JoinAll Resources
Journal Article
Point of View: The Nuclear Road Ahead—A Science, Technology, and Society Issue
Many undergraduates can often be motivated by the opportunity to explore issues requiring them to develop at least a modest understanding of the underlying science. For many students, “just in time” science makes good sense. There are many issues...
Journal Article
Science Sampler: How do we know what we know? A look at schemas
A schema is like a file folder in the mind, a knowledge structure that holds all of a learner’s experiences with a given topic. Schemas are thought to be organized, hierarchical representations of information that can help an individual to adapt to...
Journal Article
Tried and True: Looking for Questions
During the first day of school, eighth-grade students often receive hour after hour of specific rules and classroom procedures. However, the author takes a different approach in science class. Here she describes an activity that is designed to engage...
Journal Article
An open field—with its wildflowers, grasses, and vole tunnels—became an instant classroom. Students’ senses were awakened there, and upon entering a nearby forest, they immediately detected a difference: less light and cooler air. “Why are th...
Journal Article
The Early Years: Planting Before Winter
Planting flower bulbs is a wonderful activity for many reasons: learning about the life cycle of a plant bulb teaches children about seasonal changes and the environmental needs of plants, and children can observe and measure plant growth over time a...
Journal Article
Even though students see plants all around them, they tend to ignore them. Animal studies usually get all the “press.” As a naturalist, children’s book author, and coordinator for an educational science website for teachers, the author knows fr...
Journal Article
What Happens to Cemetery Headstones?
A group of high school students and chaperones boarded a bus for historic Oakland Cemetery located in downtown Atlanta. Students explored the site and made observations of the gravestones, many of which were old and run-down....
Journal Article
Science Shorts: Gourd-ous Decomposition
While pumpkins are an iconic symbol in the classroom that represent fall, harvest time, and Halloween, they are also an ideal subject for teaching elementary students the fundamentals of scientific inquiry and plant decomposition. In a second-grade c...
Journal Article
Scope on Safety: Rethinking the Use of Hand Sanitizers
Recent concerns about Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and swine flu have prompted many parents to demand that hand sanitizers be made available in schools to protect their kids. In response, schools began installing alcohol-based h...
Journal Article
Career of the Month: An Interview with Industrial Hygienist Mark Nicas
As Mark Nicas was inspecting an aluminum recycling plant, he observed loads of oily scrap aluminum being dumped into furnaces to melt. Sparks shot out and clouds of black smoke billowed into the room as the scrap collided with molten metal. Chlorine ...
Journal Article
Teaching through Trade Books: A Habitat Is a Home
We all have our own habitats, and this month students spend time thinking about what other organisms need to survive, what types of habitats they live in, and how to set up a habitat for a classroom animal....
Journal Article
A 3–D virtual field trip was integrated into an online college entomology course and developed as a trial for the possible incorporation of future virtual environments to supplement online higher education laboratories. This article provides an exp...
eBook
Science Teacher Retention: Mentoring and Renewal (e-book)
“Some forty percent of all new science teachers leave the profession within five years, and too many science teachers are wedded to their textbooks and the routines they acquired during their collegiate years." What can be done to retain new scienc...
eBook
Teaching Science in the Two-Year College: An NSTA Press Journals Collection (e-book)
Two-year colleges are critical to science education’s future—in fact, some data indicate that half of future science teachers will take their first years of science at a two-year school. To address the unique challenges of this special setting, T...
eBook
This must-have tool for applying the Standards in real classrooms has been fully revised for 21st century high schools. Of course, the best parts haven’t changed! Our top-selling practical guide still demonstrates how you can bring to life the visi...
eBook
The NSTA Ready-Reference Guide to Safer Science, Volume 1 (e-book)
As a science educator, you know the importance of using best safety practices to protect your students physically during hands-on science instruction. But do you also know how to protect yourself legally even in aging facilities and crowded labs? Lea...
eBook
Mixing It Up: Integrated, Interdisciplinary, Intriguing Science in the Elementary Classroom (e-book)
This book—a compilation of 25 practical articles from NSTA’s elementary school journal, Science & Children—offers a wealth of lesson plans and idea starters using interdisciplinary, integrated, and thematic approaches. Discover how a language a...
eBook
Your job: taking lofty educational goals and achieving them in the real world. Your best source of help: The Pathways books--one for elementary, middle, and high school--are brimming with practical guidance for putting the Standards into action. Pack...
eBook
Throughout the pages of NSTA Pathways to the Science Standards: Guidelines for Moving the Vision into Practice, we demonstrate how you can bring the "vision" of the National Science Education Standards into the middle school curriculum. It enco...
eBook
Science Educator's Guide to Laboratory Assessment (e-book)
Focus on frequent, accurate feedback with this newly expanded guide to understanding assessment. Field-tested and classroom ready, it's designed to help you reinforce productive learning habits while gauging your lessons' effectiveness. The book open...
eBook
Dig In! Hands-On Soil Investigations (e-book)
Give students the dirt on soil with a practical book that brings new meaning to the term "hands-on." Using these 12 activities and two original stories as guides, kids will soon be up to their elbows in the study of soil formation, habitats and land ...
eBook
Science Fairs Plus: Reinventing an Old Favorite, Grades K-8 (e-book)
At last: a sure cure for science fair fatigue. This new book -- a collection of 20 articles from NSTA's member journals for elementary, middle, and high school teachers -- is bound to re-energize the way you plan and produce these mainstay events. ...
eBook
Start Young! Early Childhood Science Activities (e-book)
You asked for it—now you’ve got it! In a focus group at a recent NSTA convention, teachers of prekindergarten through second grade clamored for help. They do want easy-to-do science activities they can use for everyday teaching. But they don’t ...
eBook
Stepping Up to Science and Math: Exploring the Natural Connections (e-book)
Stepping Up to Science and Math invites you to step back and rethink the way you teach both of these essential subjects. Then it illustrates how you can step up the pace with Standards-based activities that make learning more effective and efficient....
eBook
Garden Genetics: Teaching With Edible Plants (Teacher Edition) (e-book)
Tired of teaching genetic concepts with the same old pink petunias and Mendel’s peas? With Garden Genetics, you can present core content in ways that are fun for students and fresh for you. ...
eBook
The Life Cycle of Everyday Stuff (e-book)
Your students need to understand that stuff doesn’t just happen—it has a life cycle. Using common products like the telephone, this lively book helps students learn about the flow of energy and matter through Earth’s system. Seven illustrated s...