The use of science notebooks in a "focused" manner means that we have a purpose for the use of the notebooks. Our purpose is for them to become an individual student "record" of the experiences, questions, observations, data, conclusions and reflections for each unit of study. Did the student gain an understanding of the "big idea". This does not happen all by itself. Embedded in the training for teachers is a developmental process for establishing this type of writing in our classrooms. At each stage of the process there are templates or starters to help our students focus. Gradually these templates are removed as the students pick up the process.