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Journal Article
A Virtual, Shoestring Vacation
If there is a discrepancy between the scope of your imagination and the depth of your bank account, this may be the ideal summer to stretch your horizons by diving into a good book. You can take a virtual vacation to almost any place or time by readi...
Journal Article
Managing Inquiry-Based Classrooms
Though it may seem that classroom management comes naturally to some teachers, upon closer examination you’ll probably discover that preparation and adaptation are more important than any innate ability when it comes to successful classroom managem...
Journal Article
Idea Bank: Start a Classroom Library!
In today’s classrooms—science and otherwise—all teachers are charged with helping students develop literacy skills. One effective method for supporting literacy is to create your own science classroom library. These collections can encourage st...
Journal Article
When describing activities in today’s K–12 science classrooms, the word inquiry often causes some confusion. As a result, many of us find ourselves asking the same questions: How do we know when inquiry is authentic? What should happen in an inqu...
Journal Article
YouTube in the Science Classroom
YouTube makes it possible for teachers to capitalize on children’s insatiable appetite for visually stimulating learning. Some of these videos attain “viral” status, getting passed on from person to person and by links on other sites. Not only ...
Journal Article
Point of View: A Curious Thing Happened On The Way To Constructivism…
In this article, the author makes a case for including interpersonal-skill development into the instructional preparation for future professors and other educators. ...
Journal Article
Science Sampler: How to enjoy your students while your students enjoy science
Every teacher’s goal should be to create a classroom atmosphere where students know one another, feel safe both physically and emotionally, and enjoy interacting. By creating a good rapport with your students as well as a positive environment in wh...
Journal Article
Methods and Strategies: Avoiding the Big Scare
Teaching environmental issues to K–12 students is an important part of a well-rounded science education. Teaching such issues isn’t easy because some of these issues are inherently frightening. Humans certainly cause changes in their environment,...
Journal Article
The research reported here documents scientists’ changing practices and attitudes concerning college teaching. Graduate students and postdoctoral scientists participated in long-term, inquiry-based teaching professional development while maintainin...
Journal Article
Science Sampler: Teaching—A reflective process
In this article, the authors describe how they used formative assessments to ferret out possible misconceptions among middle-school students in a unit about weather-related concepts. Because they teach fifth- and eighth-grade science, this assessment...
Journal Article
Career of the Month: An Interview With Biomedical Engineer William Ditto
Biomedical engineers combine biology, physics, medicine, math, communication, and engineering to solve medical and health-related problems. Through their development of everything from pacemakers to artificial organs to computer software, these scien...
Journal Article
Introducing Scientific Writing to Students Early in Their Academic Careers
In a key activity of a scientific-writing program that has been incorporated into a 100-level chemistry course, students analyze a journal-style write-up of an experiment that requires little scientific background to understand—the baking of chocol...
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
Classroom Management: Setting Up the Classroom for Learning
Student learning is directly related to classroom control established the first week of school (Wong and Wong 2001)—what you do the first day counts, and what you do the first 10 minutes counts even more. This article shares the advanced planning a...
Journal Article
Guest Editorial: Would you like to be a student in your classroom?
Why do some teachers experience successful teaching in the middle level year after year, while others consider an eighth-grade teaching assignment equivalent to a sentence of hard labor? Why is it that some teachers and their students look forward to...
Journal Article
The start of a new school year is a challenging and exciting time for any teacher—and a time when beginning teachers particularly need our support. Working with new science teachers in the New Science Teachers’ Support Network (NSTSN) has shown t...
eBook
Science for English Language Learners: K-12 Classroom Strategies (e-book)
If you work with linguistically and culturally diverse students, you and your students will benefit from the foundation this book provides for teaching both science and language. Science for English Language Learners brings you the best practices fro...
eBook
Animal Coloration: Activities on the Evolution of Concealment (e-book)
A classic resource for teachers is now back in an updated edition! Using an inductive and experimental approach, Animal Coloration aims to increase students’ awareness of the ways wild organisms are adapted to their environments. Even though the ac...
eBook
Technology in the Secondary Science Classroom (e-book)
If you’re waiting to be convinced that computers offer more than pricey bells and whistles in the classroom, this is the book that will open your mind to technology’s potential. But even if you’re an early (and avid) adopter, you’ll discover ...
eBook
Girls in Science: A Framework for Action (e-book)
Behind the stereotype of girls’ not doing well in science are some reasons, mostly based on one fact: They are often—and most often inadvertently—treated differently in the classroom. The authors of Girls in Science engaged in years of working ...
eBook
Start With A Story: The Case Study Method of Teaching College Science (e-book)
Introduce your students to the magic of stories—delivered through educational case studies that will help you put science into vivid context. Start With A Story offers an abundance of strategies, tips, examples, ideas, and resources to free your st...
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eBook
Activities Linking Science With Math, K-4 (e-book)
Science does not exist in a vacuum and, therefore, shouldn’t be taught that way. In that spirit, Activities Linking Science With Math, K-4, is a hands-on guide for preservice and inservice elementary school teachers who want to connect science inst...
eBook
More Everyday Science Mysteries: Stories for Inquiry-Based Science Teaching (e-book)
Where do rotten apples go after they fall off the tree? Does the temperature of the wood affect the heat of the fire? Can you make water boil faster? How large a mirror do you need to see your whole body? This second volume of 15 mystery stories exam...
eBook
Uncovering Student Ideas in Science, Volume 3: Another 25 Formative Assessment Probes (e-book)
Because you demanded it! Since publication of Volume 1 of this series, thousands of teachers are using these innovative classroom tools to improve student learning in science. Following in the footsteps of earlier volumes in the Uncovering Student Id...
eBook
Uncovering Student Ideas in Science, Volume 2: 25 More Formative Assessment Probes (e-Book)
If Hollywood filmed this sequel, the studio would call it “Probes II: More Battles Against Misunderstandings.” Like the blockbuster before it, Volume 2 will reveal the surprising misconceptions students bring to the classroom—so you can adjust ...
eBook
Climate Change From Pole to Pole: Biology Investigations (e-Book)
Climate Change From Pole to Pole: Biology Investigations offers timely, relevant, biology-based case studies and background information on how to teach the science of climate change. The six painstakingly researched and field-tested activities, which...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about thermal expansion. It is designed to find out whether students attribute expansion of the space between molecules to the rise of the liquid in a thermometer. Elementary school ...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about the mass of a gas. It is designed to reveal whether students recognize that an uninflated balloon will increase in mass when inflated with a gas, even though the balloon intuit...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about conservation of matter. It is designed to reveal whether students recognize that the mass of a warm gas in a closed system is the same after it has been cooled, even though the...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about reflection of light. It can be used to examine how students use ideas about light to explain how we see objects in a mirror. Elementary school students investigate reflection o...