Happy December! Thank you all for being members of MSP2. We want to encourage everyone to become an active member of the community and share your expertise and experiences by contributing to conversations, sharing resources, or joining one of our topical discussion groups. Thought I would get the ball rolling by sharing some resources that have crossed my desk in the last month. But first, don’t forget to take the Digital Readiness Survey and RSVP for the January Book Club online get-together!

With Best Wishes, Kim Lightle, MSP2 Team

Still Time to Take the Digital Readiness Survey
You can take a self-assessment that will help you determine how “digital ready” you are. The assessment was developed through an NSF grant with Project Tomorrow and MSP2. The survey will take 15 minutes, and you will receive your personalized and confidential results within 72 hours of completion. Three randomly selected participants who complete the survey will win $100 Amazon gift cards.

The self-assessment allows you to see where you are in your usage and perspective on digital content and also provides insight for MSP2 and the overall NSF grant to determine the types of professional learning opportunities needed by educators like you.

You can access the self-assessment at https://s.zoomerang.com/s/DigitalReadiness_MSP2. The Amazon gift cards will be awarded shortly after the deadline.

MSP2 Book Club January 2013 Selection: Twists in the Tale of the Great DNA Discovery – The Double Helix
A new annotated and illustrated edition of James Watson’s book “The Double Helix” adds interesting details about the rivalries in the race to decode the structure of DNA including information about Rosalind Franklin’s contributions. I read the original years ago and really enjoyed it. I’m really looking forward to reading the new edition and hope that you’ll join us on Wednesday, January 23 at 7-8pm EST to discuss the book. Click here to RSVP.

SCIENCE

Middle School Science Research Models (from MSP2 member Della Curtis)
Are you exploring strategies and ready-made curriculum products for student short and long term research/inquiry?  You might like to investigate the BCPS portal of Online Research Models for grades 6, 7, and 8.

The Online Research Models (ORM), developed by Baltimore County Public Schools, represent an exciting way to guide student research toward higher-level thinking that fully utilizes technology and digital content resources. The research models were developed by teams of library media specialists, teachers, and content specialists at Summer Curriculum Workshops in the Baltimore County Public Schools since 1998. Students who use the self-guided online research lessons are challenged to employ thoughtful reading, analysis, evaluation, and synthesis of information to create answers, not just find them.

The ORM are designed as web pages that present students with a clear research structure, including a research scenario, a learning task, rubrics and scoring tools, directions for use of various media resources, links to useful web sites, creation of a product or presentation, and reflection. Student collaboration is built in to the process. Internet access to the models serves to make curriculum information accessible to teachers, students, parents and the general public.

FabFems: Women in STEM
The “FabFems Spotlight” highlights women from the FabFems Role Model Directory. There are more than 100 FabFems profiles in the database and entries are added daily. FabFems are enthusiastic about the science and technology work they do and want to inspire a future generation of FabFems. Encourage girls to visit FabFems to search profiles, connect with role models, and find resources on career pathways.

Engineering Education “Today in History” Blog: Collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge
On November 7, 1940, at approximately 11:00 AM, the first Tacoma Narrows suspension bridge collapsed due to wind-induced vibrations. Situated on the Tacoma Narrows in Puget Sound, near the city of Tacoma, Washington, the bridge had only been open for traffic a few months. This website, originally designed to document research on dynamics of a linear model of suspension bridges, has been expanded to provide a comprehensive history of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge Disaster, along with photos, videos and analyses.

I added this item because I’m amazed every time I see the video of this disaster. Might want to keep this handy – engineering will become an integral part of science instruction really soon.

MATH

Benton Books: Math Girls 2 – Fermat’s Last Theorem
Continuing Hiroshi Yuki’s young adult fiction that explores “the beauty of mathematics, the excitement of tackling hard problems, and happiness of discussing them with friends,” MG2:FLT follows the mathematical journeys of Miruka, Tetra, and new “math girl” Yuri (who is in 8^th grade). Topics covered include number theory, modular arithmetic, the basics of abstract algebra (groups, rings, and fields), proof by contradiction and by infinite descent, and Euler’s identity. The author says the book contains math problems covering a wide range of difficulty. Some will be approachable by middle school students, while others may prove challenging even at the college level. You can download the first two chapters for free from the website. I really enjoyed the first two chapters. See what you think! (Thanks to the Math Forum for this resource and the next.)

Will Christmas Cost More This Year?
For the past 29 years, PNC Wealth Management has illustrated the cost of all the gifts involved in the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” This year, PNC has created a website to track down the gifts, because they have skipped town! Students go on a virtual trip across six continents, journey down the Amazon, battle the Loch Ness monster, and summon ancient Mayan spirits to find the missing presents. Along the way, PNC’s site covers concepts such as inflation and other economic trends. PNC’s partner, The Stock Market Game™, provides accompanying lesson plans in English and Spanish.

5 Dice: Order of Operations Game
I received an email from a middle school math teacher, Justin Holladay, asking for feedback on his first iPhone/iPad app. It would be great if you would provide feedback for Justin on the MSP2 site. I’ve started a discussion in the MSP2 Math group where you can add your feedback about the app.

You can read more about it here: http://www.mathfilefoldergames.com/5dice
Download the app for free: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/5-dice-order-operations-game/id572774867?ls=1&mt=8
Video: http://youtu.be/KfglfA1fGt4

About the Game: 5 Dice: Order of Operations Game, is a math app for middle school kids that helps them really like practicing their order of operations skills. The math game requires students to use higher order thinking to solve the target number by working backwards provided the answer but not the equation. The best feature about this simple math game is that teachers or parents are able to receive immediate feedback of their students’ progress through email.

When not teaching middle school math, which he has done for 40 years in schools from New York City to Papua New Guinea, Boggs moderates the Technology in Maths Education User Group, tinspire Google Groups discussion, and math-learn Yahoo! mailing list — each featured in these pages before.

You can subscribe to the weekly Math Forum Newsletter by clicking here.

We Want Your Feedback

We want and need your ideas, suggestions, and observations. What would you like to know more about? What questions have your students asked? We invite you to share with us and other readers by posting your comments. Please check back often for our newest posts or download the RSS feed for this blog. Let us know what you think and tell us how we can serve you better. We appreciate your feedback on all of our Middle School Portal 2 publications. You can also email us at msp@msteacher.org.

Good news! Outdoor projects such as planting and maintaining a garden satisfy all aspects of scientific inquiry by inviting interactive and hands-on exploration. By creating a garden, students will be able to look at how energy moves throughout an ecosystem. Furthermore, such an activity fosters students’ ability to conduct original research by coming up with their own ways to collect data on a wide range of questions. Outdoor projects also allow students to make observations that are both qualitative and quantitative.

In 2009, Michelle Obama and Washington-area school kids planted the White House vegetable garden. Watch a video of First Lady Obama touring the organic vegetable garden and discussing her goal of educating children about healthy eating. Then read the accompanying article by Dan Shapley with your students. Seeing our government take action will help students to see the importance of their own school garden project. You can see more coverage of the White House garden on a Washington City Paper blog, which was recorded on April 8, 2010.

Connecting to Standards

Outdoor projects, such as planting and maintaining an organic garden, align with the following content standards for grades 5-8 from the National Science Education Standards.

Content Standard C: Life Science

Regulation and Behavior

-All organisms must be able to obtain and use resources, grow, reproduce, and maintain stable internal conditions while living in a constantly changing external environment.

Populations and Ecosystems

-For ecosystems, the major source of energy is sunlight. Energy entering ecosystems as sunlight is transferred by producers into chemical energy through photosynthesis. That energy then passes from organism to organism in food webs.

Background Information

What is organic gardening?

Organic gardening does not use synthetic fertilizers or pesticides. Organic gardeners choose plants that are suitable to their specific climate and environmental conditions. It is also important to consider the soil, water supply, wildlife, insects, and even people. Organic gardeners try to minimize any resources the garden consumes, replenishing resources with organic matter.

Why should we garden organically?

When you grow vegetables organically, you are not only eating healthier but also creating a sustainable and more balanced ecosystem. Furthermore, obtaining produce from your own garden is often cheaper than buying it from a grocery store.

Organicgardening.com is an online resource that will answer many questions about organic gardening.

Learning Objectives

Creating an organic classroom garden can be a year-long endeavor, which encourages you to go outdoors with your students. By the end of the gardening project, your students will have:

-An understanding of how organisms may interact with one another.

-An understanding of how changes in an organism’s ecosystem/habitat affect its survival.

-An understanding of how an organism can only survive if its needs are met (e.g., food, water, shelter, air).

-An understanding of how all organisms cause changes in their ecosystem and how these changes can be beneficial, neutral, or detrimental.

-An understanding of food chains and food webs (e.g., producers, herbivores, carnivores, omnivores and decomposers).

-An understanding of how natural occurrences and human activity affect the transfer of energy in an ecosystem.

-An understanding of how the number of organisms an ecosystem can support depends on adequate biotic resources and abiotic resources.

-An understanding of how organisms or populations may interact with one another through symbiotic relationships and how some species have become so adapted to each other that neither could survive without the other.

Activity

To get your students thinking about organic gardening and the components that it entails, have students come up with a design for a garden. This can be done online, bringing technology into the classroom. KiddoNet offers an online planner that allows students to design a flower garden. If computers are not available, the activity can be done using an 8.5″ by 11″ sheet of copy paper and crayons.

When students have completed their garden design, ask them to explain it in a think-aloud fashion. Use the following questions as a guide. (If students need help researching, you may want to give students the questions before they come up with their designs.)

- How big will your garden be? Why?

- Will it be located in a sunny or shady environment?

- Is the area warm or cool?

- How much rainfall does the area get?

- Is the area close to water sources? If not, what arrangements will be needed to ensure that the garden survives?

- What is the soil like?

- Is the location hilly or flat?

- How many plants do you plan to have in your garden?

- How many types of plants do you plan on having?

- What should you consider when choosing your plants?

- Are animals allowed to enter the garden?

- If so, what types? Are they important in the survival of the garden?

- Is there any symbiosis or mutualism occurring in the garden?

- What energy cycles do you expect to occur?

- What biotic resources are important to your garden?

- What are the relationships between the abiotic and biotic parts of your garden?

- How could you maximize diversity?

- How would increased diversity lead to an increased energy transfer throughout the garden?

- How would the presence of humans and pets affect the energy within the garden?

The type of garden or outdoor project that you actually engage your students in depends on the age of the students, financial means, and time constraints. You may want to consider applying for grants to finance an organic garden project. You can find a list of grant opportunities at the Middle School Portal/Getting Grants page.

Additional Information

Middle School Portal 2 has many resources about gardening. Try Thinking Green? Grow Your Own! Linking Agriculture, Gardening and Technology. This resource guide provides ideas and resources for integrating science and technology into studies of agriculture and gardening. It provides answers to these questions: What, and how, can students learn from gardening? How can gardening be accomplished in urban or suburban sites? What technologies enable agriculture and home gardening? What are the underlying science principles of these technologies? What is the economic impact of agriculture and home gardening? Some related careers are also highlighted.

We Want Your Feedback

We want and need your ideas, suggestions, and observations. What would you like to know more about? What questions have your students asked? We invite you to share with us and other readers by posting your comments. Please check back often for our newest posts or download the RSS feed for this blog. Let us know what you think and tell us how we can serve you better. We appreciate your feedback on all of our Middle School Portal 2 publications. You can also email us at msp@msteacher.org.

This post was originally written by Brittany Wall and published May 27, 2010 in the Connecting News to the National Science Education Standards blog. The post was updated 4/23/12 by Jessica Fries-Gaither.

The article, Subliminal Smells Bias Perception About A Person’s Likeability, does not explicate the researchers’ questions or hypothesis, but inference indicates their questions were: What concentration levels of scents can people consciously detect? How does scent affect human judgment of the likeability of other humans?

Three scents were used at several levels of concentration, from imperceptible to definitely perceptible. The scents were: “lemon (good), sweat (bad) and ethereal (neutral). . . . Study participants were informed that an odor would be present in 75 percent of the trials.” After participants sniffed a sample, they were shown a photo of a human face with a neutral expression and were asked to rate the person’s likeability along a six-point scale. Though no details are given on how the data was analyzed, the lead author is quoted as saying,

The study suggests that people conscious of the barely noticeable scents were able to discount that sensory information and just evaluate the faces. It only was when smell sneaked in without being noticed that judgments about likeability were biased.

How to Turn This News Event into an Inquiry-Based, Standards-Related Science Lesson

Do your students participate in a Science Day competition or activity? Then you know how hard it can be to help students find a topic they can relate to and apply the methods of science. Sharing this article with your students and accompanying it with a discussion of the methods of science used here might just be the perfect bridge to help your students find an accessible topic. Since particular sample sizes and data analysis methods are not described in the article, you and your students could brainstorm a variety of possible approaches.

You could follow up by going through your local library’s electronic periodical data base to find the researchers’ original report in the December 2007 issue of Psychological Science, “Subliminal Smells Can Guide Social Preferences” by Wen Li, Isabel Moallem, Ken A. Paller, and Jay A Gottfried, and sharing with your students the methods these researchers did use. A discussion of the pros and cons of their methods as compared to those brainstormed by your students could round out your lesson.

The ScienceDaily article can also be used as an introduction to a unit on the senses (i.e., structure and function in living things) or on regulation and behavior, both topics within the NSES Life Science Standard. After sharing the article with students, ask: From an adaptive perspective, what value might there be in this phenomenon of imperceptible levels of scent causing unconscious behavior? Are humans the only organism likely to display this trait? How do you know?

Here are some additional resources that are part of the Middle School Portal 2 collection to facilitate your instruction regarding structure and function in living things, olfaction, methods of science, and regulation and behavior: Structure and Function in Living Systems; Enose Is Enose Is Enose; Discovery, Chance and the Scientific Method; Regulation and Behavior.

We Want Your Feedback

We want and need your ideas, suggestions, and observations. What would you like to know more about? What questions have your students asked? We invite you to share with us and other readers by posting your comments. Please check back often for our newest posts or download the RSS feed for this blog. Let us know what you think and tell us how we can serve you better. We appreciate your feedback on all of our Middle School Portal 2 publications. You can also email us at msp@msteacher.org.

This post was originally written by Mary LeFever and published December 13, 2007 in the Connecting News to the National Science Education Standards blog. The post was updated 4/23/12 by Jessica Fries-Gaither.

In the following months the New York Times, Fox News, and others identified the tainted brands of toothpaste and locations where they were sold. Some brands were found to contain the compound even though it wasn’t listed as an ingredient. Unfortunately for China, the tainted toothpaste adds to a growing list of product-safety breaches, including a similar incident with cough syrup in 2006 and, more recently, the use of lead-based paints in children’s toys.

In the United States, the Consumer Product Safety Commission provides information and issues safety alerts on consumer products. In the wake of the incidents involving lead-based paint on toys, the Commission reached an agreement with China, requiring imported toys and some other products to meet U.S. safety standards. In addition, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration got involved with the tainted toothpaste issue, developing a web page devoted to the problem.

To what extent should individuals rely solely on government agencies to look out for their personal safety? How much scientific literacy do consumers need to be able to read labels and make informed decisions regarding their own health and safety? These questions are addressed in an October 1, 2007, article in the New York Times, The Everyman Who Exposed Tainted Toothpaste. This article tells the story of how one person, Eduardo Arias, brought the issue of tainted toothpaste to the attention of the world.

Arias is a Panamanian government employee responsible for reviewing environmental reports, but that’s not the reason he recognized the compound in the list of toothpaste ingredients as toxic. Rather, he was made aware of diethylene glycol’s toxic effects when, in 2006, almost 100 people died after consuming tainted cough syrup from China, another story reported by the New York Times. Bringing the danger of the tainted toothpaste to the attention of the proper authorities required Arias to cut through the government bureaucracy at three levels and cost him a considerable amount of personal time. His story exemplifies the human side of safety in society and personalizes an issue that could easily be perceived as something the government is solely responsible for. His story should inspire others to do the right thing, despite the probable inconvenience doing so brings.

How to Turn This News Event into an Inquiry-Based, Standards-Related Science Lesson

What’s so dangerous about diethylene glycol? Why would it be used in toothpaste? How can average citizens be proactive in maintaining their own and others’ safety when it comes to consumer products? These are questions for inquiry that align with several of the National Science Education Standards in the areas of Science as Inquiry, Physical Science, and Science in Personal and Social Perspectives.

The intention here is not to scare middle school students, but to show them there are mechanisms in place to maintain our safety, and these mechanisms require active, informed, scientifically literate citizens. We all have a responsibility to stay informed. Teachers have a responsibility to assist students in learning where and how to access the needed information as well as how to evaluate it for its authenticity, validity, and usefulness. This approach provides opportunities to integrate skills and knowledge in language arts, social studies, and science.

We Want Your Feedback

We want and need your ideas, suggestions, and observations. What would you like to know more about? What questions have your students asked? We invite you to share with us and other readers by posting your comments. Please check back often for our newest posts or download the RSS feed for this blog. Let us know what you think and tell us how we can serve you better. We appreciate your feedback on all of our Middle School Portal 2 publications. You can also email us at msp@msteacher.org.

This post was originally written by Mary LeFever and published October 3, 2007 in the Connecting News to the National Science Education Standards blog. The post was updated 4/23/12 by Jessica Fries-Gaither.

For example, pregnant caribou depend on particular plants to nourish them while they nurse their calves. The spring calving season is short and the window for peak plant nourishment coincides with that short season. However, these plants are emerging or germinating earlier in the season, in response to warmer temperatures, reaching their peak before calving occurs. Thus, nursing caribou are receiving less nourishment, calves are suffering, and mortality rates are increasing, as reported by ScienceDaily. Researchers believe this is just one example of the impact of climate change that will be documented repeatedly in the near future

Caribou are cued to move to new grazing patches by increasing day length. The plants, however, are cued to emerge or germinate by increasing temperature. This causes a “trophic-mismatch.” If the trend continues, caribou will not survive unless they can find a substitute for their nourishment needs. This may be possible in one of two ways. One is an additional plant species, useful to caribou, becomes established in the ecosystem made possible by the longer growing season. The second way caribou could thrive is if the caribou alter their migration patterns to better align calving with plants at their peak nutrition. Doing so would be a case of the caribou population shifting its      range.

According to a second ScienceDaily article, “One of the main predicted effects of climate change is a forced shift in species’ distribution range.” This comment was made in reference to a plankton scientists have decided was able to change its range to further north in the Atlantic after the last warming trend in climate 18,000 years ago. They attribute this ability to a lot of genetic variability within the species and large populations. This, they say, is good news since it indicates the species can react and adapt appropriately in order to survive and avoid extinction. It is also a cause for optimism since plankton is the base of the food chain.

Conversely then, small, less variable populations are at risk of not adapting to and surviving climate change. What if anything can or should be done?

How to Turn This News Event into an Inquiry-Based, Standards-Related Science Lesson

The National Science Education Standards in life science states students should gain understanding in (1) structure and function in living systems, (2) regulation and behavior, and (3) diversity and adaptations of organisms. Climate change affords opportunities to touch on those areas as well as topics in Science and Society, and Earth Science concepts in climate.

Ask students what caribou are, where they live and how they behave. Or direct students to do their own research. This Natureworks site provides a succinct reference for students.  Most will probably know caribou migrate and live in Alaska, but students may not know they also live in Greenland. Many will say caribou are reindeer. Though they are related, they are different. Reindeer are domesticated and live in northern Asia actually.

Students may know caribou migrate, but they may not be fully aware of the adaptations the caribou have, enabling the thousands of miles of migration accomplished each year. Ask students what cues caribou to migrate north in the spring: increasing day length or increasing temperatures? Since temperatures vary, it is adaptive perhaps that caribou respond instead to increasing day length, which is rather constant in its annual pattern.

Now focus on the plants of the tundra. What signals plants it’s time to emerge? Warming temperatures rather than light. After all, an underground root system or a buried seed cannot sense light. To track average temperatures from 1995-2003, students can access Excel files of the data from the Arctic Long Term Ecological Site. In pairs or groups of three, students can find tundra temperature data for a specific year and then share. They can have the program calculate the average temperature each year for the month of June or the first week in June. Graph the data points. What is the pattern?

Tundra plants are low to the ground and small. Caribou have to do a lot of grazing to meet their needs. Turn student attention to the calving and nursing period. Calves nurse for about one month. Nursing caribou need lots of nutrition during that period. What if calves were born one week after plants had reached their maximum? How might this impact the herd over time? Remind students of the two different cues plant and caribou respond to: light and temperature. How might the plant diversity be impacted by a warming trend?

Share the plankton story with students. In sum, two things can happen in response to climate change: adapt or go extinct. Life on the planet survived the last warming trend; thus it may survive this one too. However, human contributions to this warming trend were not present 18,000 years ago. It remains to be seen what difference that makes.

Here are additional related resources from the Middle School Portal 2: Science and the Polar Regions and The Reason for the Seasons.

We Want Your Feedback

We want and need your ideas, suggestions, and observations. What would you like to know more about? What questions have your students asked? We invite you to share with us and other readers by posting your comments. Please check back often for our newest posts or download the RSS feed for this blog. Let us know what you think and tell us how we can serve you better. We appreciate your feedback on all of our Middle School Portal 2 publications. You can also email us at msp@msteacher.org.

This post was originally written by Mary LeFever and published November 5, 2008 in the Connecting News to the National Science Education Standards blog. The post was updated 4/23/12 by Jessica Fries-Gaither.

Photo courtesy of Amanda Graham (Yukon White Light) via Flickr.

When we talk about the problems of global climate change, we tend to focus on cars and coal-burning power plants as major contributors. Yet there are other significant players, including consumer electronics. The number of cell phones, MP3 players, laptops, and flat-screen TVs is increasing rapidly, and not just in wealthier nations. It is estimated that one in nine people in Africa has a cell phone – and those numbers are expected to continue growing.

A recent report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that new devices such as MP3 players, cell phones, and flat-screen TVs will triple energy consumption. Two hundred new nuclear power plants would be needed just to power all the TVs, iPods, PCs, and other devices expected to be used by 2030.

For example, consider televisions. The IEA estimates that 2 billion TVs will soon be in use across the world (an average of 1.3 TVs for every household with electricity). TVs are also getting bigger and being left on for longer periods of time. IEA predicts a 5 percent annual increase in energy consumption between 1990 and 2030 from televisions alone.

While consumer electronics is the fastest growing area, it is also the area with the least amount of policies to control energy efficiency. Total greenhouse gas emissions for electronic gadgets is currently at about 500 million tons of carbon dioxide per year. If nothing is done, the IEA estimates that the figure will double to about 1 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year by 2030. However, the agency says that existing technologies could reduce this figure by 30-50 percent at little cost. Allowing consumers to regulate energy consumption based on the features they actually use, minimum-performance standards, and easy-to-read energy labels can help consumers make smarter energy choices about their personal electronics.

How to Turn This News Event into an Inquiry-Based, Standards-Related Science Lesson

This story connects to two National Science Education Standards domains: Science and Technology and Science in Personal and Social Perspectives. The Science and Technology content standard states:

Technological solutions have intended benefits and unintended consequences. Some consequences can be predicted, others cannot.

The Science in Personal and Social Perspectives content standard includes resource use and depletion, human-induced and naturally occurring hazards, and science and technology in society.

Ask students to consider electronic gadgets – cell phones, digital cameras and video cameras, MP3 players, flat-screen TVs, laptops, and so forth. Have students brainstorm the benefits of these devices. Easier communication, access to data, entertainment, and mobility will probably come up. Then ask students to brainstorm “costs” or negative characteristics. Expense will certainly be mentioned, but will the energy cost?

If you have access to an electric power monitor such as a Kill-a-Watt, you can have students plug in different gadgets and compare power consumption. This simple activity can give rise to a number of inquiry-based investigations, such as: What’s the most energy-efficient MP3 player?; Do laptops and desktops consume the same amount of power?; Does screen size (on an MP3, cell phone, laptop, or TV) affect power consumption?; and so on.

Share some of the figures from the IEA report with students. Discuss the idea that making technology (cell phones, laptops and Internet access) available to more people is a good thing, but there are intended and unintended consequences. Greater access to technology enables widespread communication and promotes education, but also requires more energy – most of which comes from fossil fuels. Burning those fossil fuels releases more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, accelerating climate change and causing Arctic sea ice decline. So all those iPods do impact polar bears after all.

Rather than leave students discouraged, present them with a challenge. Remind them of the many benefits of technology and acknowledge that electronic gadget use will continue to grow rapidly. How can science and technology address the unintended environmental consequences of these tools? Assign small groups of students a particular piece of technology and have them brainstorm ideas that would promote energy efficiency – either on the part of the consumer or the manufacturer, or both. Have groups present their solutions to the class and discuss them. What common solutions were raised? What can students and their families do now to use their electronic devices in a responsible manner?

Here are some related resources from the Middle School Portal 2: Energy Sources, The Power of Electricity,  What is Happening to Polar Bears? Real Data, Claims, and Evidence. The October 2008 issue of the free online magazine Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears included articles about natural resources, the NEED project, and energy efficiency activities for home and school.

We Want Your Feedback

We want and need your ideas, suggestions, and observations. What would you like to know more about? What questions have your students asked? We invite you to share with us and other readers by posting your comments. Please check back often for our newest posts or download the RSS feed for this blog. Let us know what you think and tell us how we can serve you better. We appreciate your feedback on all of our Middle School Portal 2 publications. You can also email us at msp@msteacher.org.

This post was originally written by Jessica Fries-Gaither and published June 1, 2009 in the Connecting News to the National Science Education Standards blog. The post was updated 4/23/12 by Jessica Fries-Gaither.

Archaeologists rely on empirical evidence to reconstruct past events. However, this empirical evidence does not normally emanate from controlled laboratory experiments, conceived of and performed at the scientists’ will. Rather, archaeologists use evidence left by the activities of not only people that lived long ago but other organisms as well. They must be skilled observers.

The graphic accompanying the article shows where the Anasazi migrated from–what is now southwestern Colorado–and where they migrated to–what is now the Davis Ranch and Tucson, Arizona, area. There is also a slide show of images of dwellings among other relevant artifacts. For archaeologists interested in this part of the world and these people, the article states, “the most vexing and persistent question in Southwestern archaeology [is]: Why, in the late 13th century, did thousands of Anasazi abandon Kayenta, Mesa Verde and the other magnificent settlements of the Colorado Plateau and move south into Arizona and New Mexico?”

This is not the first time this question has been asked or that an answer has been proposed based on evidence. For example, drought has been documented during this time, providing a seemingly good explanation for the migration. However, evidence suggests many people were able to survive the drought. That fact casts doubt on drought as the only cause for the migration. Further, the area the Anasazi migrated to was actually drier than that which they migrated from.

An alternate hypothesis is based on the pollen record. “Measurements of the thickness of pollen layers, accumulating over decades on the bottom of lakes and bogs, suggest that growing seasons were becoming shorter.” Even this fact in combination with the relatively short drought does not convince many archaeologists these were the reasons for the migration. Why did the Anasazi never return, even when the drought ended? Evidence suggests they did not leave in a hurry, but planned their exit as if they intended to return.

Even more interesting hypotheses are presented regarding the role of religion in the migration. Donna Glowacki, an archaeologist at the University of Notre Dame, cites evidence that suggests the early culture of the group, prior to the migration, included a tradition where only a select, privileged few had access to the largest, most well-equipped dwellings. She asserts a change can be detected after the migration in the southern villages. There evidence indicates fewer of these select kivas are found, suggesting there was less reverence for a select few. The article indicates this change could be analogous to the Protestant reformation.

So who’s right? Well, no one knows for sure, but the Village Ecodynamics Project is set to bring together these various hypotheses to see if a coherent, though probably somewhat complex explanation, or theory, can be constructed. The researchers will use evidence of “rainfall, temperature, soil productivity, human metabolic needs and diet, gleaned from an analysis of trash heaps and human waste” to reconstruct events and come to conclusions.

How to Turn This News Event into an Inquiry-Based, Standards-Related Science Lesson

The article illustrates well the nature of science. Our understanding of the Anasazi migration is undergoing revision in light of new evidence and reinterpretation of existing evidence from new perspectives. It calls attention to the various scientists working on the same project, each contributing unique expertise and building new knowledge. The article conveys several possible hypotheses, all of which need to be thoroughly investigated to see if any can be discarded. It underscores that scientists don’t have definitive, pat answers, only best guesses based on reasonable interpretations of much evidence. Several kinds of, or sources of, evidence are identified giving readers an indication of the nature of archaeology in particular.

Ask students to describe archaeology. Affirm their responses and ask them to elaborate as much as they can. They should use terms like ancient, culture, science, observation, inference and reconstruct. Ask students what kind of knowledge or skills a good archaeologist needs. They should include knowledge of anatomy, plants, and history, and excellent observational skills. Archaeologists need to be global thinkers, able to see relationships among seemingly disparate observations. They should be good team players. If needed, ask leading questions such as: What other fields of science might be related to archaeology? They should include botany, zoology, and anthropology even if they don’t use those names for them.

Explicit connections to life science and earth science can be made, particularly to botany and climate. Ask students how knowledge of the growing season can be inferred from the pollen record. How can inferences regarding wet or dry years be obtained from tree rings?

Here are some additional resources related to the nature of science and fields of science: Science Sampler: Jumping to the Right Conclusions, Inferences, and Predictions;  Presenting a Logical and Reasonable Case Using Logical and Reasonable Arguments; Frequently Asked Questions: Questions about Paleontology.

We Want Your Feedback

We want and need your ideas, suggestions, and observations. What would you like to know more about? What questions have your students asked? We invite you to share with us and other readers by posting your comments. Please check back often for our newest posts or download the RSS feed for this blog. Let us know what you think and tell us how we can serve you better. We appreciate your feedback on all of our Middle School Portal 2 publications. You can also email us at msp@msteacher.org.

This post was originally written by Mary LeFever and published April 11, 2008 in the Connecting News to the National Science Education Standards blog. The post was updated 4/23/12 by Jessica Fries-Gaither.

How Some Bacteria Survive Antibiotics from ScienceDaily describes how researchers at the University of Illinois, Chicago, studied bacterial action in the presence of erythromycin and related antibiotics. These drugs incapacitate the bacterial protein factories, ribosomes. All cells have ribosomes which are the site of translation in protein synthesis. Erythromycin prevents newly synthesized proteins from detaching from the two subunits of the ribosome, thus preventing the bacteria from thriving. The researchers discovered, however, that these drugs can signal the bacteria to switch a bacterial gene on that enables bacterial release of newly synthesized proteins from the ribosomes. Thus, they effectively resist the drug in a process known as inducible antibiotic expression.

The article quotes one of the researchers

Combining biochemical data with the knowledge of the structure of the ribosome tunnel, we were able to identify some of the key molecular players involved in the induction mechanism. . . .We only researched response to erythromycin-like drugs because the majority of the genetics were already known. There may be other antibiotics and resistance genes in pathogenic bacteria regulated by this same mechanism. This is just the beginning.

How to Turn This News Event into an Inquiry-Based, Standards-Related Science Lesson

A manifestation of evolution, antibiotic resistance aligns with the Life Science standard of The National Science Education Standards, “Species acquire many of their unique characteristics through biological adaptation, which involves the selection of naturally occurring variations in populations. Biological adaptations include changes in structures, behaviors, or physiology that enhance survival and reproductive success in a particular environment.” Also related is the structure and function section of the standard: prokaryotic cell structure, the ribosome, and protein synthesis.

Ask students if they have ever had an ear infection or strep throat. What did they do about it? Lead them to disclose that they went to the doctor, were prescribed an antibiotic and took it for the full course, often 10 days. Ask if they were cured then, or did anyone suffer a recurrence within the next week or so? If yes, why? Then what did they do? Lead them to articulate the concept of bacterial resistance. Consider showing visuals of a typical animal eukaryotic cell side by side with a bacterial cell. This will highlight the size and structural difference, and enable student comprehension of how bacterial cells can colonize a eukaryotic cell. Make sure they understand the activity of the millions of bacteria cells a) consumes nutrients needed by one’s own healthy cells and b) produces waste that makes one sick.

If you’ve already discussed the characteristics of living things, cell theory and cell structure, lead students to recall the importance of ribosomes to all living cells. Ask, what might happen if the function of the ribosomes were disrupted? Students should reason that protein production would stop and the cell would die for lack of needed proteins. Inform them that this is the way some antibiotics work; they interfere with the bacterial cells’ ribosome function. (Prokaryotic and eukaryotic ribosome structure varies slightly allowing the eukaryotic ribosomes to remain unaffected.) Ask, what if the presence of the antibiotic signaled the bacteria to produce a protein (turn a gene on) that interfered with the drug’s ability to disrupt the ribosome’s work? Allow plenty of wait time for them to think this through logically. They should arrive at the idea of antibiotic resistance, even if they don’t use that phrase.

Allow students to read the first three paragraphs above and follow the links. The protein synthesis link however, is probably too advanced for middle school students and can be eliminated. Have them read the article How Some Bacteria Survive Antibiotics. Assess: what is an antibiotic? How do drugs like erythromycin work? What is inducible antibiotic expression? How might it be helpful to know the mechanisms by which bacteria resist antibiotics? Describe how antibiotic resistance is an example of evolution.

Here are some additional resources from the Middle School Portal 2 related to antibiotic resistance and bacteria: Introduction to Bacteria; Microbes: Too Smart for Antibiotics?; Microbes: What They do and how Antibiotics Change Them; and What’s making you sick?

We Want Your Feedback

We want and need your ideas, suggestions, and observations. What would you like to know more about? What questions have your students asked? We invite you to share with us and other readers by posting your comments. Please check back often for our newest posts or download the RSS feed for this blog. Let us know what you think and tell us how we can serve you better. We appreciate your feedback on all of our Middle School Portal 2 publications. You can also email us at msp@msteacher.org.

This post was originally written by Mary LeFever and published May 9, 2008 in the Connecting News to the National Science Education Standards blog. The post was updated 4/23/12 by Jessica Fries-Gaither.

For example, the brown bear of the Iberian Peninsula is a different species compared with other European brown bears because it is geographically isolated, right? According to a press release, New Study Changes Conditions for Spanish Brown Bears, published by AAAS’s EurekAlert! there are just two small populations of this bear and they are threatened. One idea to help bolster their population size is to introduce brown bears from other European populations. However, this may cause hybridization and eventual loss of the Iberian Peninsula brown bear species. Further, what makes conservation biologists think the two different bears will interbreed successfully?

According to the Life Science content standard of the National Science Education Standards, middle school students should be learning concepts associated with structure and function in living systems; reproduction and heredity; regulation and behavior; populations and ecosystems; diversity and adaptations of organisms. All of these areas of study are related to the concept of species. That is, discussions in any of these areas will necessarily be founded on an understanding of the term “species.”

Can we take for granted that middle school students have developed an accurate concept of species on their own, through personal experience? Because they can distinguish cat from dog, a rose from a maple tree, and a human from an ant, is it safe to assume they have a good grasp of the concept? Not if we wish to facilitate and broaden students’ conceptual understandings to progressively more sophisticated levels.

Students understand that cats and dogs, roses and maple trees, and humans and ants do not interbreed. Thus, they have an understanding of the biological definition of species. But things can get complicated and this definition does not always fit. Another perspective assumes reproductive isolation defines species. That is, if two populations are physically or temporally isolated preventing interbreeding, then they are considered separate species. That works well conceptually for most middle school students’ experience, but what about when individuals from one geographically isolated population are introduced to another, either intentionally or unintentionally, and they successfully interbreed?

When discussions around Mendelian genetics occur, the concept of hybrid is introduced. Plants do this all the time. Is the hybrid a new species? They often can and do interbreed. Are the offspring a new species? Most would hesitate to say yes. Then do we revise our definition of species? Those reproductively isolated populations really are the same species after all?

Contrary to what most people believe, the concept of species seems to be a moving target in terms of pinning a definition on it. As such, it is open to criticism from people who believe science is supposed to be definitive. This presents an opportunity for teachers to reinforce the nature of science, and life science particularly. Living systems, from a single cell to a biome, are dynamic and not entirely definitively understood. (If they were, conservation would probably not be an issue!)

Assuming a fixed definition of species may be unreasonable. One’s definition of species is contextual, dependent upon the current issue under consideration. It is important that discussants have a common definition of species in these instances. Why? Because the focus of and outcomes of species-related discussions can determine political policy, such as what gets listed as a threatened or endangered species and receives federal funding for protection from habitat destruction or hunting.

DNA sequencing allows for almost unequivocal determination of whether individuals from two different populations are the same species, and consequently subject to the same political treatment. In the case of the Spanish brown bears, DNA sequencing suggests they are not a distinct species from other European brown bears. That means introducing bears from other populations will not supplant the Iberian Peninsula brown bears. The proposed conservation strategy is a viable one. Scientists are confident that the introduced bears will successfully interbreed with the Spanish brown bears due to the genetic similarity. This constitutes a prediction, and its accuracy will be determined only after bears are introduced into the area.

How to Turn This News Event into an Inquiry-Based, Standards-Related Science Lesson

Consider the American Bald Eagle. It is cited as a success story of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). It has recovered from its endangered status and was delisted in 2007. This means the bird is no longer protected under federal law in terms of some kinds of hunting and habitat protection. States are free to make their own regulations regarding hunting and protection of the species.

More recently, the Northern Rocky Mountain population of gray wolf was delisted. The Western Great Lakes grey wolf population was also delisted. States that are host to these two populations have the power to regulate hunting and management of the animals. However, any wolves on National Park Service land or outside the two areas mentioned above, are under federal government protection.

How is species defined? Ask students if dogs and wolves are separate species. How do they know? Accept all reasonable responses. Are lions and tigers? Are saber toothed cats and Bengal tigers? Lead students to define species in terms of (a) macroscopic anatomy, (b) geographic isolation (lions and tigers), and (c) temporal isolation (extinct and extant cats). This discussion should highlight the difficulty in pinpointing a definition. None is incorrect, yet none is fully sufficient. This is acceptable in classroom discussions, but when conservation groups discuss species, they have to be specific. For example, in delisting the Rocky Mountain gray wolf, the documents specify the geographic region that defines the population. Individual animals falling outside the defined geographic range are not delisted and remain protected by the ESA.

Can students imagine that features other than those immediately visible could be considered in determining who is different and who is the same species? For example, in Batesian mimicry two species are physically similar, but one is poisonous to predators while the other is not. Lead students to understand that there are microscopic or chemical means of determining similarity and differences. Conversely, two populations can appear to be quite different but are chemically quite similar. (This may explain the original assumption that the Spanish brown bear was a separate species from other European brown bears.) The morphological difference is attributed to environmental influences, not genetic differences, and so it is predicted the two populations could interbreed successfully. That’s often good news for conservation management.

What do students think the Endangered Species Act is? Why is it needed? Allow them to brainstorm. Then show them pages from http://www.fws.gov/endangered/about/index.html to either confirm their list or amend it. Can they name any organisms on the list now? Call attention to species other than mammals, including plants. How do students suppose an organism gets listed/delisted? Have students investigate this question at http://www.fws.gov/endangered/species/us-species.html. Facilitate student discovery that the process is not neat and easy necessarily. Rather it can be emotional and partisan. Why?

Here are some additional resources from the Middle School Portal 2 related to conservation and wildlife management: Natural Resources, the Environment, and Ecosystems; and DDT Quest.

We Want Your Feedback

We want and need your ideas, suggestions, and observations. What would you like to know more about? What questions have your students asked? We invite you to share with us and other readers by posting your comments. Please check back often for our newest posts or download the RSS feed for this blog. Let us know what you think and tell us how we can serve you better. We appreciate your feedback on all of our Middle School Portal 2 publications. You can also email us at msp@msteacher.org.

This post was originally written by Mary LeFever and published March 26, 2008 in the Connecting News to the National Science Education Standards blog. The post was updated 4/23/12 by Jessica Fries-Gaither.