JoinAll Resources
Journal Article
University Students' Acceptance of Biological Theories—Is Evolution Really Different?
This study looked at student acceptance of important biological theories and explored the relationships between their acceptance of scientific theories and their understanding of the nature of science....
Journal Article
Scope on the Skies: We're back!
This column focuses on astronomy throughout the year. This month’s issue discusses the latest mission to Mars....
Journal Article
This study assessed the impact of science teaching laboratories designed with visual connections to spaces outside the laboratory, either to interior spaces or to the outdoors. Specifically the authors assessed student perceptions of interdisciplinar...
Journal Article
Case Study: What Killed Leah Miller: Abuse or Natural Causes?
This column provides original articles on innovations in case study teaching, assessment of the method, as well as case studies with teaching notes. In this month’s issue the authors explore brain and eye anatomy and blood clotting using a case stu...
Journal Article
T'was the Start of Science Notebooking
The authors discuss science notebooks and provide a list of approaches they have successfully implemented to introduce and reinforce science concepts. The article also includes a poem about science notebooking....
Journal Article
Using Inquiry to Break the Language Barrier
One way for ELL students to engage in inquiry is through a school science fair project or other independent research endeavor. Teachers can make simple modifications to the traditional science fair to help ELLs achieve the dual goals of mastering sci...
Journal Article
Science 101: Why Do You Lose AM Radio Reception When You Go Under an Overpass?
This column provides background science information for elementary teachers. This month’s issue talks about electromagnetic waves....
Journal Article
This article describes teaching and learning strategies that promote creative problem finding. The authors examined problem finding factors that lead to high-quality science fair projects....
Journal Article
The Early Years: Reading Stories, Making Predictions
This column discusses resources and science topics related to students in grades preK to 2. This month’s issue discusses using books to help students learn to make predictions....
Journal Article
Safer Science: Rise of the Allergens
This column provides best safety practices for the science classroom and laboratory. This month’s issue discusses allergens in the laboratory....
Journal Article
Formative Assessment Probes: Teachers as Classroom Researchers
This column focuses on promoting learning through assessment. This month’s issue discusses having teachers conduct their own study regarding students' thoughts on whether something is an animal....
Journal Article
Science Education and ESL Students
The authors examine the challenges ESL students experience in learning science and provide a lesson plan and assessment to overcome the obstacles ESL students face in the science classroom. The authors then summarize teaching strategies effective for...
Journal Article
Great Science for Autistic Students
This article discusses ways to successfully include students with Asperger's syndrome into the science classroom. Well-organized classrooms with predictable schedules and procedures provide the optimum learning environment for these students....
NSTA Press Book
Learning and Teaching Scientific Inquiry: Research and Applications
Science teacher educators, curriculum specialists, professional development facilitators, and K–8 teachers are bound to increase their understanding and confidence when teaching inquiry after a careful reading of this definitive volume. Advancing a...
By James Jadrich, Crystal Bruxvoort
eBook
Project Earth Science: Physical Oceanography, Revised 2nd Edition (e-book)
How well can your students— • Explain why ice floats? • Model ocean currents? • Predict tides? • Describe the proper clean-up of an oil spill? ...
Book Chapter
Learning to write well is a long process that comes through teacher modeling, instruction, practice, and feedback. Luckily, the writing process can be used to improve science learning, too. Here are a few good writing suggestions that integrate scien...
Book Chapter
Peanut Butter and Jelly Science
Are you feeling frustrated with the quality of your students' writing or lack there of? If so, head straight for the peanut butter and jelly. Students will respond to this fun filled activity as they learn the importance of writing clear procedures i...
Book Chapter
Effective writing is a keystone in the process of developing scientific knowledge. Scientists must be able to successfully communicate their findings so colleagues can confirm the authenticity of their claims through the replication of experiments. S...
Book Chapter
As science teachers, we must provide feedback on both the science content and quality of writing demonstrated in their assignments. Unfortunately, our schedules do not always allow us to hold individual writing conferences or ask for extensive rewrit...
Book Chapter
Despite the challenges posed by increased time, specialized vocabularies, and balance, integrating writing and drawing with science investigations are beneficial for teachers and students. This chapter explains why this integrated approach is benefic...
Book Chapter
From Speaking to Writing in the Structured English Immersion Science Classroom
In most cases, structured English immersion (SEI) has replaced bilingual and English as a second language (ESL) programs as the preferred method of educating English language learners (ELLs). As a result, science teachers need specific strategies to ...
Book Chapter
What Writing Represents What Scientists Actually Do?
This chapter addresses whether or not a report based on scientific method accurately represents what scientists do as well as what kind of writing scientists engage in that goes beyond the reporting of conclusions....
Book Chapter
The inquiry science process provides a perfect opportunity for students to practice relational meaning in language. As students design their experiments, negotiate their ideas with peers, and share their data and conclusions, they sharpen both their ...
Book Chapter
Getting Students to be Successful, Independent Investigators
Students often struggle when writing testable problems, planning valid and reliable procedures, and drawing meaningful evidence-based conclusions. To address this issue, the author created a student-centered lab handout to facilitate the inquiry proc...
Book Chapter
The ability to clearly communicate what was learned as the result of an experiment is a key component of science in general, not just science in the middle school classroom. The trick in the middle school classroom is teaching students how to write w...
Book Chapter
Science the "Write" Way: Nonfiction Writing Activities Help Students Learn Science
Learning to write well is a long process that comes through teacher modeling, instruction, practice, and feedback. Luckily, the writing process can be used to improve science learning too. This chapter describes how nonfiction writing activities help...
Book Chapter
For middle school students, writing a formal lab report can be challenging. For middle level teachers, reading students’ lab reports can be overwhelming. As a solution, why not try peer editing? By having students critique each other in a construct...
Book Chapter
Would you like your students to learn about nature and improve their observational abilities? Incorporating haiku into your curriculum can help meet these science goals and give children a positive writing experience as they learn about the world aro...
Book Chapter
A current events journal keeps students involved with the latest scientific news and helps develop their writing and analytical skills. Every week, students select a science article, summarize the article in their journals, and define new vocabulary....
Book Chapter
Extra! Extra! Learn All About It
Communication and reporting of findings to peers are important to middle school students. One way to capitalize on students’ interests and incorporate the nature of science into the science curriculum is to have students create a science-based news...
Book Chapter
Having students write and publish their own newsletters is a great way to integrate reading and writing, infuse technology, and build home-school relationships. These newsletters can be used to keep parents informed of what is being taught in class, ...
Book Chapter
The typical use of science notebooks is for students to record information as they complete an investigation, writing down their procedure, observations, data, results, graphs, and any other factual information pertaining to their experiment. The aut...
Book Chapter
A Natural Integration: Student-Created Field Guides Seamlessly Combine Science and Writing
A five-week study taught students how to write a field guide that identified the plants in a small wooded area they passed through on their way to their school playground. By creating this authentic genre of science writing, students came to understa...
Book Chapter
Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods (2008) added to a growing consensus to get children outside and experiencing nature. Using ideas from place-based education, the authors present a simple year-long project that brings science, nature, and ot...
Book Chapter
Are you looking for ways to effectively integrate—and assess—science and literacy learning? Try having your students create their own books! The Integrated Science Literacy Enactments (ISLE) approach to teaching and learning science is one way to...
Book Chapter
Developing writing skills along with content by incorporating hands-on science experiences and related writing lessons provides students with a purpose for writing, which makes it more meaningful to students. The Mystery Box lesson discussed in this ...
Book Chapter
Unlocking Reading Comprehension with Key Science Inquiry Skills
As secondary science teachers, we must remember that scientific literacy cannot be attained without fundamental literacy--the ability to read and comprehend textual information and write competently about the subject under study. To achieve literacy ...
Book Chapter
What do we learn from the world around us? After months of exploring various ecosystems, a third grade teacher incorporates "Nature's Advice Book", a writing tool created to assess what her students had learned and to gain insight into their ideas ab...