TEACHER'S GUIDE MATERIALS

Each student edition unit has a corresponding unit Teacher’s Guide that provides learning cycle teaching notes, activity teaching notes and answers, safety guidelines, blackline masters, information on CPU activities, and a unit materials list.

Learning Cycle Teacher Notes

These teacher notes provide strategies on how to begin and how to wrap up a learning cycle.

Getting Started teacher notes provide the following:
• An overview of the concepts that are introduced and the activities that make up the learning cycle.

• National Science Education Standards (5-8 and 9-12) and Benchmarks for Science Literacy (6-8 and 9-12) that are addressed.

• Prerequisite knowledge and skills needed by students to complete the learning cycle.

• Suggestions for setting the stage for student learning that focus on problems, issues, or questions about phenomena that are interesting and/or familiar to students.

• Information on taking account of student ideas that are commonly held about physical phenomena related to the learning cycle, which includes contains suggestions on how to help students confront inconsistencies in their previously held ideas and their observations.

Wrapping It Up teacher notes provide the following:

• Suggestions on building the case and promoting student reflection. After completing the learning cycle, students can draw from their experiences to develop an evidence-based argument for the Standards or Benchmarks that have been addressed. This section also provides suggestions on how student understanding can be assessed. It contains suggestions on how the students can reflect on what they have learned, how their initial ideas have changed, and how they can use their understanding in new situations.

• Thought-provoking questions and suggestions for extending student knowledge and promoting open inquiry. This section includes further investigations students might conduct that would allow them to apply their understanding to new observations and situations.

Activity Teaching Notes and Answers

Specific teaching notes to help teachers to make informed decisions on how each activity can be implemented and adapted are included in this section.

Included are:
• Information about the ease of lab setup and calculations, the reliability and interest level, and the scientific process and reasoning skills being used
• Materials used in each activity, how to set up the materials, teaching strategies, and sample data/calculations
• Answers to questions posed in the activities and extensions and sample data
• Answers to the questions posed in the Conceptual Practice

The CPU Activities Teacher’s Guide
This teacher’s resource contains suggestions on CPU activities use, teaching strategies, sample data, and answers.