From money-making inventions we think of in the middle of the night to scientific breakthroughs discovered in labs, patents help us protect our original ideas from copycats. With our ideas—legally dubbed intellectual property (IP)—safeguarded, we can then share them with the world. Patent attorney-in-training Peter Brown works with innovative researchers at the forefront of scientific advancement. He puts the necessary IP protection in place so that scientists get credit for their work, and we can all benefit from their novel discoveries.
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Have you ever seen a fellow high school science teacher throw up his or her hands and say, “What are they teaching kids in elementary- and middle-level science?” Perhaps rather than pointing fingers, we should be working together with these teachers to ensure quality science education for K–12 students. This month’s Commentary column outlines a number of things that high school teachers can do to enhance science education.
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One of our most important tasks as science educators is to encourage students to consider careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). So, how do we encourage more students to consider STEM careers? It is a multilayered problem, but—like most everything in education—it starts with the teacher. An enthusiastic and knowledgeable teacher can become the role model who triggers student interest in STEM and helps students develop the foundational skills needed for careers in these fields. Begin by using this month’s issue of The Science Teacher as a valuable resource for encouraging interest in STEM occupations.
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Crystals are beautiful structures—yet they occur naturally in dirty and remote places. In the inquiry-based activity described here, students will enjoy the process of creating their own crystals and using microscopes to examine them. It demonstrates the process of mineral concentration and deposition. Upon completing this activity, students often express amazement when they see the final product—beautiful, clean crystals that have grown from a “dirty” test tube.
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I teach biology and anatomy, and the most frequently asked health questions I get deal with sleep deprivation. Could you provide some information on this topic?
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The ExploraVision model encourages students to use their knowledge and creativity to solve real-world problems. It gives any student, at any grade level, the opportunity to participate in scientific collaboration. This Idea Bank introduces the ExploraVision competition, coaching strategies that have worked for the author, and perspectives to keep in mind when incorporating this competition into your own classroom.
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The study of polar exploration is fascinating and offers students insights into the history, culture, and politics that affect the developing sciences at the farthest ends of Earth. Therefore, the authors think there is value in incorporating polar exploration accounts within modern science classrooms, and so they conducted research to test their hypothesis and identify the best classroom textbook sources and potential strategies for classroom use. This article presents their research and provides suggestions for incorporating polar exploration history into the science classroom.
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In science classes and labs, it is the teacher’s professional responsibility to ensure student safety by seeking out safety information that is independent of what is found in the lab manual and making informed judgments. Therefore, teachers must use their best professional judgment, given that they may be responsible—morally and legally—for the consequences of their actions should a safety failure occur. The risk of litigation comes with the territory, and the expectations are such that science teachers must meet these challenges (Ryan 2001).
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Students should understand both the science and the engineering models of experimentation. Since students are often predisposed to using the engineering model, teachers must intentionally design activities that better reflect the nature of scientific experimentation. In this article, the authors recommend some guidelines that can be used when creating and implementing science labs.
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My NASA Data (Chambers et al. 2008) is a teaching tool available on NASA’s website that offers microsets of real data in an easily accessible, user-friendly format. In this article, the authors describe a lesson plan based on an activity from My NASA Data, in which students explore parts of the United States where they would want to live if they lived in a solar-powered mobile home. The lesson focuses on alternative energy sources and demonstrates how easily teachers can create their own activities using data of their choice. The goal is to move students away from using simplistic data. Instead, students begin to use authentic NASA data—making science more relevant and exciting.
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The declining cost of computers and wireless networks has made laptop programs more affordable than ever. At the same time, the internet resources available to teachers and students have grown exponentially in the 15 years since web browsers first became practical. As a result of these trends, growing numbers of students nationwide are provided with wireless laptops by their schools. In this article, the authors describe how laptops have been used to teach physics at the Denver School of Science and Technology (DSST).
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Statistics have been an important part of science since Gregor Mendel used pea plants to study heredity in the 19th century, if not before. Everyday life is filled with statistics—about sports, the stock market, weather, and so on. Understanding rudimentary statistics is an important component of scientific literacy. The Central Limit Theorem serves as the basis for almost all familiar statistical procedures.
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Despite student interest, the heart is often a poorly understood topic in biology. To help students understand this vital organ’s physiology, the author created this investigation activity involving the mammalian heart and its role in the circulatory system. Students design, build, and demonstrate working artificial “hearts” to exhibit what they know about the circulatory system. This article describes how to incorporate the model heart activity into the classroom, including material that can be taught using the working product.
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