JoinAll Blog Posts
Blog Post
Using Social Media and Technology to Encourage Students’ Evidence-Based Discussions
Teachers often aspire to help their students become more involved in a community of practice. In my classroom, members of the community are my students, as well as students in other classrooms and professional scientists. In this blog post, I will sh...
By Cindy Workosky
Blog Post
How Teachers Can Use Technology to Support 3-D Teaching and Learning
Three-dimensional (3-D) teaching and learning integrates the use of science practices, crosscutting concepts, and core science ideas to help students make sense of the world. From a teaching perspective, learning progressions promote the use of scien...
By Cindy Workosky
Blog Post
Using Collaborative Educational Technology Tools in Science
Science literacy is critical for our students. We need them to understand why it is important for them to do activities, such as composting. In fifth grade, one of the goals for students is to obtain information about, evaluate, and communicate how i...
By Cindy Workosky
Blog Post
How do I motivate students who don’t want to do anything at all? — B., Utah If you ever solve this, you’ll be up for a Nobel Prize!...
By Gabe Kraljevic
Blog Post
Pasco's Wireless Light Sensor Revisited using SPARKvue…
Introduction: ...
By Edwin P. Christmann
Blog Post
Supporting Science through Interdisciplinary Instruction
The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) have totally transformed my students’ learning experiences in STEM. However, like most teachers, my biggest challenge has been finding the additional time that students need to observe, question, investi...
By Korei Martin
Blog Post
Gain Valuable STEM Teaching Strategies and Resources at the Elementary STEM Showcase
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By Carole Hayward
Blog Post
Back in 1986, David Vernier wrote a book titled “How to Build a Better Mousetrap: And 13 other science projects using the Apple II.” The premise of the book was to use software, hardware, and materials to construct what David called “Laboratory...
By Martin Horejsi
Blog Post
I hope 20 years from now I can still get excited about being a part of kids’ lives. I am looking for suggestions on how to enjoy teaching for a long time. — J., Missouri...
By Gabe Kraljevic
Blog Post
Ideas and inspiration from NSTA’s February 2019 K-12 journals
In addition to an overview/review of the 5E model and the STEM disciplines, the Guest Editorial: Using the BSCS 5E Instructional Model to Introduce STEM Disciplines (in Science & Children)has a framework and suggestions for integrating the Model ...
By Mary Bigelow
Blog Post
10 Reasons High School Teachers Should Join NSTA in St. Louis in April
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By Carole Hayward
Blog Post
Sensory play for science learning
Children and people of all ages continually explore and learn through their senses. Prior experiences that build understanding of how we use our senses to learn about the world are the foundation for understanding the Next Generation Science Standard...
By Peggy Ashbrook
Blog Post
Ed News: Higher Ed is Pushing STEM Diversity, But is Change Happening Fast Enough?
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By Kate Falk
Blog Post
Interactive eBook Introduces Young Readers to Beavers, Nature’s Furry Engineer
As a member of her local nature preserve, Katie Dunbar learned so much about the symbiotic relationship between animals and their environment. Take beavers, for example. The absence or presence of this one species has the ability to completely alter ...
By Carole Hayward
Blog Post
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By Gabe Kraljevic
Blog Post
Plan Your #NSTA19 St. Louis Elementary Science Experience
The biggest science education conference of the year is happening in St. Louis this spring! Elementary teachers who want to be the student for a few days should join us. Here are 11 reasons why....
By Carole Hayward
Blog Post
The Go Direct SpectroVis Plus Spectrophotometer: Listening to Plants (Part 2)
Continuing the story of the Vernier Go Direct SpectroVis Plus Spectrophotometer, we will now apply its power it for a more traditional use; to inspect the transmission and absorption of fluid or a material suspended in a fluid. And that fluid can be...
By Martin Horejsi
Blog Post
Introduction: Pitsco’s Straw Rocket Launcher and its Getting Started Package gives students an introductory rocket activity where they can grasp a variety of subjects including force and motion, thrust, center of gravity, prediction, measureme...
By Edwin P. Christmann
Blog Post
Reflecting on the Flipped Classroom
Doug Stith uses a form of the flipped classroom he calls Learner-Paced Science with his sixth graders at Londonderry Middle School in Londonderry, New Hampshire. Older students serve as his assistants....
By Debra Shapiro
Blog Post
I am currently reading a book about childhood trauma in the classroom. How do we as teachers help students who have had a traumatic experience? — A., Iowa ...
By Gabe Kraljevic
Blog Post
Preparing Future Teachers to Put Investigation and Design at the Center of Their Classrooms
The recently released report Science and Engineering in Grades 6–12: Investigation and Design at the Center makes a strong statement right in the title: engaging students in scientific investigations and engineering design should be the core of wha...
By Cindy Workosky
Blog Post
Learn How to Build Community Partnerships at the 8th Annual STEM Forum & Expo
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By Carole Hayward
Blog Post
Too cold? Observing animals in winter
With very cold weather settling into many areas, children’s outdoor time may be restricted due to temperature and wind chill limits set relative to the temperature ranges normally experienced in their area....
By Peggy Ashbrook
Blog Post
“Arguably, the most pressing challenge facing U.S. education is to provide all students with a fair opportunity to learn” (Framework; NRC 2012, p. 282). This challenge is of great importance as we continue to embrace changing demographics in our ...
By Carole Hayward
Blog Post
It’s too time-consuming… We haven’t been properly trained… Assessment is too difficult… Subject integrity may be relaxed… There are many reasons teachers find it challenging to make cross-curricular connections. But the benefits far outwe...
By Carole Hayward
Blog Post
Merriam-Webster has several definitions for phenomenon—among them are “an observable fact or event” and “an object or aspect known through the senses rather than by thought or intuition.” And just as they find varied ways to look at the wor...
By Carole Hayward
Blog Post
Explorers Lewis and Clark began their westward trip from the St. Louis area in 1804, trying to find a better way to the west coast; as they made their way to the Pacific Ocean, they mapped the area and cataloged its natural resources. If you’re fee...
By Carole Hayward
Blog Post
Books Your Young Readers Will Want to Open and Explore
Engaging students in crosscutting STEM concepts is made so much easier when talented storytellers and gifted illustrators produce the kinds of books that young readers immediately want to open up and explore. The Beaks of Birds...
By Carole Hayward
Blog Post
I consistently see a variety of forms of plagiarism occurring in the classroom. How can I combat this? – O., Ohio...
By Gabe Kraljevic
Blog Post
The Vernier Go Direct SpectroVis Plus Spectrophotometer: A picture is worth 570 wavelengths (Part 1)
Of all the cool things invented by the universe, light is one of the most amazing. It solves all kinds of problems, can travel great distances with little effort, and its very existence has become possibly the greatest metaphor ever. And on the sci...
By Martin Horejsi
Blog Post
I am struggling with the students being on their cell phones. I was hoping that I could get some advice or tips to handle the situation. – E., Ohio In my 27-year career, the worst incident I ever had with a student was over a phone....
By Gabe Kraljevic
Blog Post
Rolling from Inquiry into Engineering Design
Guest blogger Jill Jensen began her 24th year as a science educator this fall. For the past twelve years she has been an Inquiry, Design, Engineering, Art & Science (IDEAS) Coach at Glacier Hills Elementary School of Arts and Science in Eagan, MN...
By Peggy Ashbrook