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"Asking young girls to "do science" leads them to show greater persistence in science activities than does asking them to "be scientists," finds a new psychology study by researchers at New York University and Princeton University. "Describing science as actions, by saying 'let's do science,' leads to more science engagement than does describing science in terms of identities, by asking them to 'be scientists'" explains Marjorie Rhodes, an associate professor in NYU's Department of Psychology and the senior author of the study, which appears in the journal Psychological Science. "These effects particularly hold for children who are the target of stereotypes suggesting that they might not be the kind of person who succeeds in science-in this case, girls," she adds."

You can go to this website and find some cool ideas for science competitions. "The Elementary Science Olympiad offers over 80 challenging and motivational events which are balanced among the various science disciplines of life science, earth science, and physical science. These individual and team events also offer a balance among events requiring knowledge of science facts, concepts, processes, skills, and applications. While a number of the events are in the form of a general quiz, the majority provide an element of "hands-on" participation allowing the "active" study of science. The emphasis is on learning, participation, interaction, and having fun."

Photo =gallery from the science fair at the White House. Science teachers should peruse these. I wish every student had to do a science fair project and we'd elevate project based activities to the "status" of doing well on an SAT or other test. I think these require a  lot more higher order thinking and problem solving. "President Obama hosts the White House Science Fair to celebrate the student winners of a broad range of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) competitions from across the country. He met students in the East Garden of the White House, and they explained their science projects and experiments to him. Marvin Joseph / The Washington Post"

The site is owned and run by Nesta Logo the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts. Planet Science sits within the Future Innovators Team at NESTA, and contributes to the aims of this programme in three ways: * Stimulating an interest in science and investigation: Science and technology are major drivers of innovation, and these sectors need passionate and ambitious scientists. * Developing the skills and attitudes of future innovators: Learning about science helps young people to develop important skills for innovation, such as enquiry, research and problem-solving skills. * Sharing learning/best practice: Teachers, parents and young people can use the free resources that have been tested by the Planet Science team.

As former elementary science and math education professor, I was always encouraging preservice teachers to teach science and math from a hands-on, minds-on perspective. My goal was single minded in the sense that for students to learn science and math their curiosity must peaked. This was always a challenge because most of these preservice teachers learned science and math by rote memorization of facts. Their prior knowledge and experience had few opportunities to actually investigate science phenomena and truly understand the usefulness of math.

Integrating the science process skills within your teaching does not require drastic changes. It simply involves making the process of science more explicit in lessons, investigations, and activities you are already using in your curriculum. The science process skills are the methods used for helping our students understand how we know what we know about the world in which they live. This often means going beyond a science textbook and supplementing the core-content within textbooks. It also means using your course content as a means for exposing students to the real process of science.

"At Google, the only thing we love as much as science is science education. We want to celebrate young scientific talent and engage students who might not yet be engaged with science. So, in partnership with CERN, the LEGO Group, National Geographic, and Scientific American we've created an exciting new global science competition, the Google Science Fair. Students all over the world who are between the ages of 13 and 18 are eligible to enter this competition and compete for prizes including once-in-a-lifetime experiences, internships and scholarships. "

The new Computer Science survey is out from US high schools - the findings do not bode well for computer science: "the number of schools offering Advanced Placement Computer Science (AP CS) has declined significantly in the last six years. In 2005, 40 percent of respondents indicated AP CS was offered at their school. This number decreased to 32 percent in 2007 and to 27 percent in the 2009 survey. AP CS is in many cases the most rigorous course offered by schools. " I wonder how many programs are introducing programming concepts at other levels or using something like Scratch. Should Computer science just be defined as AP computer science?

Great article about the importance of Computer Science. This is one of those that superintendents and principals should email their curriculum directors, school board members and PTO's to support and encourage this kind of education. "This is not about helping the tech industry. It's about the tech industry helping the rest of America. Today, 67 percent of software jobs are outside the tech industry. If hiring computer programmers is challenging for Silicon Valley, it's an even greater challenge for every other industry in America. Tech jobs aside, teaching kids basic computer science is valuable no matter what career path they might choose. Every child can benefit from a strong foundation in problem-solving. As software is taking over the world, a rudimentary grasp of how it works is critical for every future lawyer, doctor, journalist, politician and more. American schools are struggling to teach basic math and English, and skeptics may worry that we can't afford to teach anything else. We'd argue that computer science is part of the solution: it motivates kids to learn other subjects. If a school can afford to teach biology, history, chemistry and foreign languages, it should teach computer science too."

Over 8,500 online articles from the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology 10th editionResearch Updates from the McGraw-Hill Yearbooks of Science & Technology110,000+ definitions from the McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms15,000 illustrations and graphics, and bibliographies containing more than 28,000 literature citationsContent contributed by more than 5000 researchers, including 36 Nobel Prize winnersBiographies of more than 2,000 well-known scientists from the Hutchinson Dictionary of Scientific Biography®The latest news in science and technology from Science News® and ScienCentral® videosContinuously updated, fully-searchable, media-rich content, terms, images and videosadded illustrations, animations, and image galleriesquestions answered in our weekly Q&AAccessScience puts the most useful and up-to-date technology to work for you: in addition to fast, sophisticated search capability, you'll find RSS feeds, Flash® animations, image galleries, podcasts, videos, and more, with our enhanced search engine making discovery of this wide range of information easier than ever.  Whatever you need, AccessScience is designed to help:  For StudentsData, tables and tools linked directly from topic home pages, so you're never more than a few clicks from the answers you needEssay topics to guide research and reportsFor EducatorsHigh quality images and illustrations, downloadable to use in PowerPoint presentationsStudy Center offers curriculum-oriented tools, Flash tutorials, and study guidesFor LibrariansLibrarian resource center highlights news and features, research tips and tools, easy-to-access online user statistics reports, and much moreSearch by content type, collection, topic or sub-topic, with semantic search, corrective spelling, results filtering and saved search criteria

This site provides resources and games explaining to elementary students what we consider to be "pests".

Just got this in my email. I could see some really fun, funny public service announcements -- cross curricular project for science and technology. This is what they sent me: "The contest challenges students in grades 4 through 8 to use their biology and entomology knowledge, as well as their creativity, to create educational public service announcements (PSAs) that discuss the health and property risks posed by household pests. The grand prize winning entry will receive $3,000 for their school's science department! We know that this award could mean a lot to one of the many schools in the country that are being forced to cut budgets and programs in this difficult economy. As a non-profit organization, NPMA is committed to science education, and never promotes specific products or services. I know that Cool Cat Teachers covers a wide range of topics, but we are hoping that the many science teachers who read your content would be interested in the contest for their schools. We would deeply appreciate your help in spreading the word about this fun and educational contest. The press release below has more information on the contest rules and details. Additional information, including sample PSAs and lesson plans for creating PSAs, are available at www.PestWorldForKids.org."

Science contest on this website for creating a PSA.

A good blog post concerning James Boyle and his talk where the 'central theme was the relationship between where we are today with open science and where international computer networks were in 1992. He likened making the case for open science today with that of people suggesting in 1992 that the networks would benefit from being made freely accessible, freely useable, and based on open standards'.

"Starting in the final term before I officially started in September was tough. I wasn't  anticipating having such a full teaching timetable and my own classes were incredibly unsettled. I found it difficult to establish myself as an average science teacher let alone attempt to lead a department. I was seriously considering if I had made the right move! I remember one student in what I thought was a difficult Year 9 class saying "sir why don't you go and get the head of science" to which I replied "I am the head of Science!"."

We all remember science lessons from our school days. Whether the lessons were with the more 'characteristic' teachers in the school, or whether you all released the gas taps when the teacher foolishly left the room, we all seemed to miss the link that science is life! And what an opportunity science teachers have in releasing the magic of life to their pupils, answering BIG questions like "Why am I like my parents?", or "What will my life be like in 2050?", or "Why is Pripyat a deserted town?"

Online, interactive, standards-based science curriculum www.science4us.com

Math and Science fellowships for beginning math and science teachers.

Math and Science teachers -- beginning teachers should consider applying for these fellowships. These are in the United States. Here is what the ocmpany says about the fellowships (applications due Jan 15): "The prestigious KSTF Teaching Fellowship is valued at nearly $150,000 over the course of five-years and supports aspiring teachers of promise as they embark on careers teaching high school science and mathematics. Designed to meet the financial and professional needs of beginning teachers, the Fellowship exposes educators to a variety of teaching resources, new curriculum materials, and research and experts in the field. Most importantly, the program fosters professional development within a community of high school science and mathematics teachers and prepares Fellows to become leaders in their field."

Current comparisons of computer science and introductory computer science courses from the Computer Science teachers Association. I find it interesting that only 33% of schools require such a course and that the #2 choice for professional development for Computer Science teachers is now online networking.

Interesting results comparing the last two years of computer science teachers association surveys.

This website provides tools, science project ideas, guides, and resources for educators.

A website with ideas for projects and science activities of all kind. I love how you can take a survey and it can help you find a project based upon your topics. Science teachers and homeschool parents in search of science projects will enjoy this site.

Science applications (Apps) for iPod Touch offer students and teachers excellent tools to help students spend more time learning science content in class and laboratory situations. Although many Science Apps are loaded with ads and other distracting information, I have found several that are free of ads.

Wiki pages are always a work in progress. The wiki is like a dynamic online science classroom which continually grows and changes. Applications for the use of Wikis in science classrooms is only limited by the creativeness of the teacher in support science teaching and student earning.