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Journal Article

Energy Bowlerama

A bowling alley isn’t just a hangout where adolescents eat pizza, drink soda, and socialize with their friends. It can be transformed into a giant physics laboratory where students study energy transfer and calculate factors affecting their game. T...

Journal Article

Teaching With Jazz: Using Multiple Cases to Teach Introductory Biology

Case studies challenge students to think, to process ideas at a higher and more complex cognitive level, and to experience science as a process rather than as a collection of facts. This article describes an introductory biology course sequence that...

Journal Article

Editor's Roundtable: Do state standardized science tests bring out the Chicken Little in us?

Recently, discussions of state standardized science tests have been spreading anxiety and dread in science department meetings and teacher lounges across the country. Before you run for cover in anticipation of the world crashing down around you, tak...

Journal Article

Sinking & Floating: A Graphical Representation of the Concept of Density

Density is a derived quantity that can be confusing for middle school students. Try using a graphical depiction of mass and volume to guide students in understanding and applying this concept. In this activity, students will collect various materials...

Journal Article

Science Shorts: Maximum Capacity

Many adults are more skilled in estimating “how long” and “how far” than in estimating other ways to measure—possibly because of the many instances of linear measurements in our everyday lives. Asking students to think about “how much it...

Journal Article

Kermit to Kermette? Does the Herbicide Atrazine Feminize Male Frogs?

This interrupted case study, developed for an honors seminar and a nonmajors chemistry course, is based on data taken from a series of published research articles. The case explores the unintended side effects of chemicals introduced into the enviro...

Journal Article

Sense of Wonder Science

Kids who do hands-on science are eager to talk about, write about, and read about their experiences. Those of us who have tried it know that this is true, but it’s still one of the best-kept secrets of the world of education!...

Journal Article

Scope on the Skies: Tidal forces

Tidal forces are gravitational and vary between objects; in this case between the Moon and Earth. With an elliptical orbit, the Moon's gravitational influence, its tidal force, on the Earth varies with each apogee and perigee. At perigee, one would e...

Journal Article

Science and Social Justice: Making the Case for Case Studies

Incorporating social justice into science curricula can attract and maintain the interest of students who shy away from science because of a lack of immediate relevance or role models, and permits them to make connections between what they learn in t...

Journal Article

Be a Citizen Scientist! Celebrate Earth Science Week 2006

During Earth Science Week (October 8-14, 2006), millions of citizen scientists world-wide sampled groundwater, monitored weather, toured quarries, explored caves, prepared competition projects, and visited museums and science centers to learn about E...

Journal Article

Assessment with Pumpkins

At the beginning of the year in life science, students learn about science equipment use, metric manipulation, and cells. This pumpkin activity assesses all these areas while the students enjoy themselves doing a seasonal activity. In addition, it ev...

Journal Article

Science Sampler: Building student mental constructs of particle theory

The concept of particle theory is a basic idea in chemistry and physics and leads students to understand why solids, liquids, and gases have different properties although they are they are made of the same materials. Understanding particle theory hel...

Journal Article

Career of the Month: An Interview with Plant Geneticist John Stommel

As technology advances, so does the ability to better appreciate genetic diversity. Plant geneticists, such as John Stommel, use traditional research and biotechnology-based approaches to develop plants with improved quality, disease resistance, stre...