All Resources

Journal Article

Juggling Makes Physics Fun

We all hope our classrooms don’t take on a circus-like atmosphere, but juggling can be an engaging way to introduce elementary physics to students. The very act of tossing and catching objects can help students to understand the basic physical prin...

Journal Article

Idea Bank: Assessing Basic Knowledge in Biology

The Science Beliefs Quiz contains items related to biology, physical science, and Earth/space science. The entire test is available free to teachers on the internet and consists of 47 declarative statements that were taken either from the National Sc...

Journal Article

The Early Years: Objects in Motion

Objects in motion attract children. The following activity helps children explore the motion of bodies riding in a vehicle and safely demonstrates the answer to their questions, “Why do I need a seatbelt?” Children will enjoy moving the cup aroun...

Journal Article

Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K—12 (Books Published in 2007: TST)

Each of these outstanding selections defies the traditional image of a child “curling up with a good book.” Yes, they can be a source of great personal reading, encouraging students of all ages to stretch their skills and their imagination as the...

Journal Article

Idea Bank: Lessons Learned From Test Writing

It is a passion for students’ authentic engagement in science that influenced the author’s decision to heed the Utah State Office of Education’s (USOE) call for test writers at a professional workshop last summer. The workshop offered science t...

Journal Article

Point of View: Research Only Matters if You Do Research That Matters

If we want research to matter we must make the questions asked and issues pursued be about real things, whose answers really matter to the teachers and professors, to the students, and to others who need to know. Merely performing—going through the...

Journal Article

Science 101: Do balances and scales determine an object’s mass or its weight?

The typical elementary school explanation of the difference between mass and weight goes something like the following: Mass is the amount of matter contained in an object. If you travel to the Moon, another planet, or anywhere far away from Earth, yo...

Journal Article

High-Achieving Postbaccalaureate-Student Teaching Assistants: Effective Instruction in Introductory Laboratory Classrooms

This report, based on data collected over three years, demonstrates that students in the postbaccalaureate student-led laboratory sections perform as well on laboratory assignments as students in the graduate student-led sections when instructor dema...

Journal Article

Promoting Student Learning Through the Integration of Lab and Lecture: The Seamless Biology Curriculum

The authors engaged in an education experiment to determine if the integration of lab and lecture activities in zoology and botany proved beneficial to student learning and motivation toward biology. Their results revealed that this strategy positive...

Journal Article

Problem Solving with Patents

Exploring our patent system is a great way to engage students in creative problem solving. As a result, the authors designed a teaching unit that uses the study of patents to explore one avenue in which scientists and engineers do science. Specifical...

Journal Article

The Prepared Practitioner: Getting Students to Read

As the teacher, you need to respond to students with very low-reading abilities, help all students learn how to learn from text, structure class to encourage student reading, and hold students accountable for assignments. Some effective, research-bas...

Journal Article

Libros de Ciencias en Español (2008)

From well-designed series with colorful illustrations and easy-to-read Spanish texts for the very young, to exquisite publishers’ series with eye-catching, close-up photos about the world of animals, to clear explanations about basic concepts of en...

Journal Article

Science Sampler: Water-use awareness

National rainfall maps show large areas of the United States experiencing major droughts. Government agencies are intervening with water awareness programs, and in extreme cases, rationing. Because students are both water consumers and tomorrow’s c...

Journal Article

After the Bell: Water harvesting II: Working toward being green

As you have read in the previous After the Bell column, water harvesting is a process of diverting and collecting rainwater. One of the main reasons to harvest rainwater is to reduce the demand on local sources of water. The objective of the harves...

Journal Article

Bumpy, Sticky, and Shaky: Nanoscale Science and the Curriculum

Nanoscience, or the study of the world at the size of a billionth of a meter, has the potential to help students see how all of the sciences are related. Behavior of materials at the nanoscale differs from materials at the macroscale. This article in...

Journal Article

Safer Science: Geology—Rock Solid Safety

Although perceived as having a lower level of safety issues compared to chemistry or biology laboratories, Earth-space science and geology classes have their share of challenges. In fact, a number of safety concerns exist, which need to be addressed ...

Journal Article

Science Sampler: Wade in the water—School, parent, and community collaboration

Real-life science experiences can excite students. Both the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the National Research Council (NRC) stress the importance of hands-on activities that foster inquiry-skill development. One suc...

Journal Article

Sounds Like Success: A Framework for Equitable Assessment

Teachers have many dilemmas when it comes to assessing a classroom of diverse students. Teachers need to find out what students really know while being fair to all students. They also need to learn how to alter assessments without watering down conte...

Journal Article

Scope on the Skies: Deep-sky objects

Beyond the region of our solar system is the rest of the Milky Way galaxy, and of course the rest of the universe. To the amateur astronomer or casual observer, the phrase deep-sky objects is a reference to those dim celestial objects that are beyond...

Journal Article

Tech Trek: The collaborative works of wikis

Wikipedia is part of a new generation of public documents—collectively known as wikis—to which many different writers may make contributions. Due to the collaborative nature of wikis, controversy flares up from time to time about the veracity or ...

Journal Article

Tried and True: Investigating ecosystems in a biobottle

Biobottles are miniature ecosystems made from 2-liter plastic soda bottles. They allow students to explore how organisms in an ecosystem are connected to each other, examine how biotic and abiotic factors influence plant and animal growth and develop...

Journal Article

Ask the Experts: February 2008

This month’s column addresses the following question: How did the Cartesian diver (devil) get its name? ...

Journal Article

Perspectives: Learning to Observe <em>and</em> Infer

Researchers describe the need for students to have multiple opportunities and social interaction to learn about the differences between observation and inference and their role in developing scientific explanations (Harlen 2001; Simpson 2000). Helpin...

Journal Article

Science 101: How does a telescope work?

It turns out that telescopes, microscopes, and binoculars all work on the same principles, so you get three for one in this answer. They give us information that we can’t get with the unaided eye. To do that, these devices gather as much informatio...

Journal Article

The Fish Kill Mystery: Using Case Studies in the Middle School Classroom

Case studies are an excellent method for engaging middle school students in the current work of scientists. Students learn to think like scientists as they decide how to investigate the dilemma presented in the case study. This article describes one ...

Journal Article

A Walk in the “Tall, Tall Grass”

This inquiry-based lesson was inspired by Denise Fleming’s book entitled, In the Tall, Tall Grass (1991). The author used the book and a real study of prairie grasses to teach kindergartners how to make careful observations and record what they see...

Journal Article

Will It Float?

In this science investigation based on the 5E learning model, students moved through four different centers designed to focus their attention on the concepts of mass, volume, and density. At these stations, students encountered discrepant events that...

Journal Article

Safer Science: SC3 = Formula for Chemical Management

The aim of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) “Schools Chemical Cleanout Campaign” (SC3) is to ensure that all schools are free from hazards associated with mismanaged chemicals, including science laboratories. SC3 gives schools inform...

Journal Article

Considering Context

Children’s descriptions of commonplace objects and events of life are often limited because they do not provide adequate information about the context of their observation. Encouraging primary and early intermediate students to consider the context...

Journal Article

Scope on Safety: There’s no such thing as a free gift

With shrinking budgets, increasing enrollments, aging equipment, and major advances in technology, donations are one way that science departments can help ends meet. However, many donations can be more trouble than they are worth. To help avoid any s...

Journal Article

How Do Our Actions Affect Water Quantity and Quality?

Water is an essential resource for all living things. How we live on our watershed can impact water quantity and quality. It is important to recognize how humans alter watershed dynamics, but students often find it challenging to visualize watershed ...

Journal Article

It’s a Zoo Out There!

Zoos and similar non-school sites have the added advantage of getting students out of school and into another environment, demonstrating that science learning can take place anywhere—not only in formal school settings. Through the animal behavior p...