A Call for Teacher-Authors

Submit your work for publication in America's only independent science, math and hands-on technology magazine! Our articles are built on the same good classroom practice that you are familiar with.
Over our twenty-year history, readers have relied upon Connect as a valuable support for problem solving skills, hands-on learning and interdisciplinary approaches.
We seek authors who are excited about modern science, math and technology learning, including ways that students approach investigations and problem solving. If you have an idea for an article that will fit the themes below, please contact us. We would also like to discuss other topics that are favorites of yours.

Writers' Guidelines

We evaluate your article based upon these criteria:

• How appropriate is the article for science, math and/or interdisciplinary instruction?
• Does the article come out of your experience with students? Is it written in the first person and with a conversational tone?
• Does your article include how students responded, what kinds of questions they asked, and what really interested them?
• Is the material easy to understand and use in the classroom?
• How was assessment carried out and did it include student self-assessment?
• Are there accompanying photos, illustrations, student work or quotes which enhance or clarify the article?

Connect is eager to address opportunities for multi-disciplinary learning, including writing, art, history, geography and other realms of the curricula. We also welcome articles that address equity issues.

About the Text:
Articles may be up to 1400 words in length. We prefer receiving materials electronically or on disk; we can accommodate most formats. We will accept mailed or faxed articles as well (see contact info below). Each manuscript must be accompanied by full names, telephone numbers, postal and e-mail addresses for all authors. We require a short author's bio; two or three sentences are plenty and allow us to give you proper credit. We ask writers to include a few carefully chosen references which might include children's or young adult literature.

About the Illustrations:
We can use black & white or color photographs or slides, digital images, original student work and photocopies of diagrams, drawings, worksheets, etc. Digital images should be saved using the highest resolution possible, either mailed on disk or e-mailed to us as attachments. While we prefer to use originals, photocopies of student work are often acceptable. We can provide you with standardized photo release forms. All materials except photocopies will be returned.

Authors of full-length Connect articles receive a one year's free subscription. Synergy Learning International, Inc. holds copyright on all original materials published in Connect and retains the right to include materials on our web-site.

For more information contact:
Heather Taylor, Editor.

e-mail: submissions@synergylearning.org
Fax: 802-254-5233
Call us with proposals, ideas, or questions: 800-769-6199.

Connect - Themes for 2008 and 2009

September/October, 2008 Numbers and Operations
Numbers can be thought of in many ways, e.g., whole numbers, fractions, decimals, percents. We begin developing number sense early and continue throughout much of school. Studying numbers and operations—ways of representing numbers, relationships among numbers, and number systems—is the bulk of elementary mathematics. How do you best help your students to understand meanings of operations and how they relate to one another? How do you support skill development? What study topics are particularly well-suited to integrating numbers and operations with other topics of study?
Articles due by May 27th, 2008

November/December, 2008 Bridging Achievement Gaps
Race, economics, gender, geography, class size, native language, full-year or academic calendar: all have been cited as precipitating factors in the gaps that exist between the levels of student achievement. Is there anything teachers can do to ameliorate these differences in science, math, and technology? What do teaching and learning look like in classrooms where several groups are successfully accommodated at once? What support exists for further study and strategizing? Does differentiated learning have a role to play? What achievement gaps have you noted in your classroom, and how have you addressed them?
Articles due by July 28th, 2008

January/February, 2009 Before and After School
Many families take advantage of early morning, afternoon, and vacation programs for children. Teachers in school settings are more frequently participating in these programs and maximizing learning by working with students in science, math, and technology investigations that can afford to be more open-ended and informal. Still other teachers share space with programs and can observe students in these other settings and involved in other tasks. What learning is possible in more relaxed settings? What are the benefits of offering such experiences for the school as a whole? What are the challenges?
Articles due by August 25th, 2008.

March/April, 2009 Beyond the Scientific Method
In schools, the scientific method has been simplified into the phrase, “Ask, test, tell.” One observes something, asks a question or hypothesizes its cause, experiments to collect data, and analyzes and communicates findings. Most of us have learned that this is Science . However, many scientists working in important arenas make valid and valued contributions to society, but their work does not even come close to fitting into that pattern. Wildlife biologists, for instance, may rely on observation and documentation as the bulk of their work. How do we portray these alternate yet equal routes to science? How do inquiry and problem solving expand students' experiences beyond the scientific method?
Articles due by October 6, 2008.

May/June 2009 Things in Motion: Newton 's Laws
1. A physical body will remain at rest, or continue to move at a constant velocity, unless a net force acts upon it.
2. The net force on a body is equal to its mass multiplied by its acceleration.
3. To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
The above is paraphrased from Newton 's Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica , published in 1687. While these have been investigated by scholars at the highest level of education, they are also fundamental laws of physics that are evident in the simplest of experiments that even young children can execute. How have you worked with such abstract yet apparent laws in your classroom? What are the ways in which you have seen the light bulb blink on above your students' heads?
Articles due by November 3, 2008