• Science Background gives a short course on the science content underlying the activities that follow in the manual. You will encounter much of it in the science content sections; the manual version brings it all together.
• Set Up goes into some practical aspects of making these activities work with your students. We give brief summaries of materials required (most of which are in the kit), any assembly or set-up needed, a little more on science content, and some of the problems that may crop up.
• Introduction to Activities discusses the Core Content, Academic Expectations and Science Skills that are addressed throughout the unit. There are also recommendations on what sequence, if any, is best for the various activity sets, and how to use the activity pages for maximum flexibility and student understanding.

  For instance, it is explained that by using the title only of the activity, instead of the 'whole recipe', you can develop greater student responsibility for design of investigations.

  It is important for you, the teacher, to actually DO the activity before giving it to students.

  We recommend having the students use a journal to record all of their work in science. This builds good habits and serves as a valuable record of the accumulated knowledge for each student.

• The next several sections in the manual contain activities. By doing these activities, and reflecting on them, students will gain understanding of the science content, and even more important, the intellectual skills of construction, measurement, problem solving.

The first section (Shadows) of this tutorial had a structure which we bring to your attention. We started with an opportunity for you to explore the methods and materials of the section. These "exploration" activities are fairly open ended with only a few directions. We're trying to build interest and an experiential base for the more involved activities that follow. Usually the title is a key question - and many times the activity can be successfully completed by providing only the key question for students to pursue. For those who need more guidance, we've provided specific instructions -- but please understand that what we give is not the only way to answer the question we pose - just one way that we have developed; you should try to get away from the detailed instructions, and let the students find their own way.

At the bottom of each activity worksheet there is a 'notes' section that highlights the academic expectations and process skills targeted, as well as hints and extensions and questions you can present to students and a list of materials you need to assemble for the activity.
More activities
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Next section: diffraction gratings.