Cosmos Redux

"The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be."
—Carl Sagan, Cosmos

His eloquence capturing my curiosity and imagination, Carl Sagan is one of my all-time favorite scientists. His cosmic journeys stirred my sense of wonder about the universe and solidified my lifelong passion for science. How fitting that one of my other all-time favorite scientists, Neil deGrasse Tyson, should revisit and revise this cosmic journey that Sagan began 30+ years ago. The newly-launched Cosmos is once again stirring my imagination and reviving that sense of wonder I first felt decades ago. Cosmos, both the original series and the new series, should be required reading and viewing for "every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner."*

*Excerpted from Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot speech (with apologies)

Our cosmic journey just got more interesting this week with the announcement of confirmatory experimental evidence for a key piece of the Big Bang Theory, the scientific explanation for the origin and evolution of our universe. Scientists used careful telescopic observations to detect faint ripples that emanated from the inflationary expansion of our universe in its nascent micro-moments. While behind most humans' everyday experience, this new knowledge is a triumph and celebration for astrophysicists who have sought to understand the very beginnings of this universe in which we exist. Carl Sagan would smile with this astonishing discovery.

Thank you to all scientists who dare ask bold, audacious questions about our universe and who courageously seek the truth amidst the mystery of the unknown—despite the charlatans who would endeavor to discredit you. You inspire us!

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Excellent explanations about this week's discovery about cosmic inflation have been produced by:

• PHD Comics
• MinutePhysics

Investigating Water Temperature

Research Question: How does temperature affect ocean water? Specifically, how does the temperature of a purple solution (hot vs. cold) affect the movement of the purple solution through room temperature water?

In our quest to better understand ocean currents, we investigated the effects of temperature on the motion of fluids through water. Students set up and performed a controlled experiment that tested the movement of hot vs. cold potassium permanganate solution (aka, "purple stuff") in columns of room temperature water. Watch as one group of students performs a trial (hot on the left, cold on the right):

Based on the experiment, ponder the following questions:

• How does temperature affect ocean water?
• How does temperature affect the way water moves?
• Which is more dense, hot water or cold water? What evidence from the experiment do you have to support your answer?
• How might uneven solar heating of the Earth (equator vs. poles) cause ocean currents?
• How do you think ocean currents affect global weather and climate?

To better appreciate how and why scientists monitor and study ocean circulation, explore NASA's Aquarius Mission website, which has many excellent animations such as the one below:

To Boldly Go...

50 Years of Space Exploration
by National Geographic

Year after year I find that students know very little, if anything, about space exploration (which is personally very troubling). However, this lack of awareness provides a great opportunity to delve into the human exploration of space. Our 50+ years of interplanetary investigation is writ with both stunning discoveries and monumental failures, yet it is imperative that we keep traveling, keep searching, keep asking, keep discovering.

In a traditional "pick a planet" project, students are focused on finding facts about an object in our solar system. I like to turn the process around so that it reflects more of an inquiry-based, process-of-science research project. Our essential research question becomes, "What has human space exploration taught us about our solar system?" The emphasis of the project is placed on how we humans struggle to design, build, launch, navigate, and operate spacecraft to investigate the mysteries of our solar system. Instead of just looking up a bunch of facts, I ask students to create a system of research questions to ask about their chosen spacecraft and its mission target, then embark on their research utilizing a variety of incredible primary resources (mainly from NASA, and for which I create a classroom project web page as a launching area).

An excellent research project includes the following elements:

• Name, date, scientific purpose, and major scientific discoveries of the spacecraft mission
• Realistic, three-dimensional model of the spacecraft (using Earth-friendly materials) 
• Basic information about the scientific instruments on the spacecraft: what they are, what they do, how they work, what they measure, etc. explained in plain language
• Scientific data, information, and details about the solar system object visited: position/location in the solar system, distance from Sun, diameter, mass, composition, rotation/revolution data, atmosphere/temperature data, moons/rings data, etc. explained in plain language and using the metric system
• Other unique, interesting data and information about your object: can include non-scientific things such as stories, folklore, mythology, poetry, artwork, etc.
• A caption and credit next to every image borrowed from the internet as well as a complete list of scientifically diverse references in a bibliography (so that we respect others and their copyrights)

I am rewarded each year by the enthusiasm for this project and the overall depth of learning that occurs. Students gain a much better appreciation about the science and engineering challenges involved when exploring the cosmic frontiers beyond the safety of our tiny planet. And some of them even grow up to become rocket scientists themselves...  :)

Making an Impact

Arizona's Meteor Crater

Looking around our solar system, we see evidence of impactors that have cratered the landscapes of Mars, Mercury, our Moon, and even planet Earth. What are the characteristics of impact craters and how are they formed? Using classroom models and simulations, we can investigate the factors the affect impact craters.

One of the best ways to begin a discussion of craters is by dissecting an image of a crater. Arizona's Meteor Crater provides a launching point for a study of craters and the impactors that formed them.

• How big is this crater? How wide? How deep? What evidence for scale do we see in the image?
• What are some physical features of this crater? (raised rim, steep walls, ejected material, central uplift)
• How big was the impactor?
• How fast was the impactor traveling?
• At what angle did the impactor hit?
• When did the impact happen?
• Where is the impactor?
• Why is this crater so well preserved?

From a discussion of these questions, we can begin to formulate research questions about the factors that affect impact craters:

• How does the diameter of an impactor affect the diameter and depth of a crater?
• How does the mass of an impactor affect the diameter and depth of a crater?
• How does the speed of an impactor affect the diameter and depth of a crater?
• How does the angle of an impactor affect the diameter and depth of a crater?

Impact Craters Lab

From our research questions, we can begin to plan our experiment. The lab investigation we conduct is modeled after an activity designed by NASA, outlined in their Exploring the Moon Educator Guide. Materials needed for this lab activity include Moon material (sand), impactors (marbles and golf balls), pans, balances, and metric rulers. Students test their hypotheses under controlled conditions in an attempt to better understand how an impact crater, such as the one in Arizona, could have formed and the energy involved in the impact.

Why is it important for us to understand craters? A study of geologic history reminds us that Earth has been hit by many impactors in the past. The largest of these impactors have repeatedly reset the evolutionary clock on our planet—mass extinctions of species such as dinosaurs are the result of planetary bombardment by rocks from space. It is only a matter of time before the next impactor threatens Earth.

If a large impactor is headed our way, is there anything we can do about it? While Hollywood-style scenarios involving nuclear missiles, massive explosions, and Bruce Willis single-handedly saving the day are exciting on the big screen, these solution just don't work out mathematically in real life (sorry…). For us to be prepared for a large impactor is a two-step process. We must first catalog the threat by surveying the skies around us and accurately tracking potential impactors. NASA and other organizations have begun to do this, but have not yet found everything—it is a massive undertaking. Second, we must be prepared not to simply blow an object out of space, but to gently finesse it into an orbit that harmlessly bypasses our planet. While the Hollywood excitement level is not as high, the chances for success (and the survival of our species) are much improved.

Universe Today has an excellent analysis of the many ways to deflect an asteroid, and Bad Astronomer Phil Plait explains the process of nudging a space rock out of our way should it come to pass close by. Additionally, there are multiple online resources for simulating impacts, including the Impact Calculator and Impact Earth.

Finally, while impacts have altered the landscapes of countless objects in our solar system and have changed the course of evolutionary history on planet Earth numerous times, they have also had one major positive side effect: the next time you look up in the sky and see the beautiful Moon, be awed by the massive impact between Earth and another long-gone planet-sized body that led to the Moon's formation some 4 billion years ago. Goodnight, Moon!

Plate Tectonics — Putting It All Together

Why does the Earth's surface look the way it does? Why do Africa and South America look like they could fit together, like pieces of a puzzle? How could these pieces fit together? How do we know? What evidence do we have?

Earth's Tectonic Plates

One hundred years ago, plate tectonics was more of a crazy idea than a rock-solid scientific theory that explains why the Earth's surface looks the way it does. Helping students navigate how the theory was assembled bit-by-bit exposes them to both a deeper understanding of geology as well as the oft-messy nature of science itself. Theories are not always well-received when first proposed, and overwhelming evidence is needed for a fanciful idea to become a scientific theory. This is how science works.

In the classroom, we engage in a plate tectonics research map project to better understand how all of the geologic puzzle pieces fit together to complete the plate tectonics picture. Using primary and secondary internet resources, maps, posters, textbooks, and other artifacts, students add layer upon layer of geologic data and evidence onto a world map to see the patterns and mechanisms which work together in plate tectonics theory. In three to five days, students build evidence for the grand theory of geology that took more than half a century to initially develop. On the shoulders of giants we stand...

In the research project, students use the following websites to gain background knowledge about the scientific theory of plate tectonics and gather data for their world maps:

• Dynamic Earth: provides an excellent interactive overview about plate tectonics
• Optiputer Outreach: provides a wealth of images and animations to illustrate key geologic concepts
• Windows to the Universe: an always reliable source of leveled information about the Earth that can be viewed in both English and Spanish
• What on Earth Is Plate Tectonics?: the National Park Service tells the story of plate tectonics

Using these websites and other resources, students layer the following data and information onto a world map:

• prevalent earthquakes and volcanoes
• hot spots
• mid ocean ridges
• ocean trenches
• plate boundaries with their direction of movement
• plate names

Additionally, students are asked to illustrate the three major types of plate boundaries and how they work as well as assemble a Pangaea puzzle onto the back of their map. Finally, students are asked to explain in their own words what the scientific theory of plate tectonics is, how it works, and what evidence we have to support the theory. Along the way, students discover the story of Alfred Wegener—who first proposed the plate tectonics idea—and how he struggled and persevered throughout his short life to develop his ideas (which we fully accept today).

Reflections — Fossils 3

In 2010, I was nominated for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching—a prestigious honor for math and science teachers in the United States. The rigorous application process provided me with an excellent opportunity to reflect deeply on my classroom practice. Although I was not selected as a finalist, I value my experience in the process. Over the next three blog posts, I would like to share some of what I wrote for my application, which centered around a geologic unit on fossils.

The PAEMST application requires a written narrative on several dimensions of outstanding teaching, including the following areas:

• Dimension 1: Mastery of Science Content
• Dimension 2: Instructional Methods and Strategies
• Dimension 3: Effective Use of Student Assessments

In this entry, I would like to share Dimension 3, Effective Use of Student Assessments...

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I effectively use student assessments to evaluate, monitor, and improve student learning... 

Image courtesy of MorgueFile

Recall the essential learning questions for this project: 

• What are fossils? 
• How do fossils form? 
• What can fossils tell us about past life? 

For this project, students are assessed on the quality and depth of information communicated on their individual fossil ID cards. Specifically, each student is assessed on the following essential learning skills: 

• collecting detailed information from fossil “interviews;” 
• inferring geologic, environmental, and biological change through time based on fossil evidence; 
• interpreting rocks and their fossil content to determine past conditions; 
• describing how fossil evidence can be linked to environmental conditions and biological adaptations of the past.

Over the years, I have refined the “interview” questions to help students maximize their interpretation of clues. The questions have gotten more detailed and specific to better help students uncover the fossil’s life story. What originally began as an exercise in basic fossil identification many years ago has become a quest to understand the life story of a fossil through careful interpretation of evidence—asking essential questions to gain enduring understandings.

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I routinely assess and guide student learning... 

One-on-one discussions: These are individual conversations with students where I ask clarifying questions, ask students to explain their thinking to me, or have students show me a particular science skill. Emphasis is placed on meaningful responses that answer “how” and “why” rather than simply “who, what, when, where.” Example: “Tell me your thinking about… or, Show me how you did… or, What did you observe when…? or, What is your evidence for…?”

Table discussions: Usually conducted at the beginning of class, I ask students to discuss a particular topic or question among their table peers while I walk around listening to (or sometimes joining in with) their conversations. The purpose is to promote peer collaboration as well as check for understanding and/or misconceptions. Example: “With your table group, have a two-minute discussion: What do you think are some physical characteristics that all minerals have in common?”

Lab table talk: As students are working on a lab investigation, I circulate throughout the room and visit each table regularly. I ask clarifying questions as needed and ask students to share what they are doing and thinking. I listen and look for evidence of the science process: 

• setting up safe, controlled laboratory experiments; 
• recording detailed observations; making precise measurements; 
• collecting high quality data; discussing observations and evidence; 
• and analyzing results. 

Lab investigations: At the end of a lab investigation, I will often collect and grade my students’ lab reports to assess their learning. Many of my investigations use an Experiment Planning Guide, which helps students organize and formalize the process of science. I evaluate these planning guides according to the quality and completeness of scientific writing and thinking, particularly whether students can connect their observations, data, and written conclusions to the original learning goal or research question. Example: “An excellent conclusion restates the original purpose (the research question) and summarizes the results of the experiment in a logical, concise manner. An excellent conclusion also includes supporting details and evidence from the data. An excellent conclusion does not speculate on the unknown...”

Quizzes: During each major unit of study, I give one or two quizzes to further evaluate student mastery of science concepts and learning goals. These quizzes ask students to apply what they have learned during the course of a few interconnected lessons and usually involve short written response, data analysis and interpretation, and/or short performance task. Students may use their lab notes and resources during these quizzes, as I feel that using resources is an essential aspect of the scientific process. Example: “Identify two of the minerals from the mineral collection on the front lab table and fully describe the three convincing properties that led you to your identification.”

Projects: Students engage in longer lab investigations (e.g., fossil identification lab) or projects (e.g., physical oceanography research project) once or twice a trimester. I evaluate these projects against holistic “standards of excellence” that clearly define the criteria necessary for excellent learning.

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References

• Boulder Valley School District, 2009 Middle Level Earth and Space Science Curriculum Essentials Document, Earth and Space Science Essential Questions
• Ganse, J., Geology Unit, 8th Grade Earth Science, Fossil and Geologic Time
• Marshak, S., Earth: Portrait of a Planet (Third Edition), W.W. Norton & Company, 2008
• Murck, B. and Skinner, B., Geology Today: Understanding Our Planet, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1999
• USGS Education, Schoolyard Geology, Fossils

Reflections — Fossils 2

In 2010, I was nominated for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching—a prestigious honor for math and science teachers in the United States. The rigorous application process provided me with an excellent opportunity to reflect deeply on my classroom practice. Although I was not selected as a finalist, I value my experience in the process. Over the next three blog posts, I would like to share some of what I wrote for my application, which centered around a geologic unit on fossils.

The PAEMST application requires a written narrative on several dimensions of outstanding teaching, including the following areas:

• Dimension 1: Mastery of Science Content
• Dimension 2: Instructional Methods and Strategies
• Dimension 3: Effective Use of Student Assessments

In this entry, I would like to share Dimension 2, Instructional Methods and Strategies...

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I employ a variety of instructional approaches to help students understand fossils...

Rock cycle video and diagram

Students watch a locally-produced video about the Rock Cycle, which identifies the three main rock families, explains how they were formed, and shows many local examples from each family. Students collaborate after the video to complete a blank rock cycle diagram with terms about rock products and the geologic processes that created them.

Rock identification lab

Students engage in a hands-on process of rock identification to learn the various physical properties and characteristics involved in identifying rocks by family and name. As part of the identification process, students must provide convincing evidence to go along with their identification.

Law of Superposition activity

Students infer the relative ages of rock layers in a vertical rock profile by examining and discussing various clues. They discover that, in general, the oldest rocks and rock layers are at the bottom of a rock profile—the Law of Superposition.

Traces of Tracks activity

Students analyze an image of fossilized animal tracks and reconstruct the story of an encounter between predator and prey. Students collaborate to infer the story from the trace fossil evidence.

Finding Clues to Rock Layers activity

Students analyze fossil clues and data contained in rock layers to determine the relative ages of the layers as well as the physical environment in which the organisms lived. In general, the deeper the rock layer the older the fossils buried within. Additionally, various geologic processes, such as weathering and erosion, can expose fossil layers at the Earth’s surface. 

Fossil ID Cards

Over the course of several days, students “interview” various fossils to infer the life story of once-living, but now fossilized, organisms, and create a detailed fossil identification card for each fossil interviewed. This hands-on, inquiry-based lab allows students to fully engage in the process of science by observing fossil specimens; asking key questions; gathering evidence from physical clues and inference; using a variety of scientific resources such as fossil identification books, posters, and diagrams; learning to avoid bias by following the fossil evidence; sharing data and ideas through peer collaboration; and hypothesizing and theorizing about the past geologic environments in which the fossil lived. Students display their fossil cards on large posters for the rest of the school to enjoy. 

Examples of interview questions include:

• What are the fossil’s physical characteristics? 
• How did this fossil move? 
• What did it eat? 
• In what environment or habitat did this fossil live? 
• What was its niche or purpose in life?

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I identify and build on students’ prior knowledge, and incorporate this knowledge in my general teaching strategies...

Image courtesy of MorgueFile

I strive to ensure that my science lessons build logically from point A to point B and that common themes and ideas are continuously woven throughout each unit as well as throughout the school year. My goal is to promote the transfer of understanding from one lesson to another, not just one-time memorization to be forgotten quickly. I regularly ask discussion questions that help activate prior knowledge, that tie different lessons together, and that help students make logical interconnections among various ideas and concepts.

• “Does anybody have a fossil collection? Tell us a little bit about your fossils.”
• “Have you ever been to a museum and seen a fossil dinosaur on display? Where did all those bones come from?”
• “Remember when we watched the rock cycle video? In which rock family would you most likely expect to find fossils? Why?”
• “You can find fossil sea shells up in the Rocky Mountains. How can that be? What do these fossils tell us about Earth history?”
• “Suppose you find a fossil of an X. What story can this fossil tell you? What are some clues you can look for to help explain this organism’s life?”
• “Here is an example fossil. What characteristics do you see? What kind of organism was this? What did it eat? Where did it live? How do you know?”

In the video I produced for my application, I used many of the types of questions outlined above to help students learn how to interview fossils in order to uncover their life story. My goal was for students to develop a non-biased technique for uncovering clues and evidence contained in fossils. For our fossil lessons, it is most important that students learn to “listen” to the fossil evidence with an open mind rather than just try to quickly name the fossil.

The video shows the first day of our fossil lessons, where we worked together as a group to prepare for our in-depth fossil interviews. The following three days after the video, students interviewed fossils, gathered information and evidence from the fossils and various classroom resources, and created detailed fossil identification cards with the inferred life story of each fossil.

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I use instructional strategies and techniques to meet the learning needs of all students, challenging those with stronger knowledge while ensuring learning for less accomplished students...

I utilize a variety of strategies to differentiate for the diverse learning needs of my students, and a few of these are outlined below:

• Creating hands-on, inquiry-based, authentic learning experiences that encourage students to think critically and develop explanations based on evidence
• Encouraging peer collaboration: students working together, talking science together, sharing data and ideas together
• Accommodating for different fossil identification skill levels: 
• Inferring basic to advanced information from fossil clues at increasing levels of descriptive detail
• Interpreting fossil structures from simple (bones, teeth, shells) to complex (type of bone, purpose of tooth)
• Working with incomplete vs. complete fossils (incomplete fossils are much more challenging to interpret than complete fossils)
• Drawing upon multiple intelligences skills and multiple learning modalities: drawing/visualization, writing, questioning, spatial manipulation, kinesthetic/hands-on observations
• Using effective questioning: engaging students (individually and within small lab table groups) with highly effective questions to encourage deeper meaning

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References

• Boulder Valley School District, 2009 Middle Level Earth and Space Science Curriculum Essentials Document, Earth and Space Science Essential Questions
• Ganse, J., Geology Unit, 8th Grade Earth Science, Fossil and Geologic Time
• Marshak, S., Earth: Portrait of a Planet (Third Edition), W.W. Norton & Company, 2008
• Murck, B. and Skinner, B., Geology Today: Understanding Our Planet, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1999
• USGS Education, Schoolyard Geology, Fossils

Reflections — Fossils 1

In 2010, I was nominated for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching—a prestigious honor for math and science teachers in the United States. The rigorous application process provided me with an excellent opportunity to reflect deeply on my classroom practice. Although I was not selected as a finalist, I value my experience in the process. Over the next three blog posts, I would like to share some of what I wrote for my application, which centered around a geologic unit on fossils.

The PAEMST application requires a written narrative on several dimensions of outstanding teaching, including the following areas:

• Dimension 1: Mastery of Science Content
• Dimension 2: Instructional Methods and Strategies
• Dimension 3: Effective Use of Student Assessments

In this entry, I would like to share Dimension 1, Mastery of Science Content...

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There are three essential questions to guide the study of fossils:

1. What are fossils? 
2. How do fossils form? 
3. What can fossils tell us about past life? 

Planet Earth is billions of years old, and during its long history a diversity of life has evolved. Fossils are the remains of living organisms preserved in the geologic record through burial, and they provide valuable evidence for this long Earth history. Students need fundamental understanding of the geologic processes that led to fossil formation, the types of fossils that form as a result, and the types of clues that are found within the fossils that can be used to interpret past history.

Image courtesy of MorgueFile

Three main types of fossils—body, trace, and replacement—form over time periods of thousands to millions of years. Each type of fossil has unique physical characteristics and clues to help us infer past Earth history. Because fossils are found mainly within sedimentary rocks, it is essential that students understand the constructive and destructive processes involved in sedimentary rock formation, which ultimately lead to the preservation of once-living organisms.

Information about the environments in which fossilized organisms lived can be inferred from fossil clues when students rigorously apply the process of science. Making careful, detailed observations using different scientific tools (such as hand lenses and microscopes), asking a variety of probing “interview” questions about each fossil, referencing fossil identification guides and charts, and collaborating with other student scientists are all key to interpreting fossil clues in a non-biased, open-minded manner to unlock the information about their past environments.

Fossil evidence helps us infer geologic, environmental, and biological changes through time. By examining fossils and reconstructing the story they tell, students fine tune their “process of science” skills and develop a better understanding of the 3.5+ billion-year life history of planet Earth. Specifically, students engage in making detailed observations of fossils and asking questions in order to infer information about the geologic past.Students will apply what they learned during fossil identification to a future plate tectonics research project. The skills and knowledge developed in this lesson will be applied to understanding spatial and temporal changes of Earth’s tectonic plates—fossil evidence gives us clues that Earth’s crustal plates move and that continents were once connected.

This particular lesson on fossils contributes to the “Six Facets of Understanding”—a lesson planning tool I use to develop deep, engaging learning activities—as outlined below: 

• Explanation: Students address the following conceptual questions: 1) What are fossils? 2) What the different types of fossils? 3) How do fossils form? 4) How can we infer information about past environments from examining fossils?
• Interpretation: Students observe and “interview” fossils to determine the physical characteristics of organisms and infer the past environment in which they lived.
• Perspective: Students make connections between life and conditions on planet Earth today and life and conditions during geologic eras and periods of the past.
• Self-Knowledge: Students may inquire about or begin to assemble their own fossil collection, or seek opportunities to learn more about fossils (for example, museum visits).
• Empathy: Students consider why geologists study fossils and develop a better understanding about the difficulties involved in fossil interpretation and reconstruction.
• Application: Students engage as fossil scientists and create their own fossil identification cards that show physical characteristics and inferred information about past environments.

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A variety of misconceptions and misunderstandings about fossils can arise in the science classroom. Here is a summary:

All rocks contain fossils.

Fossils are found mainly in sedimentary rocks. For an organism to become a fossil, a protective layer of sediment, such as sand or mud, must quickly cover up its remains. Otherwise, the remains are likely to be eaten, to decompose, or to be destroyed before fossilization can occur. Probing questions to ask students: 

• Why don’t we find fossils inside rocks like granite, basalt, gneiss, or schist?
• Why do we find fossils inside rocks like sandstone, shale, and slate?

Fossils are actual pieces of dead animals and plants, rather than preserved impressions of the original organisms. 

During the fossilization process, the living remains of organisms decay and are replaced by minerals, leaving behind an impression of the original organism. Exceptions to this include insects that are fully preserved in fossilized tree sap (amber). However, most organisms are preserved in an altered state during the fossilization process. Probing questions to ask students: 

• Petrified wood, a fossil, is not wood anymore. What happened to the wood?
• If you have a fossil shell or leaf imprint, what happened to the original organism?

All living organisms leave behind fossils, and the fossil record is complete. 

Hard structures such as bones, teeth, shells, and exoskeletons are more likely to be preserved during the fossilization process than soft body materials such as tissues, organs, and/or hair/feathers, which decay more readily. It is estimated that only 1% to 3% of organisms have fossilized and/or been described. While our fossil record keeps growing as we explore more and more of Earth’s crust, we will never have a 100% fossil record because not all species leave behind fossils and not all fossils can ever be found or recovered. Probing questions to ask students: 

• Why do scientists keep looking for fossils, even today?
• Why don’t we find fully preserved, fully intact organisms (like dinosaurs) buried in the ground? Why do we usually just find skeletons, bones, teeth, etc.?
• When an organism dies, what parts decay and what parts are preserved, and why? 

Geologic time is short, and fossils are relatively young. 

Geologic time is vast. The fossilization process, which occurs during the sedimentary rock formation process, can take thousands and millions of years to occur. Various dating techniques allow scientists to accurately determine the ages of rocks and fossils. Fossils are thousands, millions, and in some cases, billions of years old. Probing questions to ask students: 

• How do you think fossilized seashells got to the top of the Rocky Mountains?
• What does finding fossilized seashells in the Rocky Mountains tell us about the past?

Few species have gone extinct during Earth’s history. 

More than 99% of all species (which number in the millions) that ever lived on planet Earth have gone extinct. The fossil record leaves us evidence of species that are no longer alive and what the environments in which they lived were like. Probing questions to ask students: 

• Have you ever seen an organism like this (show pictures of extinct organisms)?
• What happened to these organisms?

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References

• Boulder Valley School District, 2009 Middle Level Earth and Space Science Curriculum Essentials Document, Earth and Space Science Essential Questions
• Ganse, J., Geology Unit, 8th Grade Earth Science, Fossil and Geologic Time
• Marshak, S., Earth: Portrait of a Planet (Third Edition), W.W. Norton & Company, 2008
• Murck, B. and Skinner, B., Geology Today: Understanding Our Planet, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1999
• USGS Education, Schoolyard Geology, Fossils

Science Research Projects

The "research project." When I was in school, I (vaguely) remember doing research projects which mostly consisted of, "Pick a topic, write a paper, and hope for the best."  Given today's wide-open internet, what should a 21st-century research project look like? Unlimited choice and freedom can be daunting to many students, but overly-rigid parameters can stifle creativity. Somewhere in between is a healthy balance where students can explore a research topic in-depth and express their learning in a variety of creative ways.

Image credit: MorgueFile

Over the years, my biannual research projects have evolved to help students both efficiently leverage the latest resources on the internet and maximize their research potential. The "research paper" I produced umpteen years ago in school pales in comparison to the "power projects" my students create today.

While I believe strongly in giving my students choice in expressing their learning, I have found that completely open-ended choice can lead to less-than-excellent results. Students are more apt to achieve excellence when provided with guidelines, structures, and checkpoints along the way. It's my job to facilitate learning, and the research project provides an opportunity for me to help students really kick it up a notch.

For our ocean research project, I've established the following structures and guidelines:

Essential and Supporting Questions
Rather than instruct students to "pick a topic" at the beginning of the project, we spend time brainstorming and writing both essential and supporting questions. An essential question usually begins with either "why" or "how" and is not something that can be easily answered. Supporting questions usually start with "who/what/when/where," are more factual in nature, and serve as the anchor questions around which students conduct their research and write their final product.

To create these questions, I first have students start writing a stream of questions without stopping to edit or judge the quality of the questions. The goal is to get the ideas flowing. Once students have written 20 to 30 questions, they may then start to edit, sort, and condense these questions until they have one essential research question and a minimum of ten supporting questions. These supporting questions provide the keywords and ideas around which students organize their note system, conduct their research, and assemble their final product—a brochure or a comic book.

Organized Note System

At the beginning of the project, we have a discussion about taking notes efficiently and brainstorm various systems for note-taking, such as index cards, sticky notes, outlines, graphical webs, etc. As part of their project registration (via Google Forms), students must indicate what type of organized note system they will be using for the project, and I periodically check to see that students are using their system.

Primary and Secondary Sources 

Students are expected to use primary and secondary science sources for their research, which includes edited materials in our school library as well as various scientific websites that I have curated. During our initial discussions about the project, we talk extensively about the importance of using primary and secondary science sources, such as NASA Oceanography, NOAA National Ocean Service, Office of Naval Research Oceanography, and sites derived from them. Wikipedia is acceptable, as long as it it used as a starting point only. Blind, open-ended searches using large search engines like Google are discouraged, and use of "anybody can answer this question" websites (like eHow and answers.com) are prohibited.

The key to success here is being an active curator—I set up a web page for our project which provides students links to quality resources, reference materials, tutorials, copyright-respectful clipart, and more. If students use other sites, they must justify their choices; if we decide their choice is a quality resource, it will be added to our list of curated websites.

Structured, Yet Flexible, Format

Our ocean project is the first of two research projects we do in science each year. As such, I am slightly more structured about the written expectations of the project. Students may choose to create a brochure or a comic book, either digitally or on paper. I've narrowed down these choices over the years for a couple of reasons: 

• Left with open-ended choices, students tend to gravitate toward posters. Unfortunately, I have not been too impressed with the poster format—too often it is nothing more than cut-n-paste pictures and text randomly glued to a poster board (usually at the last minute).
• Brochures and comic books allow for more creativity from students, but also require more planning and organization. This generally leads to much higher quality.

Bibliography and Picture Credits

As scientists, we must cite the work of others, giving them credit and respecting their copyright. One aspect of this project is the formal use of bibliography and picture credits throughout the project. This can be challenging and frustrating for students who view citations as extra work and who are comfortable (and sometimes complacent) about simply cutting and pasting everything from the internet. So, at the beginning of the project we also have a discussion about the importance of using bibliographies and picture credits in research projects in order to achieve three goals:

1. provide readers with a mechanism for accessing the same material used by students, so that readers can learn more about the topic,
2. give credit to the original authors of the research materials, and
3. respect copyright and honor the creative process.

To help students with their citations, I employ both a Bibliography and Picture Credit Help Guide that I created as well as a wonderful bibliography template that I discovered online years ago. Both these tools (as well as various other digital versions) provide students with the structure to more easily and efficiently document their citations. "Make sure you have a bibliography" is not enough guidance for students.

The Journey Is as Interesting as the Destination
Research projects provide students with the opportunity to pursue their own ideas and interests, and I feel they are a vital part of science education. Open-ended research projects, while allowing for 100% freedom and creativity, tend to be too much for many students; rigid term papers are simply stifling and rather boring. A well-designed research project experience requires that teachers serve as active facilitators during the entire project (somewhat like a tour guide). It is time well spent: the experience becomes focused on asking students what they are learning, rather than struggling to keep them on task.

Tracking Ocean Currents

NOAA Global Drifter Program: Drifter Buoy

The task is simple: "Your job is to design and draw a device to track ocean currents."

As we've been studying different aspects of ocean currents — causes, movement, etc. — it's a worthwhile endeavor to think about the instruments used to track ocean currents. A major component of How Science Works includes gathering data, and I think it is important for students to consider the myriad challenges scientists face when tasked to collect a particular type of data, such as ocean currents. I, therefore, ask students to design a device that could track ocean currents and share their design with the class (How Science Works, "publication," "discussion with colleagues," and "feedback and peer review").

The designs are always innovative, creative, thoughtful, and reasonably practical. The best part of this activity is comparing student designs with actual ocean tracking devices used by NOAA and seeing the overlap.

NOAA's Global Drifter Program utilizes drifter buoys to track ocean currents around the world:

"The modern drifter is a high-tech version of the "message in a bottle". It consists of a surface buoy and a subsurface drogue (sea anchor), attached by a long, thin tether. The buoy measures temperature and other properties, and has a transmitter to send the data to passing satellites. The drogue dominates the total area of the instrument and is centered at a depth of 15 meters beneath the sea surface."

Students are delighted to see that many of the ideas they developed in class are actually used in the drifter program. We discuss similarities and differences between their designs and NOAA's drifters to better understand the challenges and limitations involved in measuring ocean currents.

The design activity is followed up with a tracking activity that uses data from NOAA's drifter buoys to track the flow of global ocean currents. Students discover that currents in the Pacific Ocean flow in a giant, clockwise gyre at a fairly slow, but steady rate; in the process, large quantities of heat are redistributed around the planet.

It's easy for a teacher to have students just learn factual information about currents from a textbook, but that's like eating processed junk food—it provides little in the way of long-lasting nutritional value (i.e., shallow learning). US science organizations such as NOAA, NASA, and USGS provide valuable data and information that is perfect for an inquiry-based science classroom. These organizations are the primary sources of science discovery and exploration on planet Earth, and we should be leveraging their expertise in the classroom to engage our students in How Science Really Works.

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A sampling of student designs for ocean tracking devices:

NASA Canceled the Space Program, Right?

NASA: The Blue Marble

Since the end of the shuttle program, my students have repeatedly expressed the notion that space exploration is done: "NASA canceled the space program, right?" While I know that's untrue, they do not — and that is very troubling (and eminently frustrating!).

In my classroom, I constantly use supplementary resources from NASA and other US government science organizations to help students understand that we are actively studying the Earth system, the solar system, and beyond every day. Earth science is not a collection of static facts and information, but is a dynamic and ever-evolving field of cutting-edge research. As educators, we need to help students make connections between what they are learning in the classroom and what is happening in the real world—it is not OK to just teach Earth science from a textbook. Like other scientists, NASA scientists are active explorers who continue to expand our knowledge of our own planet and beyond. The good news for us is that we can access a myriad of NASA resources right in the classroom and participate in the exploration:

• NASA's main website is the logical starting point for the latest news and information about Earth and space. In addition to general information, the site has sections specifically for educators and for students with links to lessons, images, videos, podcasts, simulations, grants, scholarships, and more. We (often) complain about government, but NASA's website has got to be one of the best damn uses of taxpayer money out there.
• NASA also has a huge variety of resources for iDevices at the NASA App Store. There are apps for exploring planets, finding out about the latest space missions, checking launch dates, and more. Oh, and all the apps are free. The NASA App HD for iPad is simply stunning.
• Want the latest on climate? NASA's Global Climate Change provides real-time vital signs of our planet. My favorite parts of this site are the links to evidence, causes, effects, and uncertainties. Not only do you have the latest climate data at your fingertips, but the process of climate science itself is eloquently and transparently deconstructed and explained.
• Need current events about planet Earth? NASA's Earth Observatory has fantastic articles, images of the day, global maps, and in-depth features about our home planet. Their weekly email digest is a must-have resource. Go subscribe today!
• Need even more up-to-the-minute information? NASA has a fleet of Twitter accounts that provide the latest news from space explorers around the globe and beyond, including live tweets from robotic pioneers in space. A few of my favorites include NASAVoyager and NASAVoyager2, NASAJuno, and NewHorizons2015.

There are tons more NASA resources out there for students, educators, and the curious alike. We need not lament the demise of the space program; it is alive and well, even during these challenging socio-economic times. However, to keep the reality and promise of Earth and space exploration alive and thriving, we need to give our students every opportunity to learn about it and participate in it.

If there is any question about the urgency of science literacy in the 21st century, Stephen Colbert and Neil deGrasse Tyson spend an hour-and-a-half discussing the importance of science and technology in this thoroughly enjoyable video.

Global Climate Change Article Analysis

Image credit: IAN Symbol Libraries

To finish our annual study of global climate change, I ask students to survey a variety of scientific literature outlining the impacts of climate change around the world and to interpret their findings. Students need the opportunity to engage with the scientific literature around global climate change in order to develop their own sense of climate science literacy. The US Global Change Research Program sums up the importance of climate literacy in the following guide, Climate Literacy—The Essential Principles of Climate Sciences:

"Climate Science Literacy is an understanding of your influence on climate and climate’s influence on you and society. A climate-literate person:

• understands the essential principles of Earth’s climate system,
• knows how to assess scientifically credible information about climate,
• communicates about climate and climate change in a meaningful way, and
• is able to make informed and responsible decisions with regard to actions that may affect climate."

I provide students with a wide sampling of scientific articles that document climate change and climate change impacts from around the world. Each student selects, reads, and summarizes the main scientific ideas from several of these articles, then chooses one article to interpret in more detail. In the final analysis, students create a labeled diagram that illustrates the main scientific ideas from their chosen article and explains the connection between the science and the climate change impacts.

For most students, this is the first time they have engaged in a formal literature review of scientific material, thus time and support is provided to help students dissect these articles efficiently. At our school we use a Mark-It-Up reading strategy, which helps students break down complex texts into the comprehensible essentials. Students write their "mark-it-up" notes on stickies and place these stickies around the room next to their article's placard. All students visit and review the stickies created by other students before drafting their final analysis.

For the articles themselves, I keep my eyes open for timely and relevant stories from reputable and fairly unbiased science sources such as BBC Science, National Geographic, NPR, NOAA, NASA, etc. The articles are usually no more than two pages in length, span a range of teenage reading levels, are scientifically-based with data and evidence, and encompass a wide range of climate impacts around the planet. A few of these articles are provided in the links at the end of this post.

As mentioned in my previous post, my greatest hope is that my students develop an appreciation for science so that they can make logical and informed decisions based on data and evidence, not hype and hot air.

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A Sampling of Climate Change Articles:

• BBC, Alien Invaders: The Next Generation
• Boston Globe, Scientists Say Climate Change Could Make Coffee and Chocolate Endangered Foods
• NOAA, Life of an Air Flask
• NOAA News, NOAA Greenhouse Gas Index Continues Climbing
• NPR, Climate Change Presents a Burr for Coffee Growers
• NYTimes, Carbon Detectives Are Tracking Gases in Colorado

Data Interpretation and Hurricane Tracking

Hurricane season always provides an authentic opportunity to learn about the process of science. These days, there are numerous sources and tools on the internet that provide access to live weather data, which can be used to practice and refine data interpretation skills. In our school district, data interpretation is one of the essential middle level science learnings:

"Students can interpret, analyze, and evaluate data and recognize bias in order to formulate logical conclusions."

This past week, Hurricane Irene struck the eastern United States, causing major flooding and destruction in many areas. A plethora of science instruments—land-based, sea-based, plane-based, and satellite-based—monitored Irene's vital signs as it trekked across the planet and affected millions of humans. These instruments captured a wealth of data and images that can be used in the classroom to help students better understand hurricanes as well as reinforce how science works.

Hurricane Irene, Doppler Radar Animation,
courtesy of the Weather Underground

Precipitation data from land-based Doppler radars is one of the types of information collected during a hurricane. Doppler radars produce colorful images and animations that can be used to stimulate student conversations about science—sort of a digital dissection. During Hurricane Irene, I captured a Doppler radar animation centered around the hours when the cyclone first made landfall on the outer banks of North Carolina (click the image to the right to view the animation). The animation loop provides enough information to discuss and infer basic weather variables such as tropical cyclone circulation, forward storm motion, wind speed, wind direction, precipitation rates and amounts, and more. (Details for capturing a Doppler animation loop are at the end of this post.)

When using images and animations, I ask students three main questions:

1. What do you see? (observations) 
2. How do you know? (evidence) 
3. What can you infer? (interpretation) 

I have students practice the "What do you see?" and "How do you know?" questions first as small table groups, then share the "What can you infer?" question as a whole class. During the table discussions, I circulate around the classroom as a background observer and facilitator—listening to their conversations, asking clarifying questions, and nudging everyone in the group to participate equitably. There are no right or wrong answers during these small table discussions; it is an opportunity for students to hone their science skills. This activity empowers students to have authentic peer conversations about real science data, a basic "process of science" principle. Additionally, this activity allows students to practice their powers of observation and interpretation together in preparation for hands-on lab experiments in which they will need to collect and interpret their own data.

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Capturing a Doppler Animation Loop

There are numerous sources of weather information on the internet, but my favorite is the Weather Underground. Their maps, graphics, and animations are well-designed, easy-to-read, colorful, accessible, and appropriately scientific, which makes them an ideal source for the science classroom.

To capture a Doppler animation loop, do the following:

• Go to the Weather Underground website, and of course bookmark/favorite it for future use.
• Select the Radar link under the Maps & Radar tab on the main page.
• Select one of the Doppler radar sites (indicated by + symbols) closest to the area of interest.
• To generate an animated loop on the radar page, adjust the Radar Controls on the right side of the page, then click the Update Radar Map button. For Hurricane Irene, I modified the Animate Frames box to 40, and the Frame Delay to medium, while leaving the other options at their default settings.
• Once the full animation loads, select the View/Save This Image link at the bottom of the loop to display the animation on a separate web page. Then, save a copy of the animation to your computer (usually File-->Save As…). This animation can be replayed on your favorite web browser for later classroom use.

Understanding Science

A few years back, each teacher at my school was asked to create an artistic puzzle piece that visually reflected her or his values and beliefs. The dozens of linked puzzle pieces are still on display in our school lobby and make an impressive statement about our staff. Number one on my puzzle piece is "scientific literacy and integrity."

With all of the attacks on the scientific community from various "denier" groups, I worry about the state of scientific literacy in the United States. I fear that too many people are scientifically illiterate and that their illiteracy is being leveraged against them. I want my students to be scientifically literate so that they can make intelligent, informed choices in their lives and not be misled by faulty evidence or illogic.

Understanding Science is an excellent, comprehensive resource for learning about and promoting scientific literacy. Produced by the UC Museum of Paleontology at the University of California at Berkeley, Its mission "is to provide a fun, accessible, and free resource that accurately communicates what science is and how it really works." With a variety of tools, resources, and lessons that span the K through 16 classroom, Understanding Science showcases the process of science.

I'd like to highlight two of my favorite resources from Understanding Science:

How Science Works flowchart from Understanding Science

1. The How Science Works flowchart is an interactive, graphical representation of the process of science and scientific inquiry. I provide a copy of this flowchart to each of my students and use it to frame all of our discussions and activities. Students begin to understand more deeply that science does not happen in a vacuum, that it follows a logical, iterative process, and that it is an ongoing and ever-changing endeavor.
2. Asteroids and Dinosaurs is a lesson that nicely illustrates "how science works." Tracing the story of Luis and Walter Alvarez, Asteroids and Dinosaurs tell the incredible tale of the work involved in developing the link between asteroid impact and dinosaur extinction. It makes for a great beginning-of-year lesson on the nature of science that can be referenced time and again throughout the school year. 

As a scientist and a science teacher, I feel it is imperative that we teach students how to be scientifically literate. While I don't expect all of my students to become scientists, I want them to enter the "real world" empowered with the critical thinking skills that are valued in science—many of which I see lacking in today's adults.

A favorite quote of mine from astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson sums it up well: "If you're scientifically literate, the world looks very different to you, and that understanding empowers you."

What Is Earth Science?

As the beginning of the new school year draws near, it's time to ponder those first few days of earth science class again. During the first week of class I focus on having students thinking about what science is and planning how we will engage in the process of science during the school year.

Image credit: Morgue File

The first day's research question is simple: What is Earth Science? The task for this research question involves creating a What Is Earth Science? collage according to the following guidelines:

• One collage per small group of 3 or 4 students
• Each person contributes at least 5 images to the collage (cut from old magazines, like National Geographic)
• All images must have a connecting theme, related to Earth science (pictures of the atmosphere, for example)
• Each collage needs a descriptive title and a well-written caption explaining the collage
• Thorough clean-up and recycling before we leave class

This task accomplishes a number of important goals in a subtle, low-intensity fashion:

• students get familiar with collaborating in small groups, having discussions and asking each other questions
• students and I can socialize and get to know each other while collages are being assembled
• students learn some expectations about descriptive writing and peer editing
• students learn expectations about cleaning up the lab space
• I gain information about student understanding of earth science and uncover quite a few interesting misconceptions (many students confuse life sciences and social sciences with earth science, for example)

Each group has an opportunity to share their collage with the class and explain their theme. I save the collages and bring them out at the end of the school year.

I enjoy this activity because it allows students to engage in the process of science immediately, but in a rather informal, low stress manner. Putting together the collages sets us up for a deeper discussion of the process of science, which I will address in my next post: Understanding Science.