Students, your science journal is a place to write your science ideas, to record your own experiments and experiences, to pose questions and to write about your own learning.
Title Page – (With your name; draw a picture of what science means to you)
Journal Pages – for each new set of activity pages:
Start Page top includes date & page number, a page title (e.g. Prior Knowledge, Hands-on Activity, Reflection, Concept Map, Note-taking, Review, etc.) and a focus/goal to be accomplished (key concept supplied by teacher).
Last Page Table of Contents
Knowledge
Write your prior knowledge on the left hand page and leave right hand page blank for corrections to your knowledge and new knowledge gained through reading and experiences.
Personal reflections- Tell me about a time when… What do you know about…
Write about experiences related to class concepts such as fieldtrips, science labs, etc.
biographies of famous scientists
diagrams of scientific processes
vocabulary words with drawings or definitions
sketches from field trips
what was read in a science book
lab reports of experiments
charts and graphs
magazine or newspaper articles that relate to science
photographs a science experiment or other hands-on activity
Lab write-ups
There are two forms of lab/activity write-ups: the short form which is a verification of a concept, and the long form, which is scientific experiment.
Short Form (Verification of concept) :
What I did?
What happened?
Why did it happen?
Long Form (Scientific Method) –Scientific experiments differ from verifications in that experiments are designed to test a hypothesis. Scientific experiments require a control and variables, verifications do not. Long form activity write ups should include:
Observation/Question
Research (Background Information)
Hypothesis/Prediction
Experimental Design (Procedure to test prediction)
Results (Data Collection)
Analysis (Discussion of meaning of results)
Conclusion
New Questions for further investigation/hypothesis
Key Concept Notes – This is a two-column note-taking technique. Notes from the reading or lecture are written on right side of the page, and key words about the notes are written on the left. The key words can be used in the table of contents. Glossary words can be keywords with the definitions starting from the bottom of the page.
Labeled Diagrams
Use color
Draw examples (e.g., water cycle, parts of flower, rock cycle, rainforest etc)
Use labels for parts
Write function of each part
