All Resources

Journal Article

A Penny for Your Thoughts

Help students learn how to develop the essential skill of creating their own testable hypotheses....

Journal Article

Gearing Up for Engineering

Explore gears and forces through a hands-on investigation using simple machines....

Journal Article

Including Often-Missed Knowledge and Skills in Science Assessments

Use common specifications and scoring plans to develop successful assessments....

Journal Article

Popular Science Nonfiction and the Connection Between Literacy and the NGSS

Expose students to inspirational works they can critique and share....

Journal Article

Moving Ahead With Alternate Conceptions

Develop an alternate-conceptions survey instrument and inventory....

Journal Article

Editor's Roundtable: Align Your Assessments With Three-Dimensional Learning

The Science Teacher’s editor shares thoughts on the current issue....

Journal Article

Everyday Engineering: Why the Statue of Liberty is Green: Coatings, Corrosion, and Patina

This column provides an inside look at the marvels of engineering in everyday life. This month's issue describes a 5E-learning-cycle lesson where students test different types of coatings on pennies to observe how the coatings affect the amount of co...

Journal Article

Tried and True: What's the Matter? Looking Beyond the Macroscopic

This column provides classic demonstrations and experiments with a new twist. This month’s issue describes a lesson in which students have concrete learning experiences to help them construct their own meaning to gain a richer understanding of the ...

Journal Article

Scope on Safety: Safety in Numbers

This column shares safety information for your classroom. This month’s issue discusses how crowded conditions affect instructional effectiveness, lab safety, and teacher liability....

Middle School General Science Labs Makerspace Safety

Journal Article

Scope on the Skies: Mars Meets MAVEN and MOM

This column focuses on astronomy throughout the year. This month’s issue discusses two spacecraft that will enter orbits around Mars to observe the planet's atmosphere and environment....

Journal Article

Using Mobile Devices in Field Science

A herpetology research experience to build students' 21st-century skills....

Journal Article

Lights and Larvae

Using optogenetics to teach recombinant DNA and neurobiology....

Journal Article

Going Viral

Using laptops, flash drives, and YouTube videos to model the structure and function of viruses....

Journal Article

Cellulose Breakdown

Investigations into making liquid fuel from plant biomass....

Journal Article

Supporting Newly Hired Science Teachers

Using research to inform practice....

Journal Article

Editor's Corner: Science Teaching and Learning in the 21st Century

The Science Teacher’s editor shares thoughts on the current issue....

Journal Article

Science 2.0: Expanding Google in the Classroom

This column shares web tools that support learning. This month’s issue describes potentially transformative tools offered by Google....

Journal Article

The Green Room: Too Much of a Good Thing

This column focuses on making your teaching more environmentally friendly. This month’s issue offers several eutrophication lesson plans....

Journal Article

The New Teacher's Toolbox: Engaging Them Early

This column shares tips for teachers just beginning their career. This month’s issue offers some first-week ideas for building engagment early and setting students up for an exciting year of science....

Journal Article

Health Wise: Preventing Teen Suicide

This Q&A style column provides up-to-date information on current health topics—helping students (and teachers) make healthy choices. This month’s issue discusses suicide and offers an activity for the classroom....

Journal Article

Safer Science: Chemical Storeroom Cleanout

This column provides best safety practices for the science classroom and laboratory. This month’s issue offers guidelines for cleaning the chemical storeroom....

Journal Article

Career of the Month: Roboticist

This column shares interviews with professionals using science in the workplace. This month’s issue describes Matthias Scheutz's career path to becoming a roboticist....

Journal Article

Right to the Source: Marconi Sends His Regrets

This article describes original correspondence between Alexander Graham Bell and Guglielmo Marconi....

Journal Article

How Does Undergraduate Research Experience Impact Career Trajectories and Level of Career Satisfaction: A Comparative Survey

This article reports a comparison of results from a survey of participants in the University of Arizona Undergraduate Biology Research Program with those of a comparable group drawn from the college of medicine who did not participate in the biology ...

Journal Article

A Case Study for Teaching Quantitative Biochemical Buffer Problems Using Group Work and "Khan Style" Videos

The authors created short "Khan style" videos for the topic of buffers in biochemistry and assigned them as homework, followed by group problem-solving sessions in class. They tested the hypothesis that "inverting the classroom" could replace traditi...

Journal Article

Improving Postsecondary STEM Education: Strategies for Successful Interdisciplinary Collaborations and Brokering Engagement With Education Research and Theory

This article describes factors that influence the success of collaborations involving science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and education faculty at research-focused universities who work toward postsecondary STEM education improve...

Journal Article

A Comparative Study of Instructor- and Student-Led Learning in a Large Nonmajors Biology Course: Student Performance and Perceptions

This article discusses incorporating active learning techniques and how it relates to independent learning and instructor-directed classroom activities....

Journal Article

Can Graduate Teaching Assistants Teach Inquiry-Based Geology Labs Effectively?

This study examines the implementation of teaching strategies by graduate teaching assistants in inquiry-based introductory geology labs at a large research university....

Journal Article

Research and Teaching: Emotion, Engagement, and Case Studies

The authors wanted to further their understanding of the role that emotion and engagement play in student learning, so they undertook a study comparing student responses to eight different clicker cases....

Journal Article

Research and Teaching: Training the Foot Soldiers of Inquiry: Development and Evaluation of a Graduate Teaching Assistant Learning Community

This article outlines the development of interdisciplinary graduate teaching assistant learning communities and findings from the various forms of evaluation....

Journal Article

Two-Year Community: Considerations and Recommendations for Implementing a Dual-Enrollment Program: Bridging the Gap Between High School and College Level Science

This article describes the successful coordination and implementation of a DE geology program (consisting of two lecture and two lab courses). The lessons learned and challenges faced can provide insights to both high school and college instructors i...

Journal Article

Case Study: A Chat With the Survey Monkey: Case Studies and the Flipped Classroom

This column provides original articles on innovations in case study teaching, assessment of the method, as well as case studies with teaching notes. This month’s issue discusses a survey about faculty and their use of case studies and videos in the...

Book Chapter

STEM Education in the Middle School Classroom

In this chapter, find out how STEM lessons were first incorporated into a sixth-grade classroom in the Lebanon Special School District, a small community in Middle Tennessee. These students never gave much thought to careers in the STEM field. When c...

Book Chapter

Electricity

Have you ever rubbed a balloon on your clothes or your hair? What happened? Perhaps you noticed that the balloon somehow made your hair stand up. Maybe you could then stick the balloon to a wall or a ceiling. This phenomenon is called static electri...

Book Chapter

Matter and Energy in Organisms and Ecosystems

The big idea for an area of study that challenges students year after year but yet is essential to life processes is the relationship between matter and energy—how we get and use energy for life. If we put a phrase to this, it is all about cellular...

Book Chapter

Next Time You See a Maple Seed sample

The Next Time You See books are not meant to present facts to be memorized. They are written to inspire a sense of wonder about nature and foster a desire to learn more about the natural world. In this free sample chapter from the Next Time You See a...

Book Chapter

Speed

Phenomenon-based learning (PBL) is built on observations of real-world phenomena. PBL is not so much a teaching method as it is a route to grasping the big picture and is an approach that is fun and interesting for both teachers and students. In this...

Book Chapter

Friction and Air Resistance

Friction is very common and experienced every day. It is a force that pushes on things and that you notice when two objects’ surfaces are in contact with each other. Air resistance is a force that occurs because moving objects hit the air in front ...

Book Chapter

Gravity

There is always a force between the Earth and other masses. This force is called gravity or gravitation. Gravity affects all objects on Earth. It doesn’t matter if they are on the ground or in the air. In this chapter, the experiments focus on how ...