Books
National Science Teachers Association provides a great deal of books, journals, and other resources for science teachers. These may be used to enhance knowledge or provide ideas for enriching activities or lessons to implement into classes.
Science and Children
Science Scope
The Science Teacher
Connected Science Learning
Brain Powered Science
Picture-Perfect Science Lessons, K-5
Field Trip Ideas
Roper Mountain Science Center, a 62 acre Science Center in South Carolina, offers field trips for students of all grades. Here, students may partake in experiences that closely align with South Carolina Science standards.
The Greenville Zoo offers enriching educational opportunities in which students may learn about animals and their habitats.
Articles
Culturally Responsive Classroom Management
In the article “Culturally Responsive Strategies to Support Young Children With Challenging Behavior” in Young Children, Charis Lauren Price and Elizabeth A. Steed discuss the factors that are crucial to consider when managing an early childhood classroom. Often times, early childhood educators are responsible for teaching students who engage in disruptive or disrespectful behavior. Such behavior is defined as challenging behavior, or any repeated patterns of behavior that have potential to interfere with learning or engagement in social interactions with both peers and adults. This behavior is incredibly frustrating, so it is natural to desire one specific technique for handling such children. However, educators must remember that each child is different; creating only one management technique is entirely unwarranted. Teachers must develop classroom management strategies that are both developmentally and culturally appropriate.
Price, C. L. & Steed, E. A. (2016). Culturally responsive strategies to support young children with challenging behavior. Young Children, 71(5). Retrieved from http://www.naeyc.org/yc/culturally-responsive-strategies-support-challenging-behavior
STEM in the Second Grade
In “Community-Based Learning: STEM Experiences From a Second Grade Urban Classroom,” Tejaswini Dalvi, Kristen Wendell, and Joseph Johnson discuss a creative way of supporting and encouraging inquiry-based learning in a second grade classroom. According to the National Science Education Standards, inquiry is “the activities through which students develop knowledge and understanding of scientific ideas as well as an understanding of how scientists study the natural world” (Dalvi, Wendell, & Johnson, 2016, p. 9). In this particular classroom, inquiry is used in an effort to teach about engineering. Students are able to find and evaluate a problem at hand, research and plan a solution, construct and test a prototype, and then finally explain and redesign. The class took on the responsibility of renovating an outdoor classroom at their school in Boston.
Dalvi, T., Wendell, K., & Johnson, J. (2016). Community-based engineering: STEM experiences from a second grade urban classroom. Young Children (71)5, 8-15.
Professional Development Opportunities
Project Learning Tree, an environmental education program, provides a number of various opportunities for trainings that will enable teachers to use the environment as an engaging learning resource for students.
Population Education is a national program that provides curriculum and professional development that strives to teach about population trends and their effects on the environment. This organization provides a variety of workshops in order to train and equip teachers to teach population education.
Experiments & Exploration 