.