All Resources

Journal Article

Commentary: A Message from the NSTA President—Teaching With Purpose

An opinion piece about "Teaching with Purpose." In essence, it means having a research-based rationale to guide your daily classroom teaching....

Journal Article

The Human Side of Science

More and more plays dealing with science are coming to the stage. This provides a wonderful opportunity for science teachers to engage humanities students in a serious exploration of science. This article describes how four plays (Michael Frayn’s C...

Journal Article

Scope on the Skies: A year in the skies

This column focuses on astronomy throughout the year. This month’s issue highlights the astronomical events for the 2003-2004 school year....

Journal Article

Web-Based Warm Up Exercises in Just-in-Time Teaching

The authors used warm-up exercises in Just-in-Time Teaching (JiTT) to reveal students’ prior knowledge and misconceptions in biology, chemistry, and physics. This article demonstrates how the use of preparatory warm-up exercises and analysis of stu...

Journal Article

Counting Dots: Students engage in a coal mining activity to interpret geology

With techniques used by actual geologists, students apply their understanding of contour lines, maps, area, density, and volume through a coal mining activity. ...

Journal Article

Tried and True: Solving problems scientifically

This simple guided lesson based on the "black box" activity proved to be a great way to introduce simple inquiry. It encourages students to ask questions, make predictions, make observations, conduct test, and draw conclusions. ...

Journal Article

Sand: Up Close and Amazing!

Discover the surprising diversity and scientific value of sand from around the world....

Journal Article

Research and Teaching: The Visionlearning Project

Although the proliferation of teaching resources on the Internet is extensive, little is known about these materials’ use or utility. The Visionlearning project is a multiyear effort to design and evaluate web-based interdisciplinary science teachi...

Journal Article

Science Sampler: Narrowing student investigations

Learn how to teach students science by using single-lesson investigations. This technique complements longer-term investigations by allowing students to practice narrowing questions and to plan and conduct their own investigations....

Journal Article

Teaching through Trade Books: Dealing with Data

The elementary classroom is full of opportunities to collect and organize information—or data—of all kinds. This article suggests two trade books that help children explore concepts of measurement. A background section and data-gathering activiti...

Journal Article

Students' Ideas About Plants: Results from a National Study

Last fall, Science and Children invited kindergarten to grade eight teachers to participate in a study investigating students’ ideas about plants and plant growth (Barman et al. 2002). Two hundred twenty-seven individuals from 16 states in the Unit...

Journal Article

The Home Zone: Bubble Shapes

Few can resist a bubble wand and a brightly colored bottle of bubble solution. Although playing with bubbles might seem like just a fun outdoor activity, it is also an opportunity to explore some interesting science concepts related to soap, light, a...

Journal Article

Speedway Science: NASCAR helps enhance a teacher education program

In the beginning, the New Visions Education Program did not include science as part of its curriculum. In this article, a teacher teams up with NASCAR and Cornell University to develop a challenging science curriculum that would forever change the fa...

Journal Article

Seamless Assessment

Although assessment is tradtionally applied at the end of a unit, evaluating students during instruction can help to eliminate misconceptions and deepen understanding. This 5E sequence on the phases of the Moon demonstrates how assessment can be used...

Journal Article

Science Sampler: Planetary real estate

In the Planetary Real Estate Sales Activity, students pretend they are the new owners of one of the planets in the solar system challenged with the task of developing and selling it to make a profit. By having students “sell” an assigned planet t...