Science and Mathematics Education Commons^™

How Quiet Is Your Classroom?, John Milton

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

Where there is much desire to learn, there of necessity will be much arguing, much writing, many opinions; for opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making.

Reflections Of A Life Fellow, James Hungerford

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

There was a Hungerford in the first graduating class of Iowa State University. One of my grandfathers was a former Iowa College president, founder of Blue Cross, president of one of Iowa's larger hospitals and held a doctorate in Humanities. My other grandfather was a farmer and all of his five sons and two daughters were either educators or professors or farmers or combinations thereof. With these roots, I have a feeling of pride in my heritage, a deep-seated affection for the State of Iowa and an unshakable belief in the value of science and education.

The Embryonic Teacher: A Beginning Science Teacher In A Self-Paced Classroom, Kenneth W. Thompson

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

Most beginning science teachers enter schools in the fall with fervor and dedication. Those entering a self-paced classroom typically will find it to be a center of bustling activity with students working on a number of diverse activities. The first year of science teaching is a time of confrontation, of shock, and of conflict. The beginning science teacher must act. Out of this need to act comes a great amount of activity, some effective and some ineffective. The beginning science teacher in a self-paced classroom encounters problems because he is a first year science teacher and because there are problems …

Humane Biology Projects

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

The Animal Welfare Institute has just released a new edition of Humane Biology Projects.

Self-Paced Experiences: A Participant's Daily Log, Jay B. Thorniley

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

As part of my educational requirements, prior to student teaching, at the University of Northern Iowa, I was required to participate in a self-paced classroom. The following is a daily log of my experiences in a class of 18 students in the course, Self-Pacing Biology Experiences (SPBE), at the Malcolm Price Laboratory School. These notes, taken over six weeks, should prove helpful to those teachers considering adoption of self-pacing programs.

Science Activities

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

Joe Abruscato and Jack Hassard have just published a booklet entitled The Whole Cosmos: Catalog of Science Activities.

The Potential Of Wild Plants As Food Resources, J. R. K. Robson

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

The modern world is so full of scientific wonders that we often forget to look back in history and recognize landmarks that were just as significant as the discovery of the transistor, penicillin, or the laser beam. The history of our present day food is a prime example of a phenomenon that is considered to be too mundane to be taken seriously. Yet, thousands of years ago man made a scientific discovery concerning food that made possible the growth of settlements that became our cities.

The Plant Kingdom: A New Energy Source

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

Besides being an energy source for themselves, plants are the ultimate energy source for all other forms of life.

Compositae And So2

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

The Exxon Company employs biomonitoring to check air quality in the vicinity of some of its oil and gas installations.

Implications Of Piaget For The Everyday Laboratory Experiences Of Children, Thomas E. Allen

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

In recent years, we have seen a great increase of interest in the work of Jean Piaget. Educational psychology courses and magazines for teachers feature frequent discussions about the Swiss psychologist and his research. Such discussions, however, often dwell on his descriptions of the stages of intellectual development and the cognitive abilities characteristic of each stage. Such an emphasis on classification is unfortunate because it encourages categorization of children while diverting our attention from the more important aspects of Piaget's discoveries - Piaget has analyzed the learning difficulties of many children and how children learn and, by implication, has shown …

Fact Or Fiction?

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

The three million tons of fertilizer Americans put on lawns and the like would more than cover South Asia's whole fertilizer deficit.

Uni Symposium

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

The University of Northern Iowa will host its fifteenth annual Science and Mathematics Symposium on November 10-11, 1977.

Annual Baby Booms : A Chi-Square Investigation, David R. Duncan, Bonnie H. Litwiller

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

Scientists frequently wish to determine whether an observed distribution of data is consistent with some theoretical distribution. For example, is a given set of data normally distributed, or is a given set of data "uniformly" distributed among various categories? A statistical tool for investigating these questions is the Chi-Square statistic.

What Makes Your Garden Grow?, Joe Moore

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

To illustrate crystal formation, dissolve 35 ml of sodium silicate into 150 ml of water placed in a 400 ml beaker.

The Welk Effect, Joe Moore

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

To get a Niagara Falls of bubbles, place about 5 gm of manganese in 100 ml graduated cylinder, fill the cylinder three-fourths full of a "Halo" type shampoo solution and add about 5 ml of hydrogen peroxide.

Legislature Sees Light

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

The 1974 Iowa Legislature include, in an appropriation bill, $300,000 for a solar energy plant to partly heat and cool the State Capitol.

Some High School Biology Electives, James H. Meyer, Robert Nelson

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

Cedar Falls High School, for many years, offered a science curriculum composed of traditional biology, chemistry, and physics courses. The percentage of students taking science courses began declining in the late 1960's, reaching a low of 573 students (out of approximately 1,500 students) in the 1972-73 school year. Since all science courses offered at the school were elective.it was concluded that some adjustment in course offerings was in order if a greater percentage of the student body was to be reached. As a result of the efforts of the science staff, five new biology courses were developed and subsequently introduced …

Household Energy Game

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

A 20-page booklet telling how to compute family energy consumption with a game grid pitting individual versus national consumption is available.

Nsta Conference

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

The NSTA Area Conference will be held in San Francisco on October 13 and 15, 1977.

Can A College Level Biology Course For Majors Be Educationally Accountable?, Betty D. Allamong, Jon R. Hendrix

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

Have we, as educators, reached a point in our society where "Truth in Learning" has become as important as "Truth in Lending'? We have seen government agencies mandate controls over banks, as well as auto-mechanics, to become more accountable for their services. Now, it seems that these same controls are to be levied on those in the educational systems of this nation as well.

Book Review - Loving And Beyond: Science Teaching For The Humanistic Classroom, Robert E. Yager

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

Loving and Beyond is a soft cover book that provides practical suggestions for making the science classroom a humane place where student curiosity about their own environment can be nurtured and developed.

Parsimonious Education, Darrell D. Young

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

In science, the Law of Parsimony or Occam's Razor, is a statement of economy; it expresses the view that the simplest, adequate explanation of data is preferable to a more complex interpretation of equal adequacy. The Law of Parsimony may be applied to the area of education as well. It should be the ultimate goal of education to provide the simplest, adequate explanation in communicating to parents and students phenomenon occurring in the classroom.

Sunshots

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

Looking for spectacular sun pictures? Get the November, 1976, issue of Natural History.

A Joint International Conference

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

1977 will be the 20th anniversary of the Science Teacher's Association of Manitoba.

The Hazards Of Window Peeping, Sondra Waltz

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

When studying the development of a chick embryo by opening up an egg every few days to observe its growth, two problems arise. The first is that every egg does not begin its development at the same time or proceed at the same rate. Second, the disposal of the embryo after it has been studied (especially after taking on the appearance of a mature chick) is awkward. The psychological impact upon the child in killing the poor little chick is difficult to assess and, for some students, may even destroy the educational objectives of the whole study.

Iowa's Earliest Spring Flower, Roger M. Knutson

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

At a time when most wild flower fanciers have only memories of spring blooms, one of Iowa's less known plants is pushing up the earliest flowers of the season. The Eastern Skunk Cabbage can begin blooming in Northeast Iowa before mid-February, even when air temperatures are near -18°C.

Iowa Assist: Outreach Foci, Daniel S. Sheldon

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

Iowa-ASSIST is a statewide program for improving science teaching in Iowa. ASSIST is an acronym for Alternative Strategies and Services for Improving Science Teaching. Iowa-ASSIST developed from several NSF-Supported Academic Year Institute programs for preparing science supervisors which were conducted in Iowa. It was established as a formal program in 1973. The program operated during 1973-76 with support of approximately $600,000 from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

From The Editor's Desk

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

A recent study by the U.S. House-Senate Joint Economic Committee indicates that solar energy will be Iowa's cheapest way to warm homes and heat water by 1985, if Congress removes the federal price limits on natural gas.

The ISTJ Advisory Board is pleased to announce the selection of an Associate Editor in Chemistry Education. Don Murphy, of Hoover High School in Des Moines, has been selected and has accepted the position.

The Mole Hill Mnemonic, Mike Williams

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

The concept of a mole in chemistry is difficult for many introductory students to understand. I have discovered a crutch which seems to help some students become operational while improving their understanding of the abstraction called a mole.

The Heat Of Fusion Of Ice, Walter J. Gohman

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

Students have learned that when heat energy is added to any substance the temperature of this substance increases and, conversely, when heat energy escapes from the substance the temperature decreases. Based upon this concept, the idea of the heat of fusion of ice does not make sense. The idea that each gram of ice a 0° C can absorb 80 calories of heat energy and become a gram of water with the temperature still 0°C does not seem logical. The student may accept the “if you say so" approach, but some meaningful laboratory data will be more convincing. The usual …