Five Easy Steps to a Balanced Science Program

Are you or the fellow science educators you support in need of effective instructional strategies and activities specifically related to teaching science? As one of the ‘newer’ topics on the accountability platform of NCLB, teaching science effectively requires a unique set of skills and practices for teachers to employ. As a former biology teacher and administrator, I found Five Easy Steps to a Balanced Science Program, by Lynn Howard, to be full of effective strategies for all educators, new and veteran. Lynn’s resource offers a multitude of interactive strategies for both the students and the teacher, as well as for administrators and instructional specialists to support and coach effective science classroom practice.

What also makes this series so effective and practical is Lynn’s examples which differentiate between lessons targeted for primary, upper elementary, middle school, and high school levels. While the framework is the same, these concrete examples allow for teachers and leaders to have specific models to build off of and implement in their classrooms. They are correlated with the American Association for the Advancement of Science process skills, which demonstrates the relevance and direct link to what teachers need to be successful in serving their students.

The five steps Lynn outlines in the series are:

1. Establishing an Effective Science Environment
2. Problem Solving
3. Conceptual Understanding (often missing in so many science classrooms—MY opinion)
4. Mastery of Science Information
5. Common Formative Assessments

These come together in a comprehensive but very manageable system for teachers and schools to employ that will provide the guidance and structure needed for quality teaching and learning in all science classrooms.

Teachers will enjoy incorporating them into their repertoire, leaders will have a guide for coaching and monitoring practice, and students will reap the rewards. The Five Easy Steps for a Balanced Science Program series will provide examples which are very user-friendly and reproducible. No school or district’s professional library would be complete without it!