All Resources

Journal Article

Accomplishing Multiple Goals Through Community Connections

With schools being asked to accomplish more and more, it is increasingly important to, whenever possible, address multiple goals in teaching. Educating the whole child dictates that we find ways to ensure our graduates are well-rounded, independent t...

Journal Article

The Invention Factory

The Invention Factory is a nontraditional youth-based, after-school program in Honolulu that teaches information technology and mechanics to teenagers through interactive, hands-on projects that improve human computer interaction for individuals with...

Journal Article

After the Bell: It’s all in the pattern—Recognizing symmetry in architecture

As teachers, we try to make subjects applicable to students’ lives. A topic that extends well beyond the classroom and any single discipline is the physical properties of symmetry found in architecture. Few curriculum programs, however, have implem...

Journal Article

Plants and Pollution

Investigations with Wisconsin Fast Plants can make the subject matter come alive…or dead, depending on the experimental treatment. This became apparent when a university-based teacher educator and a fifth-grade teacher collaborated on a professiona...

Journal Article

Directed Student Inquiry: Modeling in Roborovsky Hamsters

In this inquiry-based activity, Roborovsky hamsters are used to provide students with an opportunity to develop their skills of analysis, inquiry, and design. These hamsters are easy to maintain, yet offer students a means to use conventional techniq...

Journal Article

The Early Years: Collards and Caterpillars

Community, assemblage, network, complex, interdependent, web, and synergism—definitions of an ecosystem often include these words to highlight the dynamic interrelated workings of plants and animals with their physical environment. Young children d...

Journal Article

Commentary: Community Collaborations

The National Science Education Standards offer the first assurance that community collaborations can be meaningful as they describe science instruction that educates students to “engage intelligently in public discourse and debate about matters of ...

Journal Article

Editor’s Roundtable: Life in balance

The connection between the functions and processes of an organism’s body system and its survival is a fundamental concept that all students need to understand. This issue of Science Scope presents a collection of activities that can help you teac...

Journal Article

Are There Really Treefrogs Living in the Schoolyard?

Every schoolyard presents a wealth of opportunities for science exploration. To capitalize on this resource, the authors developed an activity in which students assessed whether their schoolyard could provide a viable habitat for treefrogs. This inqu...

Journal Article

Science Sampler: More than just a day away from school—Planning a great science field trip

With all the things that middle school science teachers have to juggle during the year, designing a science field trip can seem like a daunting task. Fortunately, there are many strategies that teachers can use to help ensure that field trips are mor...

Journal Article

Editor’s Corner: Community Service Learning—Making Education Interesting and Relevant

It makes good sense that community service learning can engage students. For students at risk of dropping out, it may provide the vital connection with adults and peers—and the opportunity for interesting, authentic learning—that could make all t...