Featured This Month

• Everyday Assessment in the Science Classroom

  
  Make ongoing, classroom-based assessment second nature to your students and you. Everyday Assessment in the Science Classroom is a thought-provoking collection of 10 essays on the theories behind the latest assessment techniques. The authors...  [view full summary]
  Make ongoing, classroom-based assessment second nature to your students and you. Everyday Assessment in the Science Classroom is a thought-provoking collection of 10 essays on the theories behind the latest assessment techniques. The authors offer in-depth “how to” suggestions on conducting assessments as a matter of routine—especially in light of high-stakes standards-based exams, using assessment to improve instruction, and involving students in the assessment process.
  
  The second in NSTA’s Science Educator’s Essay Collection, Everyday Assessment is designed to build confidence and enhance every teacher’s ability to embed assessment into daily classwork. The book’s insights will help make assessment a dynamic classroom process of fine-tuning how and what you teach… drawing students into discussions about learning, establishing criteria, doing self-assessment, and setting goals for what they will learn. [hide full summary]
  • Member Price: $19.57
  • Nonmember Price: $19.57

Teaching TechniquesView more in this category

• Using Science Notebooks in Elementary Classrooms

  
  Elementary teachers know that learning science involves both the process of thinking and the ability to communicate those thoughts. One of the most effective ways of demonstrating this is through the use of student science notebooks. The earlier students...  [view full summary]
  Elementary teachers know that learning science involves both the process of thinking and the ability to communicate those thoughts. One of the most effective ways of demonstrating this is through the use of student science notebooks. The earlier students learn to keep records, the better they will be prepared to make this a natural part of their science activities.
  
  Classroom teachers who want to begin using or who are currently including science notebooks as part of their instruction will find that Using Science Notebooks in Elementary Classrooms is a “must-have” resource for the development of scientific inquiry, literacy, and reasoning skills. This book makes the case for using science notebooks strategically—promoting hands-on observing, recording, and reflecting—and demonstrates how best to do so.
  
  Connecting language arts to science through expository writing, the book presents proven techniques such as scaffolds, sentence starters, discussion starters, and other writing prompts to encourage students to build on current knowledge. Every step of the process is examined: introducing notebook writing to the class, creating questions to explore, making predictions, recording observations, making and defending claims, and using the notebooks to provide targeted student feedback. Also included are chapters on the specialized needs of English language learners, offering specific strategies to increase proficiency and fluency in both science and language.
  
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  • Member Price: $19.96
  • Nonmember Price: $24.95

Activities and Field TripsView more in this category

• Animal Coloration: Activities on the Evolution of Concealment

  
  A classic resource for teachers is now back in an updated edition! Using an inductive and experimental approach, Animal Coloration aims to increase students’ awareness of the ways wild organisms are adapted to their environments. Even though...  [view full summary]
  A classic resource for teachers is now back in an updated edition! Using an inductive and experimental approach, Animal Coloration aims to increase students’ awareness of the ways wild organisms are adapted to their environments. Even though the activities suggest a specific teaching procedure, each activity is also intended to be an investigation by the students and an opportunity for them to make and test hypotheses based on their observations. Through these activities, students will begin to appreciate how scientific knowledge and understanding are attained.
  
  Each of the activities provides an opportunity to incorporate National Science Education Content Standards, including science and inquiry, life science, and history and nature of science. Also new to this revision is a table summarizing each activity with learning outcomes and relevant content standards.
  
  Originally published in 1966 by the Regents of the University of California (UC), Animal Coloration is the result of over five years of field-testing and experimentation by the Elementary School Science Project at UC Berkeley, funded by the National Science Foundation. This book was difficult to find for far too long (worn copies are a cherished part of many teachers’ libraries), so NSTA Press is especially proud to bring the book to a new generation of teachers and to update the work for its long-time admirers. [hide full summary]
  • Member Price: $17.56
  • Nonmember Price: $21.95

InterdisciplinaryView more in this category

• A Head Start on Science: Encouraging a Sense of Wonder

  
  For the littlest scientists, the whole wide world can be a laboratory for learning. Nurture their natural curiosity with A Head Start on Science, a treasury of 89 hands-on science activities specifically for children ages 3 to 6.
  
  ...  [view full summary]
  For the littlest scientists, the whole wide world can be a laboratory for learning. Nurture their natural curiosity with A Head Start on Science, a treasury of 89 hands-on science activities specifically for children ages 3 to 6.
  
  The activities are grouped into seven stimulating topic areas: the five senses, weather, physical science, critters, water and water mixture, seeds, and nature walks.
  
  Because the activities have been field-tested by more than a thousand Head Start teachers over 10 years, you’ll find this collection unusually easy to use in a variety of settings, including elementary schools, pre-K programs, and day care. In addition to clear background and a helpful materials list, you get step-by-step procedures and help preparing for comments and questions children may pose. Each activity ends with a reproducible Family Science Connection—in both English and Spanish—to send home so the whole family can share a learning experience that’s both simple and pleasant.
  
  Thanks to a focus on the fun of exploration and discovery, children probably won’t be the only ones who find these activities irresistible. As Editor Bill Ritz writes in the Introduction, “We hope your own sense of wonder will be heightened as you observe children and as their curiosity leads them to answer their own questions about everything they see, hear, smell, and touch.”
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  • Member Price: $22.36
  • Nonmember Price: $27.95

BiologyView more in this category

• Garden Genetics: Teaching With Edible Plants (Teacher Edition)

  
  Tired of teaching genetic concepts with the same old pink petunias and Mendel’s peas? With Garden Genetics, you can present core content in ways that are fun for students and fresh for you.
  
  This two-part set—a teacher edition and...  [view full summary]
  Tired of teaching genetic concepts with the same old pink petunias and Mendel’s peas? With Garden Genetics, you can present core content in ways that are fun for students and fresh for you.
  
  This two-part set—a teacher edition and companion student edition—is adaptable to biology students at all levels, including AP. It uses a series of activities and inquiry-based experiments with familiar foods to teach genetics while helping students make connections to ecology, evolution, plant biology, and even social science. What makes Garden Genetics unique is its emphasis on modern food-plant-based situations. For example, to learn about Punnett’s squares, students taste variations in bitterness in cucumber seedlings and then design experiments investigating the surprising role that bitterness plays in protecting plants from insects. To learn about plant breeding, students re-enact a trial in which farmers sued seed companies to compensate for $1 billion in U.S. corn crop losses caused by genetic uniformity.
  
  Garden Genetics is designed to be flexible. You can use each chapter as a stand-alone unit, or teach the book as a whole. Activities range from guided worksheets to open-ended inquiry. Most important, the innovative content emphasizes the problem-solving skills demanded in today’s cutting-edge science classes. [hide full summary]
  • Member Price: $15.16
  • Nonmember Price: $18.95

ChemistryView more in this category

• Chemistry Basics: Stop Faking It! Finally Understanding Science So You Can Teach it

  
  Do the words “periodic table” send chills down your spine? Are you anxious about atomic structure? Confounded by chemical equations? Relax! The cure for chemistry confusion is within reach, courtesy of this newly available book in the Stop Faking It!...  [view full summary]
  Do the words “periodic table” send chills down your spine? Are you anxious about atomic structure? Confounded by chemical equations? Relax! The cure for chemistry confusion is within reach, courtesy of this newly available book in the Stop Faking It! series.
  
  Best-selling author Bill Robertson takes a fresh approach to chemistry fundamentals by helping you understand them from the ground up. Instead of hounding you to memorize the characteristics of atoms and the periodic table, Chemistry Basics will help you see those characteristics as a natural consequence of our understanding of atomic structure.
  
  You will learn not just that atoms behave in certain ways, but why they behave in that way. You will learn not just how to balance chemical equations, but why in the world you would want to! You will also learn not just that carbon is a building block of thousands of organic compounds, but why carbon is suited for this purpose.[hide full summary]
  • Member Price: $19.16
  • Nonmember Price: $23.95

Earth & Space ScienceView more in this category

• Earth Science Success: 50 Lesson Plans for Grades 6–9

  
  Designed as a ready-to-use survival guide for middle school Earth science teachers, this title is an invaluable resource that provides an entire year’s worth of inquiry-based and discovery-oriented Earth science lessons, including 33 investigations or...  [view full summary]
  Designed as a ready-to-use survival guide for middle school Earth science teachers, this title is an invaluable resource that provides an entire year’s worth of inquiry-based and discovery-oriented Earth science lessons, including 33 investigations or labs, and 17 detailed projects.
  
  This unique collection of astronomy, geology, meteorology, and physical oceanography lessons promotes deeper understanding of science concepts through a hands-on approach that identifies and dispels student misconceptions and expands student understanding and knowledge.
  
  In addition, this field-tested and standards-based volume is ideal for university-level methodology courses in science education. [hide full summary]
  • Member Price: $22.36
  • Nonmember Price: $27.95

Physical ScienceView more in this category

• Force & Motion: Stop Faking It! Finally Understanding Science So You Can Teach It

  
  Intimidated by inertia? Frightened by forces? Mystified by Newton’s law of motion? You’re not alone—and help is at hand. The stop Faking It! Series is perfect for science teachers, home-schoolers, parents wanting to help with homework—all of you who need...  [view full summary]
  Intimidated by inertia? Frightened by forces? Mystified by Newton’s law of motion? You’re not alone—and help is at hand. The stop Faking It! Series is perfect for science teachers, home-schoolers, parents wanting to help with homework—all of you who need a jargon-free way to learn the background for teaching middle school physical science with confidence. With Bill Roberton as your friendly, able—but somewhat irreverent—guide, you will discover you CAN come to grips with the basics of force and motion. Combining easy-to-understand explanations with activities using commonly found equipment, this book will lead you through Newton’s laws to the physics of space travel. The book is as entertaining as it is informative. Best of all, the author understands the needs of adults who want concrete examples, hands-on activities, clear language, diagrams—and yes, a certain amount of empathy. [hide full summary]
  • Member Price: $17.56
  • Nonmember Price: $21.95