All Resources

Journal Article

Designing Payloads

Imagine soaring in the Earth’s atmosphere to near the edge of space. Is there air to breathe? Is it dark? Are there clouds? What about air pressure? Fifth-grade students from Ferguson Elementary in Klamath Falls, Oregon, were wondering these questi...

Journal Article

Cartooning Your Way to Student Motivation

Unmotivated, underachieving students pose a huge challenge for teachers. One way to motivate and stimulate student interest in a topic is to use humor. Humor can help students make new connections in learning and improves retention of information (Ga...

Journal Article

Editorial: Bewilderment Disorder

Once upon a time in a land far from here, there lived a farmer’s son. Stu was a hard-working and pleasant lad, always willing to put his shoulder against any project. He was cheerful, friendly, strong, and obedient, happy to do as he was asked by h...

Journal Article

Favorite Demonstration: Scaffolding the Unbelievable—Understanding Light and Vision

In this article, the author describes how to challenge students with three intriguing questions and scaffolding techniques to help them develop a deeper understanding of light and vision. Through these surprising empirical experiences, students gain ...

Journal Article

Wonderful Wikis and Internet Forums

Wikis are collaborative websites where visitors can edit anything they want, anytime they want. Essentially online “whiteboards,” wikis allow groups of people to create documents and projects together. Internet forums, also known as message board...

Journal Article

Talking Science

Science is a social process—one that involves particular ways of talking, reasoning, observing, analyzing, and writing, which often have meaning only when shared within the scientific community. Discussions are one of the best ways to help students...

Journal Article

Teaching the Human Dimension of Science

Teachers have the important responsibility of providing students with accurate and engaging science content while also helping them establish authentic views of scientists. Though there are numerous curriculum materials to assist in the teaching of s...

Journal Article

Current Research

To supplement your summer reading, NSTA’s affiliates would like to suggest some recent articles on education research, covering such topics as diversity, technology, and science teacher retention. Start with The Science Teacher for interesting ide...

Journal Article

Tried and True: It’s as simple as shuffling cards

Holding students accountable for their work is always on the minds of teachers. Therefore, while attending a science-teaching symposium held by the California Science Project of Inland California, the author learned about the benefits of using playin...

Journal Article

Taking Ownership of Learning in a Large Class: Group Projects and a Mini-Conference

Helping students take ownership of their learning is often a challenge in a large lecture course. In this article, the authors describe a nature of science-oriented group project in a chemistry course in which students gave presentations in concurren...

Journal Article

Current Research: Summer Reading Suggestions

To supplement your summer reading, NSTA’s affiliates would like to suggest some recent articles on education research. These articles cover a variety of topics that include diversity, technology, and science teacher retention. The abstracts of thes...

Journal Article

Breezy Power: From Wind to Energy

This lesson combines the science concepts of renewable energy and producing electricity with the technology concepts of design, constraints, and technology’s impact on the environment. Over five class periods, sixth-grade students "work" for a fict...

Journal Article

Linking Science and Writing With <em>Two Bad Ants</em>

Two Bad Ants, a fictional story detailing the journey of “two bad ants” that stray from their colony and choose to stay in a container full of large, white, sweet-tasking crystals (sugar)—was the catalyst for an engaging five-day study with thi...

Journal Article

Editor’s Note: Connecting With Technology

We are in a new age. It is an age in which children view technology as an extension of their senses. Children are growing up surrounded by technology and develop an intuition that often amazes those of us who grew up with slide rules. In this issue, ...

Journal Article

Science Sampler: An introduction to water pressure

The difficulty in teaching about water pressure is how to represent differences in water pressure, changes that are not visible to the human eye. One way is to manipulate containers of water and to observe the flow of water in different settings at v...

Journal Article

Under Summer Skies

There’s no better way to celebrate 2009, the International Year of Astronomy, than by curling up with a good book under summer skies. To every civilization, in every age, the skies inspired imagination and scientific inquiry. There’s no better pl...

Journal Article

Scope on Safety: Combating corrosion

Corrosion is a broad term that applies when something is being broken down due to a chemical reaction. Rust or wet corrosion is a specific type of corrosion where iron or steel reacts with water. Science teachers often find that over time, laboratory...

Journal Article

Case Study: Cats Have Nine Lives, But Only One Liver—The Effects of Acetaminophen

This case recounts the story of a student who gave her cat half of a Tylenol tablet not knowing its potential harmful effects. The cat survives, but the incident motivates the student to learn more about the reaction mechanism underlying the liver to...

Journal Article

Teaching Through Trade Books: Flower Power

Summer is here and flowers are in bloom! Each flowering plant produces a unique bloom that provides opportunities for students to make observations about plants. By comparing and contrasting flowers, students can connect their learning to the larger ...

Journal Article

Classroom Management and Inquiry-Based Learning: Finding the Balance

Inquiry practices often involve more student-centered activities where students interact more intensively with materials and with other students during investigations. In addition to monitoring the learning taking place, teachers in an inquiry classr...

Journal Article

Science Sampler: Classroom management, rules, consequences, and rewards! Oh, my!

Teachers must start with an organized classroom. Think through how you want your classroom arranged, how students will turn in work, and where supplies are located. Students should also be instructed how the classroom is set up and who should be retr...