All Resources

Journal Article

Science Sampler: A “handy” way to teach classification

When teaching the five kingdoms to middle school students, use this “handy” mnemonic device that helps students recall kingdom names, as well as a fact or two about each one. Simple and obvious analogies are used to captivate and retain students�...

Journal Article

Scope on Safety: Dissection—Don’t cut out safety

In June 2005, the NSTA Board of Directors adopted a revised position statement, Responsible Use of Live Animals and Dissection in the Science Classroom. Under the “Dissection” section, NSTA calls for more research to determine the effectiveness o...

Journal Article

Science Sampler: Recycling aluminum cans in the lab—Two inexpensive inquiry activities

Don’t throw away that aluminum can! Don’t even place it in the recycling bin. Instead, use it in your next science lab. In addition to the economic advantages of using materials such as aluminum cans, there are also pedagogical advantages: Physic...

Journal Article

Using Web-Based Simulations to Promote Inquiry

Science teachers seek engaging, effective, and inquiry-based activities that are standards-aligned and convenient to implement in their classrooms. For many years, the web has provided teachers and students with a vast resource of factual information...

Journal Article

Resourceful Science Integration

Recognizing that many issues of Science and Children contain helpful and varied examples of science integration that might be pertinent to a particular classroom setting, we decided to compile an annotated bibliography using issues from the last 12 y...

Journal Article

Editor’s Corner: Do the Math

Of all the disciplines, mathematics would seem to be the easiest to connect with science. After all, mathematics is the “the language of science.” We already use math to analyze data and solve problems in science classes; efforts to intentionally...

Journal Article

Cheep, Chirp, Twitter, & Whistle

In this article, we describe an interdisciplinary, activity-based lesson plan implemented in a third/fourth-grade classroom. During these activities, students use musical concepts to think about, illustrate, and discuss animal behavior, and they us...

Journal Article

Science Sampler: Making the most of limited lab facilities

Despite less-than-adequate lab facilities, it is possible to come up with creative ways to provide your students with quality, lab-based activities. These strategies include the use of basket labs, progressive hand-rinsing stations, microscaling, mod...

Journal Article

Science Sampler: The SI system on the basketball court

For many students, the metric system of SI units is so complex that it is shifted into the realm of the mystical and then forgotten. Here is a fun and easy inquiry-based activity to familiarize your students with the SI system using your school’s b...

Journal Article

Idea Bank: Effective Data Representation

Science students often have a difficult time distinguishing between data collection and data representation and interpretation. It is important for students to understand that organizing data into a chart or graph can often lead to identifying relati...

Journal Article

The Early Years: Birds in Winter

Science and art go hand-in-hand, as scientists make art to share their observations. Two scientists who are widely known first as artists are Leonardo de Vinci, anatomist and inventor, and Beatrix Potter, mycologist. Both of these scientists used obs...

Journal Article

Editor's Note (February 2007)

Learning makes more sense and is retained when it has a context and connection to other knowledge. We know this from a wealth of sources: research, our experiences as students—and as teachers. We remember things that have a rich set of connections....

Journal Article

Perspectives: Connecting with Other Disciplines

Interdisciplinary instruction is a way of approaching curriculum by organizing content and processes from more than one discipline around a central theme, issue, problem, topic, or experience (Jacobs 1989). Teachers can start the process of designing...

Journal Article

Editor’s Roundtable: Never cut corners on safety

Teaching science in a less-than-adequately equipped room is unsafe and just plain dangerous. Where safety is concerned, there are no shortcuts, no make-do techniques that Science Scope authors or anyone else can offer you. School districts must pro...

Book Chapter

Simple Models

As stated in “About This Book,” the author isn’t going to take the usual approach to the subject of chemistry. Because virtually all explanations of chemical reactions are based on our current model of atoms and molecules, the first thing to do...

Elementary High School Middle School Chemistry Physical Science