Dan Shay Science

Check out the 4th and Final installment of my "Planning for " series.

https://bit.ly/ASSESSPBL

In this section, I describe how to plan products that build accountability and reflect authentic practices in !

Students need to read real science!

Which contains authentic inquiry?

Which provides opportunities for discussions about data?

Which one provides the most up to date information?

Reading technical writing is as important as any other skill we teach. Students need to be reading them more.

!

In case you didn’t know, provides up to $1000 per school in materials supporting .

It only takes me a couple hours to fill out their product selection and protocols, but we stretch these resources as far as they can go!

My Curriculum outline for my HS Biotech II class this next fall.

I started using Jon Bergman’s classroom curriculum outline model during the pandemic, and now it’s my favorite way to look at a semester!

#

Elevate your learning targets…

If you are a science teacher or professor looking to integrate authentic scientific research into your course or CURE, I am writing a guide to help you plan!

In part 3 I describe how I take a general project outline and turn it into student friendly learning targets.

Check out part 3 here!

https://danshayscience.com/f/planning-for-project-learning-in-science-part-3

Planning for Project Learning in Science (Part 3) Part Three: Scaffolding Learning Targets for Project Based Learning

If you are a science teacher or professor looking to integrate authentic scientific research into your course or CURE, I am writing a guide to help you plan! Check out Part 2 here:

bit.ly/3QKOR3W

Curriculum Design for Project Based Learning Part 2: Curriculum Design for Project Based Learning

Planning for high impact sometimes requires an identity shift on our part.

When I assume the role of scientist or PI in my classroom, my students then become collaborators and lab assistants.

When I start managing my class and curriculum from this perspective, my students are getting real exposure to the careers we want them to someday fill!

What would education look like if every kid had the opportunity to participate in authentic career building skills all day?

Mind maps are one of my favorite ways for both myself and my students to synthesize an understanding of a really complex topic and start the brainstorming process.

This is my I’m using to plan for our unit on this next semester!

Google Scholar is an invaluable resource for teaching research methods to students.

I try to incorporate peer reviewed articles about content I’m teaching as often as I can, and generally use them in place of actual text books.

The earlier we can expose students to this type of literature, the better. Even if it’s just taking pieces of it, students need to learn how to extract specific pieces of information from research. By using these in place of text books, we are giving students an important STEM job skill and teaching science content through the eyes of the scientists who study it.

I love using these for my curricula. While I can generally find what I need on Google Scholar, I’m limited in the articles I can access without an institutional account.

Can we all agree that research should be free?

What are you reading right now?

If you’re not reading one now, why not pick up a book in your content area? If it’s a subject important enough to teach students, isn’t it worth continuing to learn on your own? If you don’t like it, why should your students?

I like to leave my science books and magazines laying around the classroom. is my favorite, but I’ll also print out articles from The Scientist or and leave them scattered around the room.

Sometimes at the end of class I’ll give a few out to random students. Not for extra credit, just because science is awesome!

Often times what I read inspires a new project for my class. For example, this article in the July Scientific American inspired this Fall’s project in my biotechnology class! https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/hope-for-new-drugs-arises-from-the-sea/

Read more about how I plan experiences from these insuring articles here:

https://bit.ly/3A1Zeuy

I’ve been writing, implementing, and evaluating project-based Authentic Research Experiences in Science (ARES) for the last decade. When I first started, I was disappointed in the resources available to help me plan, and mostly had to figure it out for myself.

I’ve begun writing a guide to help science teachers create ARES projects in their own classroom, and will be sending out updates on a weekly basis. My goal is to share my own process as I plan and implement an ARES project this next semester.

Check out Part One here!

https://bit.ly/3A1Zeuy