All Resources

Journal Article

Conversion Contraption

It’s show time for eighth grade physical science students after a week of designing, building, and refining Conversion Contraptions. The contraptions are fun combinations of moving parts that use many forms of energy and many conversions of energy....

Journal Article

A Bad Day for Sandy Dayton

Designed to help nonscience majors learn about motion, forces, and kinetic energy, students reconstruct a rear-end car accident that takes place in an intersection outside their classroom. They then explore the relationships between the speed of a ve...

Journal Article

Assessing Air Quality: An integrated curriculum teaches high school science students about indoor air quality

The Science and Math Investigative Learning Experiences (SMILE) Program, a pre-college program at Oregon State University, developed an educational framework that enables teachers and students to adopt an integrated science format for studying local ...

Journal Article

GIRLS: Gifted, Intelligent, Real-Life Scientists—High school students teach younger girls at science camp

The Webb Schools break down the barriers that deter intelligent young women from studying science. The GIRLS Science Camp (GIRLS stands for gifted, intelligent, real-life scientists) is a week-long program where a select group of female high school ...

Journal Article

Puppets and Prose: Using puppets and children's literature in the science classroom

Adding puppets and children’s literature to the science classroom makes learning entertaining and motivating. Realistic puppets hold children’s attention and actively engage their natural curiosity as they learn about animals and insects. A mini,...

Journal Article

Thought Patterns in Science & Creationism: Understanding the vast difference between creationism and evolutionary theory

The concept of evolution has been an important part of biology curricula, especially in high school, since the 1960s. Nevertheless, teaching the subject continues to be controversial because of the efforts of creationists to have "creation science" t...

Journal Article

A Reflection on <em>Rocket Boys/October Sky</em> in the Science Classroom

As the author of Rocket Boys: A Memoir, Homer H. Hickam, Jr. received thousands of letters and e-mails from fans, including many science teachers at both the secondary and college levels, who have decided to use his work, including the spin-off movie...

Journal Article

The Dirt on Outdoor Classrooms

Tired of hauling materials into the schoolyard for outdoor science activities? Why not dig up what you need to create a permanent, central, outdoor space that lends itself to integrated learning? This article describes the three main components that ...

Journal Article

The Color of Soil: Exploring the chemistry of soil color

Soil color is a study of various chemical processes acting on soil. These processes include the weathering of geologic materials, the chemistry of oxidation-reduction actions upon various minerals of soil, and the biochemistry of the decomposition of...

Journal Article

Teaching Tomorrow’s College Science Courses: Are We Getting It Right? Preparing Students to Become Informed and Responsible Participants n the Decision-Making Process

The goal of educational reform in the United States is to shift from the dominant method of teaching facts to emphasizing higher-order cognitive skills (HOCS) learning. Outlining the benefits and feasibility of implementing HOCS-style learning, the a...

Journal Article

Assessment—A Way of Thinking About Learning—Now and in the Future: The Dynamic and Ongoing Nature of Measuring and Improving Student Learning

Assessment in our classrooms involves measuring: 1) individual student achievement to informally and formally judge student progress, and 2) total class learning to evaluate pedagogy and adjust teaching to maximize effectiveness. The author offers so...

Journal Article

Commentary: Those Were The Days

An opinion piece about reflecting back to when you were a child and sharing some science-related experiences in the classroom....

Journal Article

Mystery Boxes, X Rays, and Radiology

When teaching the electromagnetic spectrum, it is often difficult to move beyond the concepts of light and color and create memorable, hands-on learning experiences. How do you teach students that the twentieth century began with the discovery of the...

Journal Article

Multimedia Rocks: Using technology as a tool to improve achievement in science

As part of a unit on rocks and minerals, students engaged in hands-on, inquiry-based activities that helped them discover what geologists do, how to identify rocks and minerals, and how rocks change over time through the rock cycle. This article desc...