Middle School Resources

Grades 6-8, is a time of tremendous physical, emotional, and cognitive changes for students. It is also a pivotal time for understanding and gaining enthusiasm for science.

Featured Resources

Social-Emotional Learning in the Science Classroom

From the Editor's Desk...

Journal Article

Fieldwork Fridays: Connecting Scientific Learning to Nature

Building routines around place-based learning allows students to apply their scientific learning to nature and form a connection with their local environment and the species in it over the course of a school year. Each Friday, in what are referred to...

Journal Article

Unlocking the Power of Emotional Connections: Strategies for Teaching Climate Change in Middle School

In the face of the escalating climate crisis, effective climate education is imperative, not only for imparting knowledge, but also for inspiring action. This paper explores innovative strategies for teaching climate change in middle school, recogniz...

Journal Article

Dyeing to Last: Using Natural Dyes to Create an Ideal Fabric

In this project-based lesson, students explore how chemistry concepts relate to creative expression by investigating a variety of dyeing conditions. Through sequenced discussions and investigations, students arrive at a dyed cotton product that optim...

Journal Article

Journal and Lesson Plans

Middle School Journal

Lesson Plans

NSTA Competitions

Shell Science Lab Challenge

For teachers

eCYBERMISSION

For teachers and students, grades 6-9

Toshiba/NSTA ExploraVision

For students, grades K-12

Bestselling Middle School Books

NSTA Press Book

The Explore-Before-Explain Guidebook for Science Education: Creating High Quality Lessons for the Classroom and Professional Learning

PREORDER NOW! TO SHIP 7/1/2025 This guidebook uses an Explore-before-Explain instructional sequence to help you facilitate the design of active meaning-making lessons in science....

NSTA Press Book

Novel Engineering, K–8: An Integrated Approach to Engineering and Literacy

New in 2020! Download and read a sample chapter from this book to learn more.With the Novel Engineering approach, “students become excited about what they are reading, writing, designing, and building! This excitement in turn helps them make stride...

NSTA Press Book

Uncovering Student Ideas About Engineering and Technology: 32 New Formative Assessment Probes

New in 2020! Download and read a sample chapter from this book to learn more.Have you been wondering how well your students understand engineering and technology concepts? Have you been wishing for formative assessment tools in both English and Spani...

NSTA Press Book

Creating Engineering Design Challenges: Success Stories From Teachers

If you’ve ever wished for advice you can trust on how to make science and math more relevant to your middle or high school students, Creating Engineering Design Challenges is the book for you. At its core are 13 units grounded in challenge-based le...

Latest Resources

NSTA Press Book

The Explore-Before-Explain Guidebook for Science Education: Creating High Quality Lessons for the Classroom and Professional Learning

PREORDER NOW! TO SHIP 7/1/2025 This guidebook uses an Explore-before-Explain instructional sequence to help you facilitate the design of active meaning-making lessons in science....

Reports Article

Freebies and Opportunities for Science and STEM Teachers: June 24, 2025

Reports Article

Freebies and Opportunities for Science and STEM Teachers: June 17, 2025

Web Seminar Series

Enhancing Instruction with the NSTA Sensemaking Tool

Join us for a dynamic four-part webinar series, scheduled on March 3, 10, 17, and 24, 2026, from 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM ET, where educators will explore how to use the NSTA Sensemaking Tool to give actionable feedback on lessons, and support instructiona...

Member Web Seminar

OpenSciEd Teacher Training: Best Practices for Success: Making Participation Inclusive During Discussions, February 26, 2026

Class discussions are at the heart of OpenSciEd’s instructional model, but ensuring that all students feel empowered to participate can be a challenge....

Member Web Seminar

OpenSciEd Teacher Training: Best Practices for Success: The Putting the Pieces Together Routine, January 28, 2026

Join us on Wednesday, January 28, 2026, from 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM ET, to strengthen your use of this powerful routine—and support your students in putting the pieces together to build lasting understanding....

Member Web Seminar

OpenSciEd Teacher Training: Best Practices for Success: Student Notebooks and Progress Trackers, November 19, 2025

Are your students making their thinking visible? Student notebooks and progress trackers are essential tools used in OpenSciEd classrooms for supporting sensemaking, self-assessment, and learning over time but only if they are used intentionally....

Member Web Seminar

OpenSciEd Teacher Training: Best Practices for Success: Scientists Circle, September 25, 2025

Looking to deepen student engagement and discourse in your OpenSciEd classroom? Join us on Thursday, September 25, 2025, from 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM ET, for a focused, practical webinar on implementing the Scientists Circle, one of key instructional rout...

Member Web Seminar

Instructional Routines to Support Sensemaking, March 11, 2026

Helping students make sense of complex scientific ideas requires more than just content delivery, it requires purposeful, consistent opportunities for thinking, talking, and connecting ideas. Instructional routines are structured, repeatable strategi...

Web Seminar

Learn and Lead: How to Support Teachers Making the Shift to 3D Teaching and Learning, January 21, 2026

As science education evolves, the shift toward three-dimensional (3D) teaching and learning, integrating disciplinary core ideas, crosscutting concepts, and science and engineering practices, represents a transformative opportunity for educators and ...

Web Seminar

Learn and Lead: What is 3D Learning? Practical Guidance for Leaders, October 29, 2025

Three-dimensional (3D) learning is at the heart of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and science education reform, but what does it really look like in classrooms, and how can leaders support its implementation system wide?...

Member Web Seminar

Building a Culture of Sensemaking: Creating Classrooms Where Student Thinking Drives Learning, August 27, 2025

What does it take to create a science classroom where students feel empowered to share their ideas, ask questions, and figure things out together?...

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