How can you EASILY and CONSISTENTLY make real-world connections to current events an active part of your classroom routine? Use this current science news activity…

Science News Journals!

I have found a very easy way to have students set up and use current events science journals. In their journals, students keep a list of writing prompts that they use to respond to the news – simple! (So simple that I can actually stay consistent with it!)

The Set Up

At the beginning of the year, I have students set up a composition notebook exclusively dedicated to science news.  In the front cover, students glue a list of writing prompts to choose from.  In the back cover, they paste a simple rubric.  I keep a small bin (one for each class) for these notebooks in the classroom so that students don’t have to carry them around.  To see more about how I have kids set up their notebooks, see this Instagram post. 

How Kids Use Them

We have a very simple routine to use the science news journals. Each time I’m going to introduce the kids to some current science news, they know to quickly grab their journals from the bin. Then, they use their journal to respond to the news using one of the prompts on the given list – the list that’s stuck in their notebook. It’s an easy and painless routine to get into! Once you’ve explained the process the first time, it’s a breeze every time after.

There are tons of prompts for them to choose from, and it’s up to each student which one they pick. Examples of writing prompts include:

• Describe a science job you learned about in the story.
• Record your ideas for experiments inspired by the story.
• Use context clues to define new science terms.
• Summarize the news in written or diagram form.

Finding Science News

Science news is easy to find!  My go-to’s are:

• “That” student who always loves to give you a million and one facts – have them find you some links to what they’re telling you!YouTube clips (ex. Mars landing news)
• Newspaper articles (like one on osprey in our area)
• Science World magazine (luckily my school has a subscription)
• www.sciencenewsforstudents.org
• www.livescience.com (older grades)
• www.sciencenews.org (They have a YouTube channel, too.)
• www.smithsonianmag.com/category/science-nature (older grades)

FREE Current Science News Activity

Click HERE to download the prompts and rubric I use for FREE!

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