Given the commonness of pets in communities throughout the United States, Canada, and Australia, among other countries, pet stewardship should be a natural topic of study for the integration of science, mathematics, and technology. Therefore, the term stewardship will be examined by applying observation and research to shape our behaviors and raise our students’ awareness of pet ownership. After completing the interdisciplinary lessons in this article, it should be evident that our responsibility for our pets begins at home.
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Our students need to know about the structure of the Earth and about the geological processes that shape its surface—both the long-term and the everyday processes, the abrupt shifts of faults, the sustained movements of tectonic plates, and slow uplift of mountains. Therefore, this issue of Science Scope focuses on Earth processes. Use this collection of activities to awaken your students to the factors that shape the continents and the hills, valleys, rivers, fields, lakes, and oceans around them.
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In 2006, a unique scenario transported eighth-grade Earth science students from the classroom into the cold, dry, pristine surroundings of Antarctica. The mission was to expose the students to hands-on science using satellite telephones, Contact 3.0 software, and some very creative improvisation. In addition, a detailed, well-illustrated blog allowed students to follow along interactively with a research team from the local university conducting research in the western Dry Valleys of the Transantarctic Mountains. Two explicit goals of the project were to (1) promote inquiry-based learning in the classroom and (2) enhance creative thinking and problem-solving skills in the classroom.
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This lesson is part of a larger Earth science unit that combines the concepts of the rock cycle and the water cycle and how they interact to change landforms. The authors refer to it as the “make it and then break it” unit. They spend half the unit making metamorphic, sedimentary, and igneous rock models, and the second half of the unit weathering and eroding their models and other rocks. Students use the lessons learned to answer an open-ended question describing the process of weathering. They also make decisions regarding the chemical and mechanical weathering on monuments and buildings.
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Current news reports discuss the loss of glacial ice in the Antarctic and Greenland as examples of the effects of global warming. But what are glaciers and how do they work? An understanding of the process that causes ice to melt is important in understanding the causes of global glacial loss. This article describes two inquiry-based activities that will help students to form a solid understanding of glaciers.
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Getting students to understand the concept of geologic time is challenging because it is difficult to imagine the vast time frame of Earth’s history. Therefore, this article describes an inquiry-based activity that uses an experiential model to help students understand geologic time. It allows students to visualize vast expanses of time on a personal scale. By the time the lesson ends, students are motivated to research information for their time line.
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To determine when girls lose interest in math and science, the authors surveyed female students in grades 4 through 8 in several school districts in southwestern Ohio to try to answer three questions: (1) Do girls stop liking science? If so, at which grade? (2) Do girls stop liking math? If so, at which grade? and (3) Do girls like science and math less than they like language arts and social studies? Although this was not a longitudinal study, it yielded some robust results, which are described in this article.
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In order to provide a level of awareness relative to liability, the NSTA Board charged a committee with the task of rewriting the NSTA Position Statement on Liability of Science Educators for Laboratory Safety. This article outlines four basic questions for teachers to consider prior to engaging in potentially dangerous science activities. They are based on the language found in the position statement.
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At a distance of 50.1 light years, the star 51 Pegasi represents an interesting milestone. When viewed today, the light you see from this star left the same year that President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act (July 29, 1958). Two months later, on October 1, 1958, the first NASA administrator, T. Keith Glennan, was hired and the United States was officially in the space business. Student’s can celebrate NASA’s birthday and many achievements this month by using the web resources at the end of this column to research NASA’s space exploration missions from the past 50 years, or planned missions for the future.
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While most would agree wholeheartedly with the benefits of getting students out more, there are numerous challenges in doing so, ranging from shrinking budgets to a standardized test-driven scholastic environment. However, the Division of Interpretation in Yellowstone National Park has gone to great lengths to provide resources for the classroom teacher. But, because it is not feasible for every teacher to bring students to Yellowstone, materials have also been designed to bring the park into the classroom via electronic field trips. Here you’ll discover how to embark on this virtual adventure!
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Today’s scientific theories are the result of a long collaborative process, sometimes over centuries, among many different scientists from various parts of the world. To communicate this concept to middle school students and introduce them to the theory of plate tectonics and continental drift, they are placed in the role of geologists attending a major conference: The 23rd Annual Consortium of Geologists. The goal of this lesson is to have students examine a new series of evidence and develop their own hypotheses based on this evidence.
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In the 19th century, the race to uncover dinosaur fossils and name new dinosaur species inspired two rival scientists, Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh, to behave in ways that were the antithesis of scientific methods. Subterfuge, theft, and espionage were the ingredients of the Great Dinosaur Feud. Because students often enjoy controversy, as evidenced by popular television programs today, the authors use the controversy of the dinosaur feud to illustrate the human side of science, and the triumph of science in spite of inappropriate competition.
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The National Science Foundation-funded Arctic Climate Modeling Program (ACMP) provides “curriculum resource-based professional development” materials that combine current science information with practical classroom instruction embedded with “best practice” techniques for teaching science to diverse students. The Sea Ice Board Game, described here, is one of 183 ACMP hands-on lessons designed to help students around the nation understand weather and climate. In addition, the game illuminates 14 of the most common types of sea ice and introduces the four stages of the sea ice cycle (formation, growth, deformation, and disintegration).
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