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First and foremost....for middle schoolers (and for many other levels I suspect) connecting what they鈥檙e learning in science class to the real-world is essential. Use the world instead of simply using the textbook to study earthquakes, for example. Use something like Twitter to follow the real-time updates that are posted about the earthquakes that are happening around the world, 24/7. Help students to look for patterns of what鈥檚 happening, help them map it and analyze it...and then connect it with what鈥檚 said in the textbook. Use the world to ask the questions and the textbook to help answer them instead of using the textbook to frame what鈥檚 happening. This kind of approach puts data and analysis first....and reading for answers second. But there is a place for marrying both.

Secondly, create a classroom where students not only work to answer the questions from the curriculum, from you as their teacher, but ALSO their own questions. Why not be more inclusive so that the things that they care about, related to what you鈥檙e studying, can have an equal place in how you spend your time??? Sure you鈥檒l veer off topic a bit, but imagine how satisfying class can be when you can not only ask the question BUT learn to find your own answers. Wouldn鈥檛 that be the best function of a teacher....to turn the learning over to students? Not all willy-nilly. But more as a refinement of what is happening in class.

And my last suggestion is this: I have been troubled by the decline in love of reading nonfiction that I鈥檝e seen since we started down the No Child Left Behind road. Kids don鈥檛 come into middle school loving nonfiction like they used to. So fight this trend. Fight to make nonfiction trade books a regular part of your class. Find the titles that are accessible, interesting and connected to what you鈥檙e learning. It鈥檚 hard because not many authors actually write for middle schoolers, but it鈥檚 possible. In addition, include lots of other literacy sources....things like Science News for Kids and/or Earthweek. I think a rich, required supplemental reading program in science class is a must if we want our kids to find topics that they can be head-over-heels about. I used to make the kids read one outside source every month and then they led book chats about their book. Yes, it took up valuable time -- but how can that be a bad thing?

As science teachers it鈥檚 easy for us to take for granted all of the scientific background knowledge that we bring with us to every class discussion or lab activity. All of this knowledge is a large part of why the class activities seem - and are - meaningful to us, but our kids won鈥檛 necessarily have the same experience if they are not as knowledgeable.

So while it often seems appealing to let kids 鈥渄o鈥� science rather than 鈥渓earn鈥� science, that dichotomy is a false one. Yes, in some cases students can learn science by doing science - say, by practicing an investigation skill or by inductively discovering a scientific principle - it will also usually be true that students can gain more from an activity if they know more about the subject before they begin. Having more fluency with scientific facts will allow students to react to each other and to hands-on activities more rapidly and productively, and will give them a stronger foundation upon which to make meaning from new information and experiences.

2) Science can be interesting even if it鈥檚 not 鈥渞elevant鈥�. There鈥檚 nothing wrong with wanting students to make connections between classroom science and their own lives, but that鈥檚 not absolutely necessary to get kids engaged. In fact, if you think about what makes science interesting to you you鈥檒l probably realize that much (most?) of the time it鈥檚 not that the science applies to your life. Anybody who鈥檚 ever been engrossed in a nature documentary can attest to the fact that sometimes science is interesting precisely because it鈥檚 illuminating some part of the world you鈥檝e never even thought about before.

So if you find yourself struggling to make some scientific content relevant to your students, it might be worth taking a step back and thinking about why else they might find it interesting. Is it surprising? Is there a good story behind that content鈥檚 discovery? Can you make it light up, bubble, or smoke? If so, the science might be interesting enough in its own right.

Hands on...lots of activities....lots of predictions (hypotheses)...and showing students that you do not always get the 鈥渞ight鈥� answer or the answer you thought you were going to get.

Teach people, use science to reach them, connect & build relationship. Science will follow automatically!