Interactive Science Notebooks

FVCC science workshop open to teachers

The workshop will examine the use of inquiry skills in questioning, assessment, experimental design and notebooking while engaging students in interactive, inquiry-based activities.

Strategies will include how to implement student science notebooks in the classroom, effective ways to increase student understanding of inquiry and science content and how to enhance literacy skills. Participants will learn how to apply strategies that will improve student learning and meet the new essential learning expectations for science.

The workshop will be led by Colleen Zeglin, a consultant and certified Montana educator who specializes in helping educators apply a brain-based approach to teaching science in traditional and extended learning environments. She is a former instructor and director of educational activities at the Casper Planetarium in Wyoming.

Zeglin also serves as a consultant for Delta Education for the Full Option Science System and Delta Science Modules programs.

To register or for more information about the workshop, visit the college website at www.fvcc.edu/continuing-education/ or call 756-3832.

Science Notebooks...with my Fifth Graders: Setting up the Notebook ...

I sat down this week and started planning out my notebook. This year, besides changing the format to an interactive notebook style, I want my students to have more ownership by being more creative with their notebooks. To do this, my notebook (I keep one similar to my students, though mine has planning notes) is going to model creativity by adding color and lettering. To start, I've laid out my table of contents. You'll see that some of it is already filled in (planning) that helps me establish what is going to go where. I've started with a Notebook Basics section that doesn't fit in with the interactive notebooking, this is okay to me since these are all the formatting things my students will need to refer to during the year. The next photograph is the format for the interactive notebook, showing what goes on the left and right sides of the notebook. I have used the Marcarelli book to help me with this and modified it for my class. I have claims and evidence on both sides. Early in the year it will be on the input (right) side since I will start by modeling these and then students will work as a group and bring them to our class discussions. When they start doing these on their own with partners or individually, they will move to the output (left) side of the notebook because it will show their own thinking, not that of a whole class. The next page covers two pages, this is the notebook rubric that I use to evaluate my students. Now, it looks enormous  and it is but I don't use it all at one time. I will talk about rubrics in another blog. In the past, I have printed this off and had my students keep this and the science notebook guidelines in a three ring binder to refer to as needed. I'm changing it this year, again based on the Marcarelli book. This way there is no, "I can't find it" excuse. The rubric can also be found on the MEMTA flash drive. For anyone else, email me and I will send both my guidelines and rubric. My rubric is based on Michael Klentschy's work in his book Using Science Notebooks in Elementary Classrooms. I'll get on my soap box and do a blog on him later on! The following page is the final in my "Notebook Basics" section. It is call the WOW! Connections page, again this is a modified version of something used in the Marcarelli book.

Using science notebooks in elementary classrooms

Teaching Science With Interactive Notebooks

Interactive science notebooks in the high school classroom

Using Science Notebooks in Middle School

Science notebooks, writing about inquiry