M i d d l e L e v e l E d i t i o n
M a y 2 0 0 7
PLANTSStudents study plants throughout their school careers. Elementary students explore seeds and how plants grow; middle school students focus on cells; and high school students continue their studies in biology. Plants are a major group of living things including familiar organisms, such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, and mosses. Nearly as many ideas exist for how to teach your students about plants as there are plant species (about 350,000 species are estimated to exist). This issue of Science Class has combined news articles, web resources, archived journal articles, and books to present you with some fresh ideas.
Plants in the News Article summaries provided by the NSTA WebNews Digest (visit http://www.nsta.org/mainnews for national news for science educators). News stories selected for this month’s theme discuss various discoveries made about plant behavior. Visit http://science.nsta.org/enewsletter/2007-05/news_stories_middle.htm to read more. Plants on the Web SciLinks® is a web-based service from NSTA that provides online content chosen to augment printed articles and books. It does so through keywords; the keyword for this issue is How Are Plants Classified?: http://www.scilinks.org/retrieve_outside.asp?sl=818122334433 The PLANTS Database, provided by the United States Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service, offers standardized information about the vascular plants, mosses, liverworts, hornworts, and lichens of the United States and its territories. The database also allows for a search of plants available in each state. To learn more, visit http://plants.usda.gov. The NSTA Calendar lists the following workshops, grants, and awards relating to plants. To access this information, visit http://www.nsta.org/main/calendar/events.php and enter the item into the Search Event.
NSTA Journal Articles on Plants The articles in the NSTA journal archives demonstrate many ways to teach your students about plants. Click here to learn more: http://science.nsta.org/enewsletter/2007-05/middle.htm Books, Books, Books To read about Plants in NSTA Press® and NSTA Recommends® books, visit http://science.nsta.org/enewsletter/2007-05/books_middle.htm. To read about the newest titles available from NSTA Press, visit http://science.nsta.org/enewsletter/2007-05/newbooksmiddle.htm.To receive the latest NSTA catalog for your specific grade level, visit http://ecommerce.nsta.org/catalog_signup. Professional Development NSTA Web Seminars NSTA Web Seminars are 90-minute, live professional development experiences that use online learning technologies to allow participants to interact with nationally acclaimed experts, NSTA Press authors, and scientists, engineers, and education specialists from NSTA government partners such as NASA, NOAA, FDA, and the NSDL. To view the complete list of Web Seminars scheduled for May and to register, visit http://institute.nsta.org/web_seminars.asp. Global Science Teaching Pay Pupils to Take Science and Maths (Telegraph.co.uk) The Council for Industry and Higher Education (CIHE) is calling for the government to act on the falling numbers of students choosing to study science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) subjects at A-level. Richard Brown, chief executive of the CIHE, said: "The future lies in knowledge-intensive businesses: pharmaceuticals, IT, financial services, manufacturing. They rely on STEM graduates and post-graduates. It is really important that we have a supply chain that is going to produce the numbers." The report, published by the CIHE and IT consultancy LogicaCMG, says the government should not rule out financial incentives for passing STEM A-levels, or government bursaries for STEM students. To read more, visit http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/12/nmaths12.xml. NSTA Opportunities Call for Papers Science Scope (grades 6–9) has issued a Call for Papers on selected topics. Click here to read more:  Science
Class
a Finalist for Best E-Zine AwardThe Association of Education Publishers has announced finalists in its 2007 Distinguished Achievement Awards program. In light of the high level of competition for these awards, being a finalist is a worthy achievement. Winners will be announced in June. If your colleagues would like to subscribe to Science Class, please direct them to http://www.nsta.org/newsletters. THE FINE PRINTThis
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