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= **Welcome to the Penn State University Science Education blog!** =

Hello and welcome to the all-new Science Education blog, a webpage designed to (1) help developing pre-service teachers through their methods courses, and (2) help beginning teachers by consolidating helpful resources and links into one useful website. This webpage was designed with the help of Penn State Science Education students, working through their methods courses, and is updated every semester.

Feel free to look through the links below; or, if you just have a specific question in mind, post it on our discussion thread (found on above tab) and our students and instructors will provide feedback.

__5E Lesson Plans__ (Clinic 1)
Students were asked to design a lesson that incorporates the 5E model of teaching (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate). The lesson had to include (a) some type of data collection and (b) utilize some kind of technology. These lessons were performed for groups of 4-6 middle school students from the CLC Charter School. Students have always performed exceptionally well in creating engaging and meaningful lessons for middle school students, and here you can find their lesson plans and concept maps, organized by subject matter.

__ POE Lesson Plans __ (Clinic 2)
Students were asked to design a POE (Predict/Observe/Explain) lesson, commonly thought of as "demonstrations" in the science teaching field. These lessons were performed at a local middle school, and each student pair had approximately 4-6 students in their group. Some of these lessons used expensive equipment checkout out from the student lab, but many used low-cost high-interest materials that really caught the students' attention. Here you can find their lesson plans and concept maps, organized by subject matter.

__ Textbook Reviews __
Buying new textbooks can be a confusing and overwhelming task for new teachers. Teachers can be faced with up to 10 different options for textbooks, each complete with their own supplemental materials, and a poor choice can hurt the classroom for many years. To help, we ask our students to rate science textbooks found in our curriculum lab based on a rubric the class creates. Textbooks are organized by subject matter, with a separate section reserved for middle school science textbooks.

__ Useful Resource Links __
Here you can find external sources that can help to create lesson plans, design experiments, and join professional organizations, among other things.