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Journal Article

Editor’s Note: Teaching Observation—Aim Higher

Observation is a fundamental process in science. It is a skill that many science curricula emphasize. It seems like such a simple skill, but observation skills are not quite so simply mastered. Like anything else, just watching and observing does lit...

Journal Article

There’s More to Light Than Meets the Eye

This investigation was part of a multi-lesson unit that gave students direct experience using increasingly sophisticated tools to make more detailed observations and measurements of light. Through these lessons, students experienced a key aspect of t...

Journal Article

Place-Based Investigations and Authentic Inquiry

In place-based inquiry, the context of an investigation involves a place about which students already have some interest, curiosity, or knowledge. Their interest makes the application of scientific investigation and inquiry techniques more meaningful...

Journal Article

Science Shorts: Observation Versus Inference

When you observe something, how do you know for sure what you are seeing, feeling, smelling, or hearing? Asking students to think critically about their encounters with the natural world will help to strengthen their understanding and application of ...

Journal Article

Editor’s Roundtable: At the breaking point

Sobering articles and alarming predictions about the environment appear in magazines, journals, and the media daily. These warnings should not be overlooked and are a call to action for educators. Our students must learn to think of themselves as mem...

Journal Article

Back to the Future?

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, nature-study was the most widespread orientation to science instruction in the nation’s schools. During the four or so decades of its existence, nature-study evolved to become both a common body of knowled...

Journal Article

Editor’s Corner: A Return to Nature

In the recent book by Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods (2005), he suggests that, for the first time in human history, young people today are growing up with little or no meaningful contact with the natural world. Louv cites various causes for th...