NSTA - Elementary Science Classroom

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This issue's focus:

Environmental Education

Feature articles:

A Natural Integration

A WebQuest for Spatial Skills

Environmental Education Saves the Day

Firsthand Nature

Plants and Pollution

Trash or Treasure?

Apr-07 - Full table of contents

A note about the "Evening Skies" department

NSTA members: please let us know if you encounter any difficulties reading this journal online.

• Activity	• Assessment
• Authentic Applications	• Communication
• Curriculum Reform	• Inquiry
• Integrated Science	• Interdisciplinary Science
• Learning Styles	• New Teachers
• Research Study

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Latest Question: I changed schools this year, inheriting all the supplies of a great, retiring science teacher. Thing is, I was told to move all these supplies to a new room, one flight up and to the other side of the school. Since then I have been trying to keep up with the curricula. The Boston Public Schools supply all elementary teachers with Foss and STC kits on a rotating basis, picking up and delivering different boxed units every ten weeks. All the unmarked cardboard boxes and old science kits that I had inherited, moved, and didn't have time or space to organize quickly became a useless liability. I had to dig through them all trying to find materials that would complement the new curriculum. Just trying to find scissors was an ordeal because they weren't consolidated in one box, and the boxes were stacked 7 deep, just like the other science teacher had them. Yes, you can have too much of a good thing.

My current room is a big, old fashioned box. On one side of the room, there are four sliding doors that cover an old coat area, and an old, built-in shelf/drawer unit with four doors that are hard to open (and is no match for all the supplies one needs to teach hands-on science!). In the middle of the room, there are four long tables for group investigations, facing one wall with a small white board. I have four more long tables that border the side of the room with windows where I put the plants and critters who need light. Then I have 7 computers against another wall where the internet connections are (unfortunately that's where the l arge white board is!).

I've been asking the principal very politely for a place to organize and share this great collection of science materials that was left to me. I finally got tired of the stress I was working under and I took over some shelving in different closets around the school. I've gotten my room almost empty now—and I'm wondering:

WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO SET UP AN ELEMENTARY SCIENCE CLASSROOM/LAB?

Is there anywhere I can go for advice? I'm expecting that my principal is going to order me to put all that stuff back in my room, but it hasn't happened yet, so I have a window of time to do this right. I'm planning on putting shelves in the coat closet instead of stacking 7 boxes on top of each other (that's what the other science teacher did). Any advice you can give me would be appreciated. My principal wants my room to be "state of the art" since this school is an aspiring science focus school.

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