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eBook
PISA Science 2006: Implications for Science Teachers and Teaching (e-book)
What must we teach students to enable them to fully participate in a world community where science and technology play an increasingly significant role? That’s a question that science educators continually face and that the Programme for Internatio...
eBook
College Science Teachers Guide to Assessment (e-book)
What is assessment? How do you assess your students’ progress? How do they assess themselves and their peers? How do you assess the effectiveness of your own teaching? College Science Teachers Guide to Assessment provides busy professors wit...
eBook
College Pathways to the Science Education Standards (e-book)
This one-of-a-kind book applies the Standards, written for K-12 classes, to the college level. Designed for postsecondary science content teachers, science educators, and administrators, this book shows how to implement all six areas of the Standards...
eBook
Exploring Safely: A Guide for Elementary Teachers (e-book)
Take the fear factor out of science lessons. This easy-to-digest book relieves many of the safety worries that come with teaching science in elementary school. The emphasis is on positive options for heading off potential hazards, from handling speci...
eBook
Hands-On Herpetology: Exploring Ecology and Conservation (e-book)
Plentiful, diverse, and readily available, these animals—known in science as “herps”—are also perfect for teaching students about biology, ecology, and conservation, including problems affecting both amphibians and reptiles. This highly re...
eBook
The Truth About Science: A Curriculum for Developing Young Scientists (e-book)
The truth is: Valid research demands more than beakers and Bunsen burners-- much more. So give kids the lowdown on how real scientists work. This engaging book shows you how to develop students’ creative and critical thinking skills to make qualita...
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Book Chapter
This engaging lesson simultaneously involves animals, flowers, mathematical patterns, and art. Students will learn to discern between radial symmetry, bilateral symmetry, and asymmetry by observing and classifying objects, shapes, and photos and by d...
Book Chapter
Calculating the Speed of Sound
Who hasn’t seen a dramatic flash of lightning, only to hear the dramatic “crack” of thunder several seconds later? But why does the thunder reach our ears after we see the lightning? Or, why does the sound of a high-flying jet airplane passing ...
Book Chapter
Exploring the Dynamics of Temperature
Would your students like to take care of a penguin? To be a “penguinsitter,” they would have to know what conditions that bird needs to survive. One important factor would be temperature. In this activity, you will challenge student groups to pro...
Book Chapter
Observing the Effects of Acids and Bases
Combining acid/base chemistry, cell biology, and quantitative research methods, this “egg-ceptional” activity promotes a truly interdisciplinary perspective. First, students find out what effect acids and bases have on calcium-based substances su...
Book Chapter
Discovering Sand and Sand Paintings
This activity blends social studies and art with math and science. First, students will explore the visible characteristics of sand, and then they will make Navajo-style sand paintings with paper, glue, and colored sand. In the process, they will hon...
Book Chapter
Heat Exchange in Air, Water, and Soil
The Earth is composed, at least at the surface, of soil/rock, water, and air. How do the heat exchange properties of these three very different substances compare, and what effect, if any, do they have on climate and weather? This activity represents...
Book Chapter
Developing a Model of the Earth’s Inner Structure
How much do your students know about the Earth’s interior? This activity will provide them with a hands-on experience, as well as with appropriate terms and concepts. Students discover what makes a good model as they first choose a fruit or vegetab...
Book Chapter
Investigating Perception and Illusion
For a motivating and baffling experience, try this investigation of perceptual illusions and their causes. It allows students to observe, analyze, and compare a variety of optical illusions, and also to create their own optical illusions with pencil,...
Book Chapter
Determining the Relationship Between Height and Hand Length
For a motivating and baffling experience, try this investigation of perceptual illusions and their causes. It allows students to observe, analyze, and compare a variety of optical illusions, and also to create their own optical illusions with pencil,...
Book Chapter
Exploring Cellular Shape Using Area
In this activity, students are challenged to maximize the area enclosed within the limited perimeter of a string “cell membrane,” using area formulas as they do so. This is an open-ended activity that will challenge groups of students to apply ma...
Book Chapter
Surveying Science and Mathematics on the Internet
In this activity, students will explore the internet for interesting science and mathematics websites. They will be guided by an activity sheet as they identify, summarize, analyze, reflect on, and compare websites. After reviewing their sites, stude...
Book Chapter
Please Pass the Pollen: Flowering Plants, Pollination, and Insect Pollinators
This high-interest activity provides an opportunity for students to learn more about the natural world while they hone their investigatory skills. In the activity, student groups investigate pollination, insect behavior, and flower structure. They wi...
Book Chapter
Examining Current Events in Science, Mathematics, and Technology
The national standards in science and mathematics call for these subjects to be taught from personal and social perspectives, thus strengthening students’ decision-making skills. Preeminent science educator Paul DeHart Hurd called for “a curricul...
Book Chapter
This activity is an exciting and highly interactive opportunity for students to exercise their creativity and design skills. Working in cooperative groups, students are challenged to explore the geometry of tower design and construction, first by exp...
Book Chapter
Designing and Constructing a Load-Bearing Structure
We rely on many structures to bear loads. Examples such as bridges, chairs, shelves, tall buildings, and even our own legs must support weight consistently and effectively. But where do the human-designed examples come from? Who designs these structu...
Book Chapter
Investigating the Pinhole Camera and Camera Obscura
In this activity, students explore the nature of light, including the fact that it travels in straight lines, by building and using two visual tools. The first is a simple pinhole camera—a box with a pinhole opening. The second is a camera obscura�...
Book Chapter
Recording Images Using a Simple Pinhole Camera
In this lesson, students develop and expand their observational skills and technological understanding by building and operating a pinhole camera. The interdisciplinary connections are in the realm of application in this motivating activity. The less...
Book Chapter
We see, use, and enjoy levers daily—in the operation of pliers, the action of a seesaw, or the beauty of an Alexander Calder mobile. In fact, parts of the human body are levers; think of the knee, elbow, and other joints as fulcrums, and the long b...
Book Chapter
This activity involves an exploration of density. Why does oil float on water? How does drain cleaner sink down into the clogged pipe right through standing water? These questions will be answered as students make a layered “parfait” of colored l...
Book Chapter
This inquiry activity should be used before students learn about velocity and distance versus time graphs. Students will discover how the slope of a distance versus time graph is related to the speed of the object....
Book Chapter
Although this lab is not an inquiry activity, it is very important in learning about acceleration and mass. It is a deeply held misconception among students that objects of different masses fall at different rates. Simply explaining that this is not ...
Book Chapter
This lab is an inquiry activity to be used before discussing inertia. Out of necessity to explain the observation, a short discussion of inertia is included, but teachers should certainly spend more time making this concept concrete. The activity wil...
Book Chapter
This lab introduces students to the idea of recoil and how conservation of momentum can be used to explain it. Many people use action/reaction to explain recoil, but conservation of momentum can be used equally well. Before shooting a gun, there is z...
Book Chapter
This inquiry activity should be performed after students have learned about momentum, but before they learn about conservation of momentum. Students will discover that when two objects push off each other, the momentum must be equal but in opposite d...
Book Chapter
This inquiry activity is performed by students after they learn about momentum and energy, but before they discuss conservation of momentum or energy. If students have never seen a Newton’s Cradle before, put one on your desk a week before this act...
Book Chapter
This inquiry activity should be completed before discussing with students that a projectile’s motion in the vertical direction is independent of its motion in the horizontal direction. As long as students use their apparatus carefully and don’t f...
Book Chapter
This inquiry activity should be done before students have studied the operation of a first-class lever. The activity could be used when discussing simple machines or torque. Although it involves the use of a lever, the activity is not really about si...