JoinAll Middle School resources
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about structures they encounter when they learn about heredity. The probe is designed to reveal students’ ideas about the “parts and wholes” relationship between DNA, genes, an...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit ideas about genetic traits. The probe is designed to see if students recognize that some traits, such as eye color, are complex and cannot be predicted solely by the result of one gene. ...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about the cellular makeup of the human body. The probe is designed to see if students recognize that the body is an organized collection of cells and not a structure or “outline...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about a scientific word they frequently encounter in middle and high school science, chlorophyll. The probe is designed to reveal whether students know that chlorophyll is more th...
Journal Article
Science 101: What causes surface tension?
This column focuses on background science information for elementary teachers. In this month’s column, learn about surface tension....
NSTA Press Book
Tried and True: Time-Tested Activities for Middle School
A compilation of popular “Tried and True” columns originally published in the award-winning journal Science Scope, this new book is filled with teachers’ best classroom activities—time-tested, tweaked, and engaging. These favorites are organi...
NSTA Press Book
Earth Science Puzzles: Making Meaning From Data
Teachers of Earth and environmental sciences in grades 8–12 will welcome this activity book centered on six “data puzzles” that foster critical-thinking skills in students and support science and math standards. ...
By Kim Kastens, Margie Turrin
NSTA Press Book
Predict, Observe, Explain: Activities Enhancing Scientific Understanding
John Haysom and Michael Bowen provide middle and high school science teachers with more than 100 student activities to help the students develop their understanding of scientific concepts. The powerful Predict, Observe, Explain (POE) strategy, field-...
By John Haysom, Michael Bowen
NSTA Press Book
Exemplary Science for Resolving Societal Challenges
Amid a flurry of national standards and high-stakes assessments, it’s easy to overlook the curiosity and invention that is inherent to science and that should be central to any science lesson plan. Similarly, the connections between what students l...
NSTA Press Book
Uncovering Student Ideas in Physical Science, Volume 1: 45 New Force and Motion Assessment Probes
Nationally known science educator Page Keeley—principal author of the hugely popular, four-volume NSTA Press series Uncovering Students Ideas in Science—has teamed up with physicist and science educator Rand Harrington to write this first volume ...
By Page Keeley, Rand Harrington