Darci J. Harland

STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. During the past few years, the U.S. has been trying to encourage more schools to focus on STEM education in order to compete globally and fill the needs of this expertise in our scientific industries. The purpose of this volume is to teach students to be scientists by performing research like real scientists do. “The Notebook” is the long0used paper and pencil document that tracks a formal piece of research from beginning to end. Thus, this handbook is designed to task student completely through the scientific experiment step by step. So, what does this have to do with the teacher librarian? A great deal, if you look at the research model to be used in a formal science project. It is actually the basis on which all the information literacy models created in the 1990s were created. Note the steps in abbreviated form: Generate ideas; developing a research design; Knowing my topic; Writing the proposal; Setting up and conducting the e experiment; Statistical analysis; Interpreting the data; Reporting results. Knowing that both the teacher librarian and the STEM teachers are on the same track, the discussion of two heads are better than one gains some traction as students build questions, build understanding through the use of informational databases, create a method of investigation and gather quality data, then doing analysis and synthesis, and finally creating a product complete with some type of reflection. One is mystified at the author’s use of a paper and pencil notebook for all the recording and reflection when technology would dictate the use of digital notebooks, particularly when groups of students might be working on an experiment in concert. However, the process is here and familiar to teacher librarians. So, pick up a copy of this book. Read through it and prepare yourself as a teacher librarian to be a scientific partner. Then start the discussion. Experiment with a few teachers who are interested in real science. And, the rest will be history.… (mere)