EDS 421 Teaching General Science Methods: STEM Book Awards

Example: recycling

Finding Concepts, Standards, Lesson Plans, Concept Maps

• Next Generation Science Standards

• AAAS Science NetLinks lesson plans

• AAAS Assessments/Outcomes

• National Digital Science Library

• Science Literacy Concept Maps

Click on the Dewey Decimal tab above.

Science and Children is an online journal that Murphy Library subscribes to for science teachers.

The easiest way to access it is to type the title Science and Children into the main library search box and keep the search at Search@UW. The journal should be the first result. Click "view it" to access an issue.

This journal will give you:

• book title suggestions 
• book reviews
• further information on the concept
• lesson activities 

Once you find a title from a list of award-winning books, copy/paste the title into our Murphy Library search box to see if we have it, the call # and if it is available.

• Science Books & Film (SB&F) (ASSS: Advancing Science Serving Society)

• Outstanding Science Trade Books for Student K-12 (National Science Teacher’s Association)

• Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize (British Best Science Books)

• Use the main search box in the middle of the library homepage

• Type in a subject (ex: life cycles, natural disasters, global warming) and change the drop down menu to “UW-La Crosse books & media”. Search.

• To limit the search to the Curriculum Center, use the limiters on the left of the screen. Scroll down to “location”  and choose LAX Curriculum Center. Update.

• The results should only be children’s books in Murphy Library.

An efficient way to find a book review is to use the Search@UW tool on the library's main page.

Simply type in the title (you can add the words "and review" after the title), keep the search at Search@UW, and search.

Use the limiters on the left to limit the results to reviews.

Murphy Library subscribes to several Education databases. Here is one reliable way to set up a search using our Education databases:

• On the library homepage, click on "Databases by title".
• Click on the letter E from the A-Z list.
• Scroll down to Educational Databases via EbscoHost.
• Select all and click on Continue.
• You can now start your search.

It's very easy to find book reviews using Google--so easy that you get lots of unreliable sources, so be aware, and choose your source with critical eyes.

 Tips:

• See if the author has a website, and some information on your book.
• You may even find a "book trailer" on YouTube, much like a preview for a film.
• Get to know what sources are high quality and you'll quickly recognize them on the results page. 

SMART Exchange is a one-stop destination designed to provide teachers with access to all of SMART's learning resources and the opportunity to connect with colleagues in a professional community. SMART Exchange includes resources submitted by educators from around the world and top educational publishers.

Since 2008, the Institute for Science + Math Education in the College of Education at the University of Washington (ISME) has been expanding its STEM Teaching Tool collection by creating partnerships focused on equity-focused educational models and practices in K-12 STEM education. 

ISME has created a page of free resources, activities, publications, news and tools to promote equity and social justice in STEM education. 

A page of STEM Teaching Tools that address Social Justice is linked here. 

STEM Like a Girl was founded by women scientists whose mission is to excite and empower girls with knowledge and confidence in STEM to become future problem solvers and leaders. When given the right tools early on, they believe all girls have the power to develop their own STEM identity. They believe in the combined power of girls, parents, and mentors to build confidence in young girls and shape their future in STEM fields. 

Their Parent-Daughter Workshops are designed to provide an introduction to STEM activities for 3rd-5th grade girls and their parents (or other adult caregiver) in the Portland Metro area.  They aim to make STEM activities available to all girls and their families, in particular those who don’t have access to other programs.  Our half-day workshops are a great low-cost introduction to STEM for families that might not otherwise consider science and engineering programs for their daughters.  We hope to ignite a spark in both girls and parents to continue STEM activities at home and beyond.

The Public Broadcasting System (PBS) and NOVA, a science series broadcast via PBS, offers three videos on where science the Social Justice meet. PBS provides educational resources for teaching about science and social justice here. 

 S. 1374 Rural STEM Education Act: Introduced in 2021 by Senator Roger F. Wicker (R-MS) the purpose of this bill is to direct the Director of the National Science Foundation to support STEM education and workforce development research focused on rural areas, and for other purposes. For the latest status of this bill, click on the link provided above.

The Indigenous Education Tools is a part of the Building Capacity & Cultivating Innovation: Learning Agendas in Native Education (BCCI) project. BCCI is designed to develop resources and practices that will have exponential impacts on efforts to improve Native student success across a variety of sectors (e.g. tribal, public education, private, non-profit, higher education, etc). 

Teaching Tools includes activity materials, interviews and other tools categorized by plants, birds, food and water. 

The Indigenous STEAM Collaborative is a group of researchers and educators that engages in cognitive and community co-design research to advance general knowledge, develop pedagogical approaches for engaging youth in land- and water-based learning, and provide learning materials to Indigenous families. They investigate how people reason about relationships in the natural world and develop teaching approaches to enhance learning and then apply this knowledge to the development of learning tools for Indigenous youth and families, through collaboration with community organizations, educators, and families. All research and collaborations are currently funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

The National Science Teaching Association (NSTA)  has several web pages with trainings, webinars, resources and videos dedicated to science and Social Justice. 

Here is one example of a lesson plan on the theme "STEM For All" from Learning For Justice (formerly Teaching Tolerance). 

Objectives

• Students will integrate and evaluate statistical data through writing and illustration.
• Students will research scientists from the past and present and learn about strategies for pursuing a STEM career.
• Enduring Understandings: Students can encourage interest in and promote access to STEM careers for diverse groups of people by learning about scientists of the past, connecting with scientists of the present and becoming scientists of the future.

Essential Questions

• What can students do to encourage interest in STEM careers among diverse groups of people? 
• What can students do to promote access to STEM careers for diverse groups of people?

Materials

• “Scientists in Action: Picture Book List” handout, copies made as needed
• “Put a Little STEM in Your Life” handout, one copy per student
• “Mix-and-Match STEM Stats” handout, reproduced as a large image or duplicated and cut into six pieces (with one piece for each student for example)
• “STEM for All: Additional Resources”