In forested areas, students are often intrigued by mysterious sticks covered in carved tunnels–but students often think the patterns were made by human artists or termites. After students complete this activity, they’ll have the skills to identify bark beetle galleries, to make explanations about the patterns of beetle galleries, and to interpret what these tracks tell us about the life history of the organisms that made them.

In an optional discussion, students can consider outbreak levels of bark beetles that cause the death of many trees, make arguments based on evidence about possible effects on ecosystems, then brainstorm and critique possible management strategies. An optional extension for investigating student questions about bark beetles is also included.

By paying attention to the sounds and behaviors of birds, students are introduced to a whole new way to experience and observe what’s happening in their surroundings, both during their field experience and back home. In this Focused Exploration activity, students pay attention to the birds around them. After listening as a group, students imitate calls and notice differences between them. Students think about and discuss the different messages birds might communicate, then they individually watch and listen to birds from a Sit Spot. When the group gathers again, students compare their observations and make a large map of the bird vocalizations and behaviors they observed.

This sequence of instruction was developed in the Growing Elementary Science Project to help elementary teachers who were working remotely.  We developed a short storyline that ties together a few sessions to help explore a specific concept.  We tried to include some activities that honored and included the student’s family and experience, and some that included the potential for ELA learning goals.
Students view a couple of videos and record what they notice and wonder about how plants change as seasons change. Students take a walk with family members to search for evidence of changes due to weather in their neighborhoods.
It is part of ClimeTime - a collaboration among all nine Educational Service Districts (ESDs) in Washington and many Community Partners to provide programs for science teacher training around Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and climate science, thanks to grant money made available to the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) by Governor Inslee. 

This course enhances cross-cultural understanding through the discussion of practical, ethical, and epistemological issues in conducting social science and applied research in foreign countries or unfamiliar communities. It includes a research practicum to help students develop interviewing, participant-observation, and other qualitative research skills, as well as critical discussion of case studies. The course is open to all interested students, but intended particularly for those planning to undertake exploratory research or applied work abroad. Students taking the graduate version complete additional assignments.

This student-centered Exploration Routine can be used in many different ecosystems and provides a way for students to search for, observe, research, and share discoveries about organisms. It can be used with any type of organism or phenomenon you choose for students to focus on, such as macro-invertebrates in streams or ponds, under-log organisms, insects caught with nets, or plants.

This activity allows undergraduate early childhood or child development students to work collaboratively to find and identify reliable national and local resources regarding child observation, referral, assessment, and intervention services.

This will be a seminar on classic and contemporary work on central topics in ethics. The first third of the course will focus on metaethics: we will examine the meaning of moral claims and ask whether there is any sense in which moral principles are objectively valid. The second third of the course will focus on normative ethics: what makes our lives worth living, what makes our actions right or wrong, and what do we owe to others? The final third of the course will focus on moral character: what is virtue, and how important is it? Can we be held responsible for what we do? When and why?

Scientists can spend years planning, conducting, analyzing, and publishing the results of their investigations. It’s not surprising that trying to design and conduct scientific investigations in a vastly shorter time span, can often be frustrating for instructors and students, and may lead to misunderstandings about how investigations are done. Students’ attempts at quick investigations are often messy, and data can be inconsistent and fairly inconclusive. But scientists often do “messy” exploratory investigations before doing a full investigation. The goal of an exploratory investigation is to observe and record basic patterns in nature, as well as to explore various methods and improve the ultimate design of an investigation. Exploratory studies can be “quick and dirty” but are important to understanding a phenomenon well enough to develop a testable question and appropriate methods for investigating. Similarly, the goal for students in this activity is not coming up with great data, but to observe and record patterns in nature, and to think about how the investigation could be improved in the future. After being assigned a general topic, such as “exploring where fungi live,” students brainstorm questions, sort questions as testable or not testable, plan a brief exploratory investigation, do it, analyze the results, discuss ideas, and brainstorm ways the investigation could be improved in the future. In a relatively short amount of time, we can give students an experience that’s authentic to field science, while emphasizing how this can lead to a more thorough investigation that answers important questions about the natural world.

The First Grade Elementary Framework for Science and Integrated Subjects, Sky Explorers uses observation of the sun and moon in the sky as a phenomena for exploring patterns of objects in the sky.  It is part of Elementary Framework for Science and Integrated Subjects project, a statewide Clime Time collaboration among ESD 123, ESD 105, North Central ESD, and the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. Development of the resources is in response to a need for research- based science lessons for elementary teachers that are integrated with English language arts, mathematics and other subjects such as social studies. The template for Elementary Science and Integrated Subjects  can serve as an organized, coherent and research-based roadmap for teachers in the development of their own NGSS aligned science lessons.  Lessons can also be useful for classrooms that have no adopted curriculum as well as to serve as enhancements for  current science curriculum. The EFSIS project brings together grade level teams of teachers to develop lessons or suites of lessons that are 1) pnenomena based, focused on grade level Performance Expectations, and 2) leverage ELA and Mathematics Washington State Learning Standards.

Weird and wild fungi are everywhere, especially when it’s wet out. Given the chance to explore and observe fungi, students will notice them everywhere. Exploring fungi will also lead students to appreciate how fungi function in ecosystems as decomposers and other important roles. Recent discoveries in science have found that huge underground networks of thin, branching tubes of mycelium, the white tubes that are the main growing part of a fungus, provide key links between plants and the rest of the ecosystem.

In this Focused Exploration activity, students begin by observing fungi. Then, they learn that mushrooms are the fruiting bodies of fungi. Students use a simple key to identify types of fungi, record data, then regroup, and discuss patterns of where fungi grow. Next, they learn about how fungi digest what they live on, discuss fungal impacts on ecosystems, and reflect on fungi roles in decomposition.

This is a teacher guide for operating a GenWe classroom. From the very beginning to the launch of the program, these resources will help teachers and students build the ideal learning environment to improve social competence. What is the GenWe Classroom? It is an elective course for middle and high school students designed to help them learn how to interact and cooperate and use technology responsibly. The class is managed by the students and teachers collaboratively. The structure of the class allows the students to make decisions based on evaluating the input from peers, near-peers, and adults. In order for normal social situations to occur, the students need to be allowed to manage themselves, including their learning. Ideally the GenWe Classroom will include a budget. Students will be responsible for planning the learning materials they will need for the semester.

The online geology lab for community college students was developed during two years of forced online synchronous learning brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. This open educational resource is a cohesive laboratory manual intended for two-year, non-major college students from the New York area. Each lab is accompanied by a Teacher’s Guide and an online answer sheet (formatted for the Blackboard learning management system). A multiple-choice format is used for many questions, making the labs easy to grade.

This activity is designed to support a variety of STEM concepts: scientific method, making predictions, gathering and analyzing data, and developing conclusions based on experimentation. This activity draws on active student engagement, and is useful in many STEM content areas.

This activity is designed to support a variety of STEM concepts: scientific method, making predictions, gathering and analyzing data, and developing conclusions based on experimentation. This activity draws on active student engagement, and is useful in many STEM content areas.

This activity is designed to support a variety of STEM concepts: scientific method, making predictions, gathering and analyzing data, and developing conclusions based on experimentation. This activity draws on active student engagement, and is useful in many STEM content areas.

The material included in this lesson are designed to give the instructor a foundation upon which to base a lecture series on the injury evaluation system of History, Observation, Palpation and Stress and Special Tests (HOPS).  

In this Exploration Routine, students learn how to most effectively use their hand lenses. They practice finding the “sweet spot” – the distance to hold the lens between eye and object so the object comes into focus. Without this introduction, students may become frustrated or distracted by hand lenses because they don’t understand how to use them. With this quick activity, students develop a healthy fascination with this transformational tool and feel empowered to use it like a scientist. This activity is also an opportunity to invite your students into inquiry. By modeling how to use a lens, how to say observations out loud, and by encouraging students to check things out and share discoveries, you can begin to set a tone of collaborative inquiry for your group.

Many field instructors cite this Exploration Routine as their most effective teaching tool. It helps students develop a mindset of curiosity, and provides language tools to actively and directly engage with the natural world. These are important skills students can carry away and apply in any natural setting. Using this routine makes any field experience more student- and nature-centered. After introducing it, instructors can ask students to apply the routine to deepen their understanding of the natural world during any part of a field experience.

During the activity, students pick up a natural object, such as a leaf, and make “I notice…” statements out loud with a partner, then share some of their observations with the group. They do the same with “I wonder…” questions, and with “It reminds me of…” connections. Then, students practice using these tools while exploring whatever they find interesting. This simple routine can help students get beyond seeing nature as a “green blur,” and lead them to never be bored in nature again.

Interview an Organism gives students the opportunity to enter the world of an organism. Students slow down and have a “conversation” with an organism of their choosing, asking questions that can be answered through more observation while paying attention to its surroundings and the scale of its world. It helps take students to a “next level” of observing and questioning as they learn to ask themselves questions that lead them to make deeper observations. In the process, they get to know their chosen organism.

In this Exploration Routine, students search for interesting organisms and observe them. Each pair of students chooses an organism to study, comes up with questions about the organism’s appearance and structures, while attempting to answer each one through observations. Then they move on to more probing questions about the organism’s behavior, ecosystem, and relationships to other organisms. Afterwards, students share with other pairs and then with the whole group.

The 15.821 and 15.822 Sequence
Marketing research may be divided into methods that emphasize understanding “the customer” and methods that emphasize understanding “the market.” This course (15.821) deals with the customer and emphasizes qualitative methods (interviews, focus groups, Voice of the Customer, composing questions for a survey). The companion course (15.822) deals with the market and emphasizes quantitative methods (sampling, survey execution, quantitative data interpretation, conjoint analysis, factor analysis).
The methods covered in 15.821 are often used in the “front-end” of market research project, whose second-stage is a quantitative survey. The quality of information gathered in the second-stage is greatly enhanced in this way.
15.821 is designed for the nonspecialist, e.g., someone planning a career in general management, product or project management, R&D, advertising, or entrepreneurship. 15.822 teaches analytical techniques that are standard in consulting or marketing research, and is ideally suited for students planning careers in those fields.