The start of the school year or semester offers an opportunity to engage students in activities that help to make the nature and process of science explicit. This is also a good time to consider the general approaches and practices you will use to reinforce these key concepts throughout the year. You will also want to review common student misconceptions about the nature and process of science, as well as common miconceptions about teaching these topics. Get started by reviewing the tips below and continue to the next pages to access sample starting activities.

• Incorporate information, images, and cartoons from Understanding Science 101 into your PowerPoint presentations. During the semester, you may want to have students read and discuss portions of this resource. See our Guide to Understanding Science 101 for an overview of concepts covered.

• Throughout the year, re-emphasize the same ideas in multiple contexts so that students can see the general applicability of these ideas to all of science.

• Set the tone at the start of the year that science is creative, dynamic, and fun!

• Identify student perceptions. You might be surprised by the misconceptions that your students have about science. The Thinking about science survey (Word document) should take less than 10 minutes, can be implemented in Scantron, and will help you gain an understanding of how your students perceive and relate to science. Being aware of inaccurate preconceptions will help you develop instructional materials and strategies that help students build more accurate views of science in target areas.

The 13-16 teachers' lounge

Sample starting activities

		Guide to Understanding Science 101 Conceptual framework Teaching tools Resource database Tips and strategies Correcting misconceptions Misconceptions about teaching Educational research Add your suggestions!