All High School resources
Book Chapter
Aristotle took the ideas of those who had come before him and melded them into a grand theory that attempted to explain and classify everything know. It was an enormous accomplishment, and it set a base for science that is still with us today. ...
Book Chapter
For decades, many of the nation’s life science classrooms have been anything but lively. Biology has been criticized for being content heavy, overloaded with vocabulary, and tested by rote. Six to seven hundred pages of text, presented to teenagers...
NSTA Press Book
Crossing Borders in Literacy and Science Instruction: Perspectives on Theory and Practice
Although there is little argument that an important connection exists between literacy and science, much is not known about how literacy-science learning takes place. How does knowledge in one area affect learning in the other? How can teachers provi...
NSTA Press Book
Clones, Cats, and Chemicals: Thinking Scientifically About Controversial Issues
Does human cloning present a threat or an opportunity? Do common cats constitute a major threat to wildlife? Will the development of new chemical and biological weapons deter war or lead to it? If you want students to think—really think—about the...
By Irwin Slesnick
NSTA Press Book
Evolution in Perspective: The Science Teacher's Compendium
If ever a subject could benefit from a strong dose of perspective, it’s evolution. This important new book supplies the necessary insights by bringing together the views of leading scientists, professors, and teachers. Working from the premise that...
Book Chapter
This book starts with a rather simplistic view of what light is. This chapter starts with a simple explanation which will be easy to understand and it will explain quite a few things. Also, historically, it's the one that came first; hence the title...
Book Chapter
You're probably really upset that all you have so far is a simple little ray model of light. When do we get to the good stuff, you say? How about now? As a bonus, you get to look at lots of pretty colors. This chapter addresses how light can be model...
Book Chapter
It's time to take some of the things we know about light and put them to good use. In this chapter, the author discusses various optical instruments like antennae and lenses, and in the Applications section, you get to learn how telescopes work. That...
Book Chapter
If you browse through the sunglasses at your local department store, you'll find that some of them are advertised as "polarized." What is it that makes a pair of polarized sunglasses so special, and are they really better at reducing glare, as advert...
Book Chapter
Light doesn't always travel in straight lines. It can bend around corners, just like sound. When it does change direction like this, you end up with light waves that originated from different places coming together at one spot. This can lead to some ...
Book Chapter
This chapter is, as the title indicates, all about eyeballs and how they work. We'll use just about everything we've learned so far, plus one or two new things, including how to draw 3-D pictures. You'll be asked to do a number of little projects, on...
Book Chapter
Fire the Photon Torpedoes, Mr. Sulu!
Yeah, what about those photon torpedoes? Aren't photons supposed to be little light particles? Yes, they are, and they constitute the third model for what light is. Although much of the photon stuff is beyond the scope of this book, the author gives ...
Book Chapter
Stop Children, What's That Sound?
Aging hippies might recognize the title of this chapter from an old Buffalo Springfield song. Others will just have to ignore it, and realize that this is the first chapter in a book on sound. As you go through this book, you'll be exposed to scient...
Book Chapter
Unless you really haven't been paying attention to the world around you, you know that plucked strings produce sounds. Carlos Santana demonstrates this on a regular basis. Because stringed instruments are so commonly used to produce sounds, we're g...