science and education - Education - Science

There have been many studies linking music and the arts to math and sciences. Back when I was in College we discussed a few of them in some of my music education classes. I find the subject very interesting, and looking back I wish I would have followed it more closely.

I have been playing/studying music since I was 5 years old. According to all of these studies, it should come as no surprise that math and sciences were my strongest subjects in school. Math in particular comes very easily to me. It always has ever since I was young.

In college I studied music as well. I also took a large number of courses in science, particularly biology and chemistry. Just like math, this came easy to me as well. I wasn't working nearly as hard as the other students in the class to achieve high test scores.

Even today I still put a lot of time and energy into playing and writing music. Ironically enough, I do accounting for a living. Most of my musician friends also have similar jobs.The rationale for using science notebooks in instruction is explained in great detail. Campbell and Fulton argue "in order to consider authentic implementation of science notebooks in the classroom, it is important to understand how scientists use notebooks in their work" (p. 57). To this end, the authors present the texts of interviews conducted with real-life scientists to explain why science notebooks are important to the practice of science in the real world and what teachers and students should take into account when they use notebooks during science instruction. Campbell and Fulton stress that understanding the scientists' perspective can help teachers "develop a sense of purpose for implementing science notebooks in the classroom"

Campbell and Fulton believe that the use of science notebooks in instruction facilitates connections to national standards of learning. In particular, science notebooks help to promote learning in five of the eight scientific content categories - unifying concepts and processes in science, science as inquiry, physical science, life science, and earth and space science - housed within the larger National Science Education Standards. In other words, notebooks "help students make connections to the larger scientific concepts that they will build on throughout the rest of their education"By engaging in science talk (talk about science ideas with partners, small groups, the whole class, and the teacher) and self-talk (a type of thinking-out-loud) students strengthen their oral communication skills. Recording information in science notebooks and formalizing it into final products (writing, slide shows, posters, and oral presentations) "provide students with an authentic opportun ity to practice informational writing" (p. 76). Asking students to reread their notebook entries allows them to work with informational text that is pitched at their individualized reading levels. Students have other opportunities to connect their notebooks with reading in cases where they go on to examine additional printed information in order to verify their findings, research questions they were unable to answer, see what others have to say about their topics of study, and raise new questions for future investigation.