All Resources
Book Chapter
The guiding question of this investigation is, What type of environmental conditions do mealworms seek out? In this lesson, the goal is to figure out the types, as well as how mealworms respond to the different types of environmental conditions the...
Book Chapter
The guiding question of this investigation is, Why can we see the roots of trees that grow near rivers or streams? Roots of trees are usually underground. In this lesson, the goal is to figure out why trees that grow near rivers or streams often hav...
Book Chapter
The guiding question of this investigation is, Why do large waves often block the entrance to some harbors in New Zealand? In this lesson, the goal is to figure out how nautical charts can be used to locate different land and water features on Eart...
Book Chapter
This lesson provides a basic introduction to nuclear chemistry and exponential functions. Students learn about the discovery and history of radioactive elements and the scientific and societal implications of these discoveries. They model natural rad...
Book Chapter
In this lesson, students explore the process of nuclear fission from historical, scientific, and environmental perspectives. They focus on how nuclear fission is used in pressurized water reactors (PWRs), the type of nuclear reactors most commonly us...
Book Chapter
Nuclear Fusion: Harnessing the Power of the Stars
In this lesson, students consider nuclear fusion and its potential to meet human energy needs in the future, as well as the substantial technology and engineering challenges associated with creating fusion reactions. They compare and contrast the pro...
Book Chapter
In this lesson, students continue their consideration of nuclear fission and its practical application in power plants by examining the events leading to the 1979 Three Mile Island (TMI) nuclear accident and the response. They analyze a multidiscipli...
Book Chapter
The Gammatown Crisis Challenge
In this lesson, students synthesize their learning from the previous lessons to address the module’s culminating challenge—the Gammatown Crisis Challenge. Student teams are each challenged to assume the role of one of several stakeholder groups t...
Book Chapter
This lesson introduces students to the module challenge—the Rainwater Roundup Challenge. Through a slideshow and water activity, students learn about water as a scarce natural resource. As a foundation for understanding the relationship between sta...
Book Chapter
In this lesson, students continue to explore rainwater by examining the interconnectedness of Earth’s spheres. Students investigate water handling features at home and in school while conducting surveys. They learn about the need to improvise to bu...
Book Chapter
In this lesson, students continue to address the Rainwater Roundup Challenge as they determine the best shape and dimensions for a storage container for rainwater collection. Students compare their rain gauge data with rainfall data from previous yea...
Book Chapter
The Rainwater Roundup Challenge
This lesson begins with a student email to the teacher for the class bringing to their attention a big problem with the rainwater-recycling project—gravity! Students are challenged to help create solutions for this problem. To move forward with the...
NSTA Press Book
Radioactivity, Grade 11: STEM Road Map for High School
What if you could challenge your 11th graders to figure out the best response to a partial meltdown at a nuclear reactor in fictional Gammatown, USA? With this volume in the STEM Road Map Curriculum Series, you can! Radioactivity outlines a journe...
Journal Article
People with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) become more widely recognized as part of our population every year. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, about 1 in 59 c...
By Katie Slivensky, Ellen Cohn, Alexander Lussenhop, and Christina Moscat