Insects in the classroom

The Indiana Science Standards ask students to develop “Science/Technical Studies Content Area Literacy” for both Agriculture and Science. That means that teachers are looking for great ways to combine science and reading. Here are our recommendations for those looking to deepen students’ understanding.

For Middle School Students:

Science News for Students: This science news website is specifically written for teens and pre-teens. It includes definitions of any vocabulary or technical words used in the research reported on. Here’s a few of their recent insect related articles:

• What you need to know about Murder hornets
• Minecraft’s big bees don’t exist, but giant insects once did
• Walking on water with science

Frontiers for Young Minds is a monthly journal specifically for middle-schoolers. Each article is written by a scientist, and then reviewed by kids to make sure it’s at the correct reading level. Here’s some sample articles:

• • Sharing your home with Arthropods
  • The Secret Life Inside Ticks
  • Do Not Swat the Wasp
  • Two sides to a wing: the genetics of butterfly pattern regulation

  For High School Students:

  AAAS Science in the Classroom: Annotated Research Papers for students combines actual primary research papers with educator guides and worksheets to help students read along and understand the experiments.

  • Gearing up to jump
  • The Bee, the mite, and the Virus
  • Bumblebees can’t take the heat

  For all reading levels:

  The News Literacy Project helps students to evaluate information they find on line. Their Checkology program walks students through the process of fact checking, and is free!