All Resources

Journal Article

Big Picture Science: Uncovering teaching strategies for underrepresented groups

Some experts suggest that people who are underrepresented in science often have difficulty expressing their ideas and participating in classrooms where traditional methods of instruction are used because they may feel uncomfortable with the limited r...

Journal Article

Commentary: Defining Multicultural Science Education

An opinion piece about a multicultural science classroom and how we provide science education for all students....

Journal Article

The Fin Art of Science: Japanese fish printing brings interdisciplinary science and culture to the classroom

Gyotaku—The Japanese art of fish printing—evolved in Japan more than one hundred years ago as a means for fishermen to record and document the size of their catches. Today, fish printing provides an excellent classroom activity to introduce the t...

Journal Article

Forces at Work: The Top 5 Reasons for Belonging to a Professional Organization

Although we all interact within our classrooms and with our students all of the time, we also need the dynamic of peer interaction. This article describes the benefits of participating in a professional organization for science teachers, whether it b...

Journal Article

Reflections on a Journey

As educators, we must be willing to reinvent our worlds as we learn new things; to re-examine our conceptions as we encounter new views; and to re-evaluate our own subjective interactions with the new material. As part of a pilot Earthwatch-Conservat...

Journal Article

Keeping the Joy in Teaching

“If I ever get as burnt out as Mr. Jones down the hall,” commented a teacher I admire to a group of us novices, someone please tell me, and I will get out of teaching.” To avoid faring like “Mr. Jones,” read the following ideas to maintain ...

Journal Article

C Is for Change

The Seven Cs strategy described in this article is a small but very practical start to addressing the needs of students. The practices are divided into seven categories: community, curriculum, constructivist connections, confidence, competence, compu...

Journal Article

Science of the Maya: Teaching ethnoscience in the classroom

Ethnoscience is empirical knowledge of the world held by indigenous people, reflecting their thought processes, values, concepts, and experiences. Drawing on the work of Heinberg (1994), five premises may be identified in Mayan ethnoscience: (1) ever...

Journal Article

Idea Bank: Tips and techniques for creative teaching

The Idea Bank provides tips and techniques for creative teaching, in about 1,000 words. In this month’s Idea Bank, learn about the periodic table card trick using a half-deck of cards, fun and games science, and integrating technology....

Journal Article

Inclusive Classrooms: Multicultural look at the National Science Education Standards

Five Standards-based strategies for successful inclusion of special-needs students in the secondary science classroom are described in this article. Use a multisensory approach; encourage collaboration among students; provide specific expectations an...

Journal Article

The Bird

A teachable moment presented itself when a fallen bird was discovered in the snowy woods of Alaska by a couple of kindergarten students. As a result of this experience, the children had grown in their abilities to take part in a group, to actively li...

Journal Article

A New Way of Looking at the World

The Global 200 represents a new science-based approach to setting priorities for conservation. At its core is a simple concept: If we conserve the broadest variety of the world’s habitats, we can conserve the broadest variety of the world’s speci...

Journal Article

Understanding the Elements: The physics and symmetry of the periodic table of the elements

The Periodic Table of the Elements, or the Mendeleev Chart, is the starting point for chemistry and critical for learning physics as well. This article is an effort to explain, from fundamentals, how the periodic table became the way it is, and in do...

Journal Article

Analyzing Scientific Literature Using a Jigsaw Group Activity

After gathering into groups to read papers with different viewpoints on a scientific topic, students form into new groups to share the diverse viewpoints expressed by the scientist-authors of their papers. This modified jigsaw activity encourages stu...

Journal Article

The Learning-Style Teaching Model

The recent surge of interest in science education reform is welcome news for teachers who are eager to engage students in active science learning. However, along with these positive steps in science education reform come increasing pressure to improv...