JoinAll Resources
Journal Article
Editor’s Note: Classification Matters
Classification skills, so foundational to science, must be taught. While children have a passion and drive to organize and categorize their experiences, sometimes the way they organize them doesn’t lead to a worthwhile or accurate scientific unders...
Journal Article
Case Study: Chimpanzee Droppings Lead Scientists to Evolutionary Discovery
This case study explores the evolution of HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) from SIV (simian immunodeficiency virus) and how scientists approach problems. The goal is for students to get a sense of how questions are formulated and methods are employ...
Journal Article
Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K–12 (Books published in 2008)
Today’s classrooms have no real walls! Students explore the world on field trips, during virtual journeys on the world wide web, and through the books they read. These pathways help them fly to the ends of the universe to satisfy their scientific c...
Journal Article
The Early Years: Does Light Go Through It?
Words give us the power to describe our world and how we experience it. Any time we classify something, we give it a name to distinguish it from all others of its kind. Like the buttons on a kitchen blender which says “mix” in five or six differe...
Journal Article
Point of View: “Is a Bird an Animal?” The Necessity of Science Content Knowledge
Teachers often see science as an important subject to teach, but they are often reluctant to teach science because they feel inadequately prepared or are unsure of their abilities (Atwater, Gardener, and Knight 1991; Bybee 1991; Dickinson et al. 1997...
Journal Article
Student Reactions to Just-in-Time Teaching’s Reading Assignments
This article describes how the Just-in-Time Teaching (JiTT) warm-up exercises were successfully adopted into a college-level physics course as a teaching tool. Students were found to be more engaged in lectures after completing the warm-up assignment...
Journal Article
Teacher’s Toolkit: Cracking the method
One problem we face as teachers of sixth-grade science is how to teach the process of inquiry to students who are still used to learning everything concretely. Indeed, even after walking students through an inquiry lab while modeling the lab-report-w...
Journal Article
What About Albert Einstein? Using Biographies to Promote Students’ Scientific Thinking
Who hasn’t heard of Einstein? Science educators everywhere are familiar with Einstein’s genius and general theory of relativity. Students easily recognize Einstein’s image by his white flyaway hair and bushy mustache. It is well known that Eins...
Journal Article
An after-school science class on properties teaches students “all that glitters is not gold.” Through this gold panning simulation, students analyze the properties of pyrite, or “Fool’s Gold,” and discover the importance of properties to e...
Journal Article
Methods and Strategies: The Home Connection
Teachers can help students gain experience in the natural world by taking students outside, but such experiences usually have tight time constraints due to elementary students’ very busy daily school schedules. Another important, yet often overlook...
Journal Article
Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K–12 (Books published in 2008)
Today’s classrooms have no real walls! Students explore the world on field trips, during virtual journeys on the world wide web, and through the books they read. These pathways help them fly to the ends of the universe to satisfy their scientific c...
Journal Article
Editor’s Roundtable: Essential data
Answering a question or proposing an explanation based on evidence gathered from observations and measurements is at the heart of scientific inquiry. To develop this ability, teachers should provide repeated opportunities for students to generate que...
Journal Article
Science 101: What makes a curveball curve?
Ah, springtime, and young people’s thoughts turn to … baseball, of course. But this column is not about how to throw a curveball, so you’ll have to look that up on your own. Here the focus is on the why of the curveball. There are two different...
Journal Article
MathBench Biology Modules: Web-Based Math for All Biology Undergraduates
Historically, biology has not been a heavily quantitative science, but this is changing rapidly (Ewing 2002; Gross 2000; Hastings and palmer 2003; Jungck 2005; Steen 2005). Quantitative approaches now constitute a key tool for modern biologists, yet ...
Journal Article
Tired and True: Message in a bottle—Analyzing reaction rates using gas pressure sensors
One of the many ways to engage students in science is by using probes or computerized devices that respond in real time to changes. In the following learning cycle lesson, an after-school science and mathematics club consisting of about 20 students u...
Journal Article
Science Sampler: Laws of motion
What do you get when you cross an electronic whiteboard, online videos, and a room full of sixth graders? This may perhaps sound like an uncontrollable mix, but these simple ingredients create an interesting way to reinforce student understanding of ...
Journal Article
On Clickers, Questions, and Learning
The purpose of this paper is to review the procedures used to help students become learning victors. Specifically, this paper will discuss the process used to integrate classroom-response-system technology and question-driven instruction into an intr...
Journal Article
Science Sampler: Making connections in Earth science using local data
Examining data provides a unique opportunity to have students work actively with various technologies, such as computers or graphing calculators. Students can import data into spreadsheet software, execute mathematical calculations, create data graph...
Journal Article
Research and Teaching: Team-Based Learning Enhances Performance in Introductory Biology
Given the problems associated with the traditional lecture method, the constraints associated with large classes, and the effectiveness of active learning, continued development and testing of efficient student-centered learning approaches are needed...
Journal Article
Chow Down! Using Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches to Explore Basic Nutrition Concepts
The Madagascar hissing cockroach gromphadorhina portentosa) is one of the most exciting and enjoyable animals to incorporate into your science curriculum. Madagascar hissing cockroaches (MHCs) do not bite, are easy to handle, produce little odor comp...
Journal Article
Editorial: <em>Au Courant</em> Connections
In an effort to connect with college-level science instructors “beyond the classroom walls,” the editor plans to start a blog. Blogs are the electronic equivalent of an open conversation at a relaxed conference. You get there through an internet ...
Book Chapter
The Role of Leadership in Fostering Inquiry-Based Learning and Teaching
In this chapter, the author first address the concepts of inquiry and leadership presented in the National Science Education Standards (NRC 1996). Then presents examples of leaders who foster inquiry-based learning and teaching within the context o...