Science students are responsible for communicating what they are learning, for writing reports, and keeping track of their progress. Recent research on the use of the computer as a writing tool has shown that it can be used to stimulate written communication. Students ages 9 to 13 can improve their writing if they are given good reasons to write and if they are given appropriate tools. One valuable publication, Writing and Computers by Collette Daiute (Addison-Wesley, 1985) has excellent discussions on how to use the computer as a tool to help very young writers, early adolescent writers, adolescents, and college students.
Word processing and desk-top publishing programs are easy for students to use, and there are many to choose from. Bank Street Writer Plus, Appleworks, Microsoft Word, and Word Perfect are each powerful word processing systems that are applicable for the science teacher and student. Each of these programs is relatively easy to use, and has options including a spelling checker and a Thesaurus, two tools that are invaluable for the science writer/editor.
Writing in the science classroom, as we have discussed can take on many forms, and should be linked to the development of concepts, science projects and research investigations. However, students' writing can be enhanced if they are given specific writing formats---newsletters, articles, stories, book reports, for example. Once they learn a format they can apply it to different topics. Students should have an opportunity to engage in a variety of science writing on different topics using different formats. Writing a newspaper article, a science report, an advertisement, a fictional story, or a book report can be used to explore such topics as "Dinosaurs found in the Galapagos Islands," "A visit to Mars," "The eruption of a volcano," "Problems with Hazardous Waste."