JoinAll Resources
Journal Article
Case Study: Formulating Questions That Address Student Misconceptions in a Case Study
This column provides original articles on innovations in case study teaching, assessment of the method, as well as case studies with teaching notes. The idea that misconceptions must be addressed to improve learning is helpful to remember when develo...
Book Chapter
In this lesson, students help a comic book publisher create the scenery and story lines that include real geologic formations in different locations on Earth. Key words and concepts covered are landforms, geologic forces, and plate tectonics. Crosscu...
Book Chapter
In this lesson, students help a comic book publisher develop scenes and images of landforms found below the surface of the ocean. Key words and concepts covered are landforms, geologic forces, and plate tectonics. Crosscutting concepts explored are p...
Book Chapter
In this lesson, students help a comic book publisher understand the path of a drop of water traveling through the water cycle. Key words and concepts covered are water cycle, erosion, gravity, heating, and cooling. Crosscutting concepts explored are ...
Book Chapter
In this lesson, a girl wonders how volcanic rocks and sedimentary rocks ended up in the same area of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Key words and concepts covered are rock cycle, formation of rocks, plate tectonics, divergent margin, and rift zone....
Book Chapter
Lassen Volcanic National Park has several types of rocks in one location. It is an unusual mix of all three (igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic). What does each rock type tell us about the area’s geologic history? Key words and concepts covered ...
Book Chapter
Southern California is affected by the San Andreas Fault. The geologic features and rock types along this fault tell of a history very different from the region just a short distance to the north. Two cousins try to learn more about how that part of ...
Book Chapter
In this lesson, a boy is worried that his new home in Alaska cannot possibly have warm weather in the summer. Key words and concepts covered are seasons and motion of Earth around the Sun. Crosscutting concepts explored are patterns, cause and effect...
Book Chapter
In this lesson, two siblings debate whether the water they drink has always been on Earth and has been used by other living things. Key words and concepts covered are water cycle. Crosscutting concepts explored are patterns, cause and effect, and ene...
Book Chapter
In this lesson, students in a class are invited to help report the weather on TV and need to learn about air masses and how they help predict the weather. Key words and concepts covered are air masses, weather, and weather forecasting. Crosscutting c...
Book Chapter
In this lesson, students examine scenes from the movie E.T. to see if the phases of the Moon match the time frame of the story. Key words and concepts covered are moon phases. Crosscutting concepts explored are patterns and systems and system models....
Book Chapter
In this lesson, students try to explain what happens in the solar eclipse, and why a person in one location can see a solar eclipse while a person in another place cannot. Key words and concepts covered are solar eclipse. Crosscutting concepts explor...
Book Chapter
In this lesson, two friends living across the country from each other see a lunar eclipse at the same time and wonder how it is possible. Key words and concepts covered are lunar eclipse. Crosscutting concepts explored are patterns, scale, proportion...
Book Chapter
In this lesson, a brother and sister learn that Venus is visible as either a morning star or an evening star at different times of the year, and they try to explain the pattern of movement of Venus in the sky. Key words and concepts covered are movem...
NSTA Press Book
The Power of Investigating: Guiding Authentic Assessments
Children want to explore, dig, build, play, and wonder. To do this they need to touch, feel, see, observe, listen, manipulate, plan, and create. How does a teacher build and maintain a learning environment that will help students investigate meaningf...
By Julie V. McGough, Lisa M. Nyberg
Workshop
Online Courses: MSU Master of Science in Science Education: Biomimicry: The Technology of Biology
Biomimicry: The Technology of Biology is a 2 credit course that introduces the rapidly emerging discipline of biomimicry as a source of inspiration to create solutions to human problems. You will learn how to use nature as a source of ideas, how to...
Workshop
Online Courses: MSU Master of Science in Science Education: Special Topics in Microbiology
Special Topics in Microbiology is a 3 credit course and provides an inquiry based examination of current microbiology related topics. Topics may vary from semester to semester and will be selected by the assessment of what is considered “newsworthy...
Workshop
Online Courses: MSU Master of Science in Science Education: Microbial Genetics
Microbial Genetics is a 3 credit course designed to provide an understanding of the fundamentals of genetic processes in bacteria (prokaryotes). The study of bacterial genetics has provided much of the understanding of fundamental genetic processes f...
Workshop
Online Courses: MSU Master of Science in Science Education: Infection and Immunity
Infection and Immunity is a 3 credit course that addresses some basic aspects of microbiology as they relate to infectious disease. How are microbes different from each other and from humans, and why do these differences matter? How do antimicrobial ...
Workshop
Online Courses: MSU Master of Science in Science Education: Streamside Science: Hands-On Approach
Streamside Science: Hands-On Approach is a 3 credit course designed to increase the water resource knowledge of students through hands-on, field-based curriculum. To accomplish this, students will be asked to adopt a local stream and perform lab assi...
Workshop
Online Courses: MSU Master of Science in Science Education: Science Across Cultures
Science Across Cultures is 3 credit course designed to present science knowledge across cultures embedded in inquiry-based instruction. This approach will facilitate the integration of science teaching to other curricular areas and will engage studen...
Workshop
Integrating Literature into the Science Classroom is a 3 credit course which provides an effective way to integrate master teaching strategies with current practices of teachers. The goal of this course is to engage and equip teachers in the area of ...
Workshop
Online Courses: MSU Master of Science in Science Education: Web Tools for Teachers
Web Tools for Teachers is a 3 credit course that provides educational technology professional development to practicing science teachers. The purpose of the course is twofold. First, the course will assist educators in effectively using the web to ...
Workshop
Inquiry through Science and Engineering Practices is a 2 credit course which takes a practitioner's look at the art of inquiry instruction appropriate to all learning settings, including, but not limited to classrooms, museums, planetariums, etc....
Workshop
Contemporary Issues in Science Education: The 3 D’s of NGSS is a 2 credit course designed to survey the three dimensions of the Next Generation Science Standards: science & engineering practices, crosscutting concepts and disciplinary core ideas. ...
Workshop
Online Courses: MSU Master of Science in Science Education: Construction of Curriculum
Construction of Curriculum is a 3 credit course which examines the philosophical, historical, and social influences that drive the construction of curriculum. Emphasis is placed on science curriculum past, present, and future. Where did it start? How...
Workshop
Online Courses: MSU Master of Science in Science Education: Master Strategies for Teachers
Master Strategies for Teachers is a 3 credit course designed for science teachers as a professional development tool to increase the effectiveness and awareness of effective teaching strategies. Teachers in this course will study about and implement ...