JoinAll Resources
Journal Article
Instructor Gender and Student Confidence in the Sciences: A Need for More Role Models?
This article examines the extent to which college-level instructor gender affects the confidence of males and females in their scientific abilities....
Journal Article
Battling Ecophobia: Instilling Activism in Nonscience Majors When Teaching Environmental Issues
This article describes an approach to teaching about environmental issues that helps instill a sense of agency in the young learner. Students identify five lifestyle behaviors that contribute to environmental degradation and come up with an alternati...
Journal Article
The Brooklyn Opportunities in Science and Careers (BOSC) program aims to increase student participation in physics, environmental studies, geology, and teaching science using a career-focused strategy to recruit students. Students work in collaborati...
Journal Article
McLean v. Arkansas (1982) and Beyond: Implications for Biology Professors
To assess current trends of evolution instruction in high schools of the mid-South, the authors had Arkansas high school biology teachers and students enrolled in a freshman-level nonmajors biology course at a midsize public Arkansas university respo...
Journal Article
A Comparison of Two Forms of Assessment in an Introductory Biology Laboratory Course
Because of enrollment increases, many institutions have advocated the replacement of free-response exams with forced-choice exams as a time-saving strategy. The study in this article evaluated the replacement of free-response practical-examination qu...
Journal Article
A Novel Instrument for Assessing Students' Critical Thinking Abilities
In this article the authors describe the Assessment of Critical Thinking Ability survey and its preliminary application to assess the critical thinking skills of undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows....
Book Chapter
Butter Battle: Physical Changes Versus Chemical Changes
When passing hot rolls around the dinner table, buying popcorn at a movie theater, or making cookies, it is there: butter. Creating butter in a bottle helps students see how a physical change can be more drastic than an ice cube melting. This experi...
Book Chapter
Cinnamon Rolls: Creating a Control Set to Analyze the Role of Yeast in Baked Goods
Have you ever taken part in a food fight? There are foods flying left and right, and all you can think about is how you don’t want to get mustard on your new shirt. But instead of worrying about stains, you really should be thinking about density...
Book Chapter
Growing a Pancake: How Environmental Factors Impact Fungi Growth in a Sourdough Starter
Many people spend time cultivating and tending gardens that grow items such as tomatoes, herbs, strawberries, and other produce. But how many people do you know who can grow pancakes? This experiment is all about growing pancakes, or at least an i...
Book Chapter
This experiment presents a different approach to using the biological agent of yeast in a liquid format. Rather than using the yeast in a baking procedure, the fermentation process is highlighted as part of the creation of a carbonated beverage. In...
Book Chapter
If your students are ready to take on more responsibility in the lab, then this is the experiment for you. This experiment guides students through the process of creating their own procedure to test a given independent variable. Students are instr...
Book Chapter
This experiment takes a molecular view of sugar formation, introducing the sucrose molecule and how it can be arranged in different formations to create materials with very different qualities. The lab introduces students to the concept that the c...
Book Chapter
This experiment uses the scientific method skills in a guided inquiry of sugar structure for different classes of candy. The lab is structured to help students use their problem-solving skills to create an experiment that relates sugar structure to...
Book Chapter
Exploding Corn: Differences Between Mass and Volume Changes With Popcorn
The average American eats about 52 quarts of popcorn per year. Think about that the next time you sit down for a movie with a big bowl of popcorn. The science behind corn popping is as simple as boiling water. The physical change in popcorn allows st...
Book Chapter
“Melting” Apples: Using a Temperature Graph to Show Phase Changes in Applesauce
Have you heard the old saying “An apple a day keeps the doctor away?” This experiment allows students to study a phase change in a way that is accessible and edible. The experiment models a physical change from solid to liquid through the re...
Book Chapter
Cold Milk: Measuring Energy Transfer in the Creation of Ice Cream
I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream! This experiment demonstrates endothermic reactions in a way that creates a learning experience that connects science with the popular dessert ice cream. Students are introduced to the concept of endo...
Book Chapter
Gummy Invertebrates: Changing Independent Variables in Gelatin Recipes
This hands-on experiment allows students to witness a clear phase change from solid to liquid, while learning key vocabulary about variables and implementing the scientific method. The lab focuses on giving students the opportunity to select the i...
Book Chapter
Acidic Milk: Measuring PH changes When Acid is Introduced in Cheese Making
Most people are not quick to associate the word cheese with the word acid. But the process of making cheese actually begins by raising the acidity of a liquid to cause proteins to curdle to make sour milk. That’s right; acid is used to make sour...
Book Chapter
Berries and Bacteria: Measuring How Acids and Heat Impact Bacteria in Jam
Have you ever had a ripe apple, a juicy strawberry, or a succulent peach? Did the juices flow into your mouth with each bite as you devoured it? On the other hand, have you ever had a piece of fruit that was less than perfect? This experiment uses ...
Book Chapter
American Mozzarella: Calculating Rates of Change for Rennet in Cheese Making
Legend has it that mozzarella was first made when cheese curds accidentally fell into a pail of hot water in a cheese factory near Naples, Italy...and presto—a new cheese was made, and pizza shops starting popping up all over. This experiment wil...
Book Chapter
You have recently found yourself assigned to team teach science. You may be a science teacher with no experience working with a class containing several students with special needs, or you may be a special education teacher who has never taught scien...
Book Chapter
Team teachers need to recognize the importance of establishing positive relationships with school professionals, principals, and parents. These relationships can be accomplished by focusing on establishing communication strategies and working to reso...
Book Chapter
This chapter sums up what the authors hope you have learned in previous chapters of Team Teaching Science: Success for All Learners....
Book Chapter
Teaching Science: A Historical Perspective
It is the authors’ contention that a team of two teachers, one a science teacher with solid content background and the other a special-education-trained teacher, can create a particularly effective synergy to deliver science instruction to what is ...
Book Chapter
Teaching Science: The Instruction
Teaching science has unique challenges and opportunities for the co-teaching team. Science can be taught with a hands-on approach that encourages students to explore concepts and ideas through interaction. Science lessons can also use simulations or ...
Book Chapter
In this chapter, the importance of communication on a variety of topics is discussed. Each co-teaching team is unique and will have differing preferences for how to establish their working relationship. A good co-teaching relationship is an exciting ...
Book Chapter
Team Teaching: Science in the Elementary Classroom
Many of the challenges of team teaching—such as communication, content knowledge, and joint instruction—are issues that all co-teachers must address; however, there are unique characteristics to the elementary classroom that must be navigated by ...
Book Chapter
Team Teaching: Science in the Middle School Classroom
Co-teachers in science at the middle school level must address co-teaching issues as well as the unique challenges of instructing middle school learners. Middle school is just that—in the middle, between elementary school and high school. Middle sc...
Book Chapter
A Team-Teaching Game Plan for One School Year
This chapter helps to outline what all co-teaching teams should be doing during each phase of a typical school year. Because the two individuals involved in co-teaching are operating in a situation in which there must be teamwork, the authors recomme...
Book Chapter
Teaching Science to Students With Special Needs in Advance Classes
Most advanced science classes are not team taught. Although there may be several students with special needs in honors, gifted and talented, International Baccalaureate (IB), or Advanced Placement (AP) science classes, classroom instruction is typica...
NSTA Press Book
Team Teaching Science: Success for All Learners
In Team Teaching Science, Ed Linz, Mary Jane Heater, and Lori A. Howard demonstrate the truth in the old adage “Two heads are better than one.” This guide for developing successful team-teaching partnerships that maximize student learning will h...
By Lori A. Howard, Ed Linz, Mary Jane Heater
Book Chapter
Science and Art: Dueling Disciplines or Dynamic Duo?
A mixer activity (supplemented by “scientific” art, music, and optional demonstrations) is used to catalyze a conversation on the similarities and differences between the sciences and the arts. ...
Book Chapter
5 E(z) Yet pHenomenal Steps to Demystifying Magic Color-Changing Markers
In this chapter you will explore, the chemical principles that explain the “science behind the magic” of color changing markers are explored in a series of teacher-guided but learner-designed hands-on explorations....
Book Chapter
5 E(z) Steps Back Into “Deep” Time: Visualizing the Geobiological Timescale
In this chapter, you will explore a sequence of fun, participatory activities juxtapose everyday popular culture and human time perspectives with the geobiological timescale of Earth’s history of millions and billions of years. The overall timesca...
Book Chapter
5 E(z) Steps to Earth-Moon Scaling: Measurements and Magnitudes Matter
Learners are surprised to learn that most textbook illustrations incorrectly represent the relative sizes and/or distance between Earth and its single moon. Although these and other visual representations of our solar system “lie” or grossly misr...
Book Chapter
Acronyms and Acrostics Articulate Attributes of Science (and Science Teaching)
Learners’ ideas about the nature of science, school science, and science teaching are elicited by their creation of acronyms or acrostics that define key characteristics of science and teaching. An Extension activity provides discussion questions f...
Book Chapter
Tackling the Terrible Tyranny of Terminology: Divide and Conquer
Big, hard words in science are invariably made up of small, easy Greek- and Latin-based prefixes, suffixes, and root words that students can systematically learn, continually use, and creatively recombine. An unusually long science word; a simple (...
Book Chapter
Inquiring Into Reading as Meaning-Making: Do Spelling and Punctuation Really Matter?
Learners are asked to read a passage full of misspelled words. Many readers are able to discern the meaning despite the numerous intentionally embedded errors. In a second exercise, learners experience how the meaning of a passage can be dramatically...