All Resources

Journal Article

Favorite Demonstration: Biological Membranes

This demonstration provides an excellent example of how eukaryotic cells are compartmentalized and how important the bilipid layer of the endomembrane system is in providing this sectioned architecture. This demonstration also effectively depicts how...

Journal Article

Safer Science: Personal Protective Equipment—It’s the Law!

In addition to the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) personal protective equipment (PPE) standard—OSHA Laboratory Standard 29CFR 1910.132—and other professional prudent practices, many states have protective eye devise statutes...

Journal Article

Every Day Science: January 2009

This monthly feature contains facts and challenges for the science explorer. ...

Journal Article

First-Grade Record Keepers

Developing good record-keeping habits is essential for organizing, processing, and communicating experimental results objectively. Therefore, the authors designed an interactive method of teaching first graders to record, organize, and interpret data...

Journal Article

Case Study: Uretero What? Gynecological Health Issues, Pregnancy, and an Infant With a Birth Defect

This case study follows the life of a successful career woman who is faced with a series of medical problems and career decisions. The purpose of this case study is for students to apply systems-level physiology as they explore a pregnancy with medic...

Journal Article

Tried and True: Modeling changes in matter, magnifying interest in science

At Daniell Middle School in Marietta Georgia, students’ interest in science and understanding of matter has been magnified. This is due, at least in part, to science faculty, who are convinced that a hands-on, inquiry approach to science can stimul...

Journal Article

Arctic Research and Writing

Recently, senior-level physics students joined thousands of scientists from over 60 nations to examine a wide range of physical, biological, and social research topics as part of the International Polar Year (IPY). Through a National Science Foundati...

Journal Article

Celebrate With SATELLITES

The SATELLITES program uses geospatial technologies to study surface temperatures of Earth’s materials, such as sand, soil, grass, and water. Data are collected using Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) protocols, wh...

Journal Article

Teaching Through Trade Books: Communicating With Pictures and Precision

From the earliest civilizations, humans have used drawings and pictures as a form of communication and to convey information—whether it was the seasons or location of good hunting grounds. In this month’s column, simple alphabet picture books sho...

Journal Article

Scope on the Skies: Mars at opposition

On January 29, Mars will reach opposition, a point along its orbit around the Sun where Mars will be directly opposite from the Sun in a two-planet and Sun line-up with the Earth in between. At this opposition, the Earth and Mars will be separated by...

Journal Article

Editor’s Roundtable: What students can learn in their own backyard

Local resources and potential science education partners are underutilized, though many facilities, institutions, and professionals would gladly volunteer time and services to schools and teachers. This issue of Science Scope offers a collection of a...

Journal Article

Digging Into Inquiry-based Earth Science Research

To help eighth-grade students experience the excitement of Earth science research, the authors developed an inquiry-based project in which students evaluated and cataloged their campus geology and soils. Following class discussions of rock-weathering...

Journal Article

Adapting an Annual Research Symposium to Recruit Underrepresented Minorities to Postcollege Education

This paper describes a one-and-a-half day Distinguished Scholar Symposium during which undergraduate underrepresented minorities (URMs) from nearby schools visit the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) to learn about advanced degree ...

Journal Article

Multisensory Strategies for Science Vocabulary

Seeing, touching, smelling, hearing, and learning! The authors observed that their English Language Learner (ELL) students achieved a deeper understanding of the properties of matter, as well as enhanced vocabulary development, when they were guided ...

Journal Article

Energizing Students

The implementation of standards and high-stakes testing has increased the pressure on classroom teachers to cover content in what seems like an ever-shrinking period of time. What if there was a way to help students pay better attention and remember ...

Journal Article

Science Sampler: A student-centered project focused on obtaining clean drinking water for the community

This project-based science unit, focused on a local environmental issue, created a great deal of interest and learning, as well as drew in the support of the community. The authors designed and implemented the project in a fifth- and sixth-grade clas...

Journal Article

The Ultimate Fizz

Many recipes for elementary science activities suggest making carbon dioxide from baking soda and vinegar; however, they often do not give exact measurements of the ingredients. The author was able to turn this “drawback” into a plus by challengi...

Journal Article

Active Learning Strategies

When students understand content deeply, they recognize main concepts and understand the relationships among ideas. But the typical processes students use to study are generally not designed to generate conceptual understandings. Instead, they tend t...

Journal Article

"Life" in Movies

As biology teachers, we should embrace the ever-increasing appearance of biology in movies and other media as an opportunity to engage students in active learning and to facilitate critical-thinking and investigative skills in the classroom. In this ...

Journal Article

Water in Disguise

This article presents a lesson plan in which students learn about water in solid, liquid, and gaseous phases through trade books, demonstrations, and artwork. The author illustrates the stages of the lesson plan in the sequence they were conducted in...

Journal Article

Dinosaur Extinction, Early Childhood Style

Do dinosaurs have bellybuttons? This intriguing question launched a journey into inquiry science that captivated a class of four-year-olds for eight months. As students enjoyed dinosaur books, examined dinosaur artifacts, drew pictures, watched video...

Journal Article

Idea Bank: Changing Misconceptions

During student-centered learning activities, students actively engage in their own learning based on individual prior understandings. It can be difficult for a teacher to know if students fully understand the concepts being presented, especially if t...

Journal Article

Commentary: Leading Beyond the Classroom

Science and science education have had many great leaders, some of whom may not have thought of themselves as leaders while engaged in their work. This holds true for many teachers, who think they do not have the time or experience to be a great lead...

Journal Article

Lighting the Way Through Scientific Discourse

This article describes a thought-provoking lesson that compares various arrangements of lamp-battery circuits to help students develop the motivation and competence to participate in scientific discourse for knowledge construction. Through experiment...

Journal Article

Science 101: What causes the different states of matter?

The answer to this could be really simple or really complicated, depending on how deeply the issue is covered. Therefore, the author will dispense with the really complicated by limiting the discussion to solids, liquids, and gases. There are many ot...

Journal Article

Guest Editorial: The polished rock

Saving the world is a pretty lofty goal. One that sounds so unattainable that most of us instinctively want to leave that up to the physicists, the brain surgeons, the chemists, and the environmental researchers. You know, the people who have enough ...

Journal Article

Connecting Children to Their World

Planning effective, engaging lessons and units are challenging tasks for a teacher, but the process can also be meaningful and rewarding. Using a big understanding—a guiding statement describing essential content you want students to learn througho...

Journal Article

The Future Scientists and Engineers Conferences: Using Community Resources to Enhance the Science Fair

Conference attendees arrive at the registration desk at 9:00 a.m. sharp, eager to start their day. While standing in line, they talk excitedly about the sessions they’ve chosen to see, the original investigation they’ll be presenting, off-site fi...

Journal Article

Science Sampler: Science role models for adolescent girls

Research shows that girls are more likely to enter a field when they can identify a role model in that field (Betz 1994; Lent, Brown, and Hackett 1994). But the authors found that little is known about what it really takes to be a science role model ...

Journal Article

Tried and True: An Eggciting Alternative to a Science Olympiad

This is a new twist on a familiar Science Olympiad event. By combining two possible outcomes, it allows students to make choices in an inquiry format. Students must think about materials, Newton’s first and second laws of motion, kinetic energy, an...

Journal Article

Movie Mitosis

Mitosis and meiosis are essential for the growth, development, and reproduction of organisms. Because these processes are essential to life, both are emphasized in biology texts, state standards, and the National Science Education Standards. In this ...

Journal Article

Point of View: Planting the Seeds—The Influence of College Science Teaching on the Generation of Science Teachers

Most undergraduate science students will likely not become science professors, much less people of science (Fox 1998; Tobias 1992). However, some may become K—12 science teachers. Are we, as science professors, providing lessons for them toward the...

Journal Article

Scope on the Skies: Lunar looks and latitude

During December, the Sun gains a bit of notoriety as its celestial position this month marks a change of seasons, a solstice. The word solstice describes the day, or moment, when the Sun stops its north or south apparent motion. This month, the Sun r...

Journal Article

Designing Appropriate Scaffolding for Student Science Projects

The authors have developed a successful approach to teaching and inspiring undergraduate science and nonscience majors to complete creditable, semester-long, hands-on science research projects. This approach utilizes a carefully developed scaffolding...

Journal Article

Teaching the Principles of Geomicrobiology and the Process of Experimental Research to Undergraduate and First-Year Graduate Students

This article presents a framework for a geomicrobiology course design that has produced impressive gains in students’ contextual knowledge (e.g., Felder and Brent 2004a). The approach centers on the design and execution of a research experiment for...