I am excited to share a new professional collaboration. I was recently invited to contribute to wikiHow as a science education expert co-author.
The wikiHow team interviews professionals with experience in their fields and uses their knowledge to strengthen articles with practical, reliable information. During my interview, I shared insights from more than 34 years in education, including my experience teaching science, preparing future teachers, presenting professional development, and developing standards-aligned science resources.
My interview has now contributed to 16 wikiHow science articles, with the possibility of additional articles being added in the future. wikiHow has also created an author page where readers can learn more about my background and find the articles featuring my contributions.
Sharing Practical Science Education Experience
For 20 years, I taught Science Methods in professional teacher education programs at two universities. I worked with future teachers as they learned how to make science instruction meaningful, engaging, and accessible to students.
That experience shaped many of the ideas I shared during my wikiHow interview, including the importance of:
- Helping students learn science through investigation and evidence
- Making difficult science concepts easier to understand
- Encouraging curiosity, questioning, and scientific thinking
- Connecting hands-on activities to meaningful science learning
- Giving students opportunities to analyze evidence and explain their reasoning
- Providing clear guidance for science projects, investigations, and reports
These are the same principles that continue to guide the resources I create for upper-elementary and middle school science teachers.
Science Articles Featuring My Contributions
The articles cover a wide range of science topics, from scientific investigations and engineering challenges to science writing and study skills.
Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning
In A Guide to Writing a Claim, Evidence, Reasoning (CER) Paragraph for Science, I helped explain how students can support a scientific claim with relevant evidence and connect that evidence to the claim through clear reasoning.
CER is an important part of meaningful science instruction because it asks students to do more than provide an answer. Students must use evidence and explain their thinking.
Writing a Scientific Hypothesis
The article How to Write a Hypothesis helps students understand how to develop a clear, testable scientific hypothesis.
Writing a good hypothesis requires students to think carefully about variables, make a prediction, and consider how that prediction could be tested through an investigation.
Writing a Science Lab Conclusion
I also contributed to How to Write an Effective Conclusion for a Science Lab Report.
A strong lab conclusion should do more than repeat the results. Students need to explain what the results mean, connect them to the original question or hypothesis, and use evidence from the investigation to support their conclusions.
Designing an Egg Drop Solution
The Best Ways to Protect an Egg During an Egg Drop explores one of the best-known classroom engineering challenges.
An egg drop gives students an opportunity to apply ideas about gravity, forces, motion, impact, and engineering design. It can also help students understand that a successful STEM challenge should include planning, testing, evidence, and improvement, not simply building something and hoping it works.
Exploring Electrostatic Charge
In How to Make Electrostatic Charge with Common Household Objects, readers can explore static electricity through simple investigations using familiar materials.
Activities like this can help students connect an abstract physical science concept to something they can observe and investigate directly.
Building a Balloon Car
How to Make a Balloon Car combines science and engineering in an accessible design challenge.
Building and testing a balloon-powered car gives students opportunities to explore forces, motion, energy, design choices, and the process of improving a prototype.
Identifying Planets and Stars
I also contributed to How to Tell the Difference Between Planets and Stars.
Observing the night sky can lead to meaningful questions about apparent brightness, movement, distance, and the characteristics of objects in our solar system and beyond.
Preparing for a Science Exam
How to Study for a Science Exam offers practical guidance for students preparing to demonstrate what they understand.
Studying science should involve more than memorizing vocabulary. Students also need to review models, interpret graphs, practice applying concepts, explain relationships, and identify areas where they need additional help.
More of My wikiHow Science Articles
My other co-authored articles include guidance on science fair projects, lab reports, solar system models, wind vanes, changes in states of matter, science investigatory projects, and additional hands-on science activities.
You can see all 16 articles and learn more about my professional background on my wikiHow author page:
Visit My wikiHow Science Education Author Page
Why This Collaboration Matters to Me
I have always believed that strong science instruction is about more than memorizing vocabulary or completing disconnected worksheets.
Students need opportunities to observe phenomena, ask questions, investigate ideas, analyze evidence, interpret data, design solutions, and explain their thinking. Teachers also need practical resources that make those experiences possible without requiring them to create every lesson from the beginning.
Collaborating with wikiHow has given me another way to share these ideas with students, families, educators, and readers around the world.
