JoinAll Resources
Journal Article
Science Shorts: Experimental Error
One of the most challenging components of science inquiry is getting students to understand the fundamentally important concept of experimental error. While this concept can be tricky for children, there are straightforward lessons that can go a long...
Journal Article
Editor’s Roundtable: Sculpting the Earth’s surface
Our students need to know about the structure of the Earth and about the geological processes that shape its surface—both the long-term and the everyday processes, the abrupt shifts of faults, the sustained movements of tectonic plates, and slow up...
Journal Article
PREPping Students for Authentic Science
In this article, the authors describe a large-scale research collaboration, the Partnership for Research and Education in Plants (PREP), which has capitalized on publicly available databases that contain massive amounts of biological information; sto...
Journal Article
Scope on Safety: Safety and liability
In order to provide a level of awareness relative to liability, the NSTA Board charged a committee with the task of rewriting the NSTA Position Statement on Liability of Science Educators for Laboratory Safety. This article outlines four basic questi...
Book Chapter
Climate is the state of the atmosphere over years or decades. Although climate is commonly defined as “average weather,” the term encompasses more than a simple mean. It also refers to variability, seasonality, and extremes in climate elements su...
Book Chapter
Scientists expect that a warmer climate will cause more severe, more frequent, and longer heat waves. Heat waves pose a significant health risk to everyone, but especially to poor, elderly, and chronically ill individuals. In this open-ended inquiry,...
Book Chapter
In 1896, Svante Arrhenius published the first model of the effects of industrial carbon dioxide (CO2) on Earth’s climate. Since the days of Arrhenius, scientists have moved from pencils to supercomputers. Calculations take hours or days instead of ...
Book Chapter
Biological Effects of Climate Change
How important is climate change—something that has occurred throughout Earth’s history? Can ecosystems tolerate the magnitude and rate of future change? How will other conservation threats interact with climate change? How likely are widespread e...
Book Chapter
This “Quick Guide to Climate” is a brief, student-friendly overview of Chapters 1 through 3. The overview is suitable either for introducing climate change to your students or for reviewing key concepts at the end of a unit. You can also use the ...
Book Chapter
Rising air temperatures have changed the extent and timing of sea ice formation in the Arctic, forcing some polar bear populations to go longer each year without food. In this activity, students assume the role of graduate students advising an intern...
Book Chapter
Carrion: It’s What’s for Dinner
The restoration of wolves to Yellowstone National Park after a 70-year absence created a natural experiment on the ecological effects of top predators. In this activity, students use mathematical models to explore how carrion from wolf kills can redu...
Book Chapter
Songbirds tend to breed at the same time their primary prey is most abundant. Climate warming appears to be disrupting this match, causing reproductive failures in some species. Scientists have detected the consequences of warming for birds primarily...
Book Chapter
Pollen allergies are becoming more prevalent globally, in part because of the effect of climate on pollen-producing plants. In this problem-based learning activity, students assume the role of public relations specialists contracted to communicate th...
Journal Article
Investigating With Charles Darwin
Naturalist Charles Darwin made observations, conducted experiments, and kept detailed notebooks of his findings throughout his life. He was regularly transfixed by his observations of the natural world, whether in his early collecting days, during hi...
Journal Article
Teaching Through Trade Books: Pumpkins!
Walk through any elementary school in the fall and you are bound to see students learning about pumpkins. Kids of all ages are fascinated by these versatile, edible members of the gourd family. Pumpkins are interesting and inexpensive and can be foun...
Journal Article
Editor’s Corner: Let Us Now Praise Science Teachers
The science teacher is called upon to be scientist, educator, equipment manager, safety inspector, lecturer, child-care provider, coach, writing editor, mathematician, historian, counselor, and stand-up comedian—all at once. Given all this, we shou...
Journal Article
Perspectives: The Art (and Science) of Asking Questions
Questions serve as formative assessments that provide information to teachers about student learning in relation to curricular goals. In addition to helping students build science concepts, teacher questions can help develop scientific habits of mind...
Journal Article
Idea Bank: The Apple Genomics Project
Genomics is the study of an organism’s entire genome. Because genomics is a relatively new discipline, it can be difficult to find teaching materials, especially those that offer a variety of educational modalities. To address this need, researcher...
Journal Article
Science Sampler: Glacial ice action
Current news reports discuss the loss of glacial ice in the Antarctic and Greenland as examples of the effects of global warming. But what are glaciers and how do they work? An understanding of the process that causes ice to melt is important in unde...