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Sylvia Shugrue Award winner 2013
As Director of Distance Learning for University of Minnesota’s Bell Museum of Natural history, each year Chris Tower created and provided professional development for more than 300 teachers throughout Minnesota and Wisconsin via two distance–lear...
By admin
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At the end of a unit, there are always students who haven’t completed some assignments. Coming in before or after school is not an option for most of my students. Rather than moving on to the next unit, knowing they’ll fall even further behin...
By Mary Bigelow
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Observing students as an assessment
As part of a science methods class, we’ve been assigned to create an observation tool to assess students. I’ve seen many articles and suggestions online for helping students become good observers and tools for administrators to use when o...
By Mary Bigelow
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What science teachers are reading February 2014
From lessons on writing in science class to exploring and debating socioscientific issues to translating NGSS for classroom instruction, take a look at what science teachers are reading in February on NSTA’s website....
By Claire Reinburg
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Afterschool Science Engagement
In this month’s Reaching the Stakeholders section of the Leaders Letter, there is mention of a feature on NPR which raised the point about engagement of students in science in the classroom. A follow up point about engaging students in science op...
By Christine Royce
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Science Literacy and Pseudoscience
A recent blog post “Whole Foods: America’s Temple of Pseudoscience” got me thinking about a topic of deep personal concern. As head of the National Science Teachers Association, one of my overarching goals is to improve science literacy in the ...
By David Evans, NSTA Executive Director
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I’ve recently switched from a self-contained sixth-grade classroom to a middle school science position where I meet with five different classes each day. I find it challenging to connect with students the way I used to when I had the same students ...
By Mary Bigelow
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Science of the Winter Olympics: Stability & Vibration
You think the 2014 Winter Olympic Games are over? Not by a long shot. Glue your eyes back on NBC for the Paralympic Winter Games March 7–16. There, you’ll watch Iraq war veteran and Paralympian Heath Calhoun take advantage of the same technology ...
By Judy Elgin Jensen
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This is a wonderful themed issue, with all of the articles focusing on helping younger students investigate and understand the science of sound. Unfortunately for secondary students, the science of sound might not get a lot of attention in the curric...
By Mary Bigelow
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Early childhood science in preschool—a conversation on Lab Out Loud
Listen in on a conversation between early childhood educator and researcher Karen Worth and the science teachers hosts of Lab Out Loud, Dale Basler and Bria...
By Peggy Ashbrook
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Science of the Winter Olympics: Movement & Robotics
Did you see an Olympic performance (perhaps Davis & White’s gold-medal ice dance) that looked so perfect, so flawless, that it seemed almost robotic? If so, you’ll want to watch Olympic Movement & Robotic Design—another installment in t...
By Judy Elgin Jensen
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Are you attending the NSTA conference in Boston this spring?...
By Mary Bigelow
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Science of the Winter Olympics: Physics of Figure Skating
Many would call the figure skating events the most elegant of all of the winter Olympic sports. The spins. The tosses. The leaps. How on earth do they stay in balance? Find out by watching the latest installment of the Science and Engineering of the ...
By Judy Elgin Jensen
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Planning and carrying out investigations
According to the editor, “Although the practice of planning and carrying out investigations has always been a part of good science instruction, the student focus often has been more on carrying out than on planning, with teacher-structured inve...
By Mary Bigelow
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Science of the Winter Olympics: Faster & Safer Bobsleds
Controlled violence. That’s what Steve Langton of the U.S. Bobsled Team calls his sport, in which he’s huddled in a bullet-shaped, finned shell made of carbon fiber and Kevlar hurtling down a curving track at speeds over 70 miles per hour. The te...
By Judy Elgin Jensen
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Social Science Teachers: Meet Us at #NSTA14
How do you start an #organellewar? Create a virtual Professional Learning Community? Use Facebook with preservice teachers? Flip your classroom? Use YouTube in your science classroom?...
By Lauren Jonas, NSTA Assistant Executive Director
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DiscoverE brings us Engineers Week
Next week is Engineers Week, February 16-22, “a time to:...
By Peggy Ashbrook
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NSTA’s K-12 Science Education Journals: February Issues Online
It’s February, and many of us are focused on groundhogs, candy, and hoping never to hear the words polar vortex again! Spring is still a few months away, so this is a good time to bundle up and get a fresh look at what your science teaching pee...
By Lauren Jonas, NSTA Assistant Executive Director
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If you think that the “history and nature of science” means students reading biographies of scientists of the past, your thoughts may change after browsing this issue of Science Scope. These articles represent lessons that incorporate the...
By Mary Bigelow
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Engineers Week Resources from the National Science Teachers Association
Engineers Week is February 16–22, 2014. Engineering is in the spotlight right now—and science teachers need to know how to incorporate it into their STEM curriculum, what resources really work, and where to get online PD to stay current....
By Lauren Jonas, NSTA Assistant Executive Director
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Science of the Winter Olympics: Science of Snow
SUPERCOOL! More than just an expression, this state of water figures prominently in snow formation. Find out more about snow and how snow conditions might impact winter Olympians whose gold medals are inextricably linked to this frozen base material....
By Judy Elgin Jensen
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Science of the Winter Olympics: Engineering the Halfpipe
Imagine locking both feet onto a board, hurtling down a vertical face and up the opposing one before becoming airborne, where you twist and flip with near abandon. Now, imagine doing that with the equivalent weight of five people clinging to your bac...
By Judy Elgin Jensen
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This April, the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) will feature a special strand “Engineering and Science: Technological Partners” at our 2014 National Conference on Scie...
By Lauren Jonas, NSTA Assistant Executive Director
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What the new NSTA Early Childhood Science Education position statement means to me
The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) has adopted a new position statement, the Early Childhood Science Position Statement. This thoughtful document was inspired by the clamor of early childhood educators looking for guidance informed by ...
By Peggy Ashbrook
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My colleague and I are early–career science teachers at a middle school. Rather than our reinventing the wheel, do you have any suggestions how to make lab days run more smoothly, especially at the beginning and end of the class? –Sean, Oakla...
By Mary Bigelow
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Each month, columns on safety in the science lab are featured in NSTA’s Science Scope (Scope on Safety) and The Science Teacher (Safer Science). These columns are written by Ken Roy, Director of Environmental Health and Safety for Glastonbury P...
By Mary Bigelow
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Concepts that cut across science disciplines
Patterns…cause and effect: mechanism and explanation…scale, proportion, and quantity…systems and system models…energy and matter: flows, cycles, and conservation…structure and function…stability and change…...
By Peggy Ashbrook
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This April, the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) will feature a special strand “Leading From the Classroom” at our 2014 National Conference on Science Education, in...
By Lauren Jonas, NSTA Assistant Executive Director
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Science of the Winter Olympics: Injury & Recovery
Lindsey Vonn—probably the closest to a household name as any winter Olympian. Sadly, we won’t be able to see her defend her women’s downhill gold medal in Sochi due to her ACL injury. But you can find out a bit more of the back story in Injury ...
By Judy Elgin Jensen
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This month’s guest editorials address the theme of science for ALL students:...
By Mary Bigelow
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Kindergarten teacher shares her class' bird investigation
Talking with other early childhood educators enriches my understanding of how children learn and I often learn good ideas for teaching about particular science concepts. I had an online conversation with Mary Myron who I met at the 2013 annual confer...
By Peggy Ashbrook
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What science teachers are reading in January 2014
From data literacy to citizen science to using trade books in science lessons, take a look at what science teachers are reading so far in 2014 at NSTA’s website....
By Claire Reinburg
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Science of the Winter Olympics: Competition Suits
You’re barely in the door of your local sporting goods store before you’re bombarded with displays of clothing designed specifically for every sport—even fishing! Are you better at any one of these sports when you’re wearing the specially des...
By Judy Elgin Jensen
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I feel overwhelmed by the grading process. It seems like I spend most of my waking hours grading homework, lab reports, tests, quizzes, notebooks, and projects. I teach two science courses at the high school and meet 150 students every day. What ca...
By Mary Bigelow
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There are many ways students can be motivated in science. Some students have a passion for the subject that goes beyond the classroom. Others may find the types of activities in the classroom to be motivational—working with others, using technology...
By Mary Bigelow
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Science of the Winter Olympics: Science of Ice
The phrase “a level playing field” has a lot of different meanings. But for the skaters, curlers, hockey players, lugers, and bobsledders in the 2014 Winter Olympic Games it means just one thing—ICE. And how is it that all of these athletes can...
By Judy Elgin Jensen
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This April, the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) will feature a special strand “Teaching Elementary Science with Confidence!” at our 2014 National Conference on Science...
By Lauren Jonas, NSTA Assistant Executive Director
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Science of the Winter Olympics: Slopestyle Skiing
The count down is on for February 7, the start of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia! Twelve new winter sports will join those we always look forward to watching. Among them is Men’s and Women’s Ski Slopestyle. To the uninitiated, it ...
By Judy Elgin Jensen
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Science of ice, brief explanation
For all those who are experiencing the solid form of water or teaching about it, here is a cool video from the National Science Foundation (NSF) about the science of ice. In this short video, athletes J.R....
By Peggy Ashbrook