Science With Depth PD
Interactive Science Notebooks and Journals
Students often view science as a collection of static facts to be memorized rather than a dynamic process of discovery. Traditional note-taking often results in copy-and-paste learning that fails to capture the critical thinking required by the Science and Engineering Practices.
In this Science With Depth PD session, teachers will implement tools and a notetaking system that distinguishes between the Science Journal (a space for the "messy" work: raw data, failed hypotheses, and wonderings) and the Science Notebook (a professional record of evidence-based conclusions). This strategy explicitly connects the "doing" of science to the "understanding" of science.
Take Home Tool: The Science With Depth Discovery Archive
Composition notebooks have durable covers, sewn-in pages, and are portable, making them ideal for recording information. Rulers and protractors are standard STEM instruments that give precision to observations. By coupling a notetaking system that clearly separates raw observations from scientific conclusions with a technical tool for collecting, organizing, and presenting data, students get a curated archive of the scientific process.