JoinAll Resources
Journal Article
Science Sampler: Making science relevant with an integrated curriculum
This article describes a modular middle school curriculum that integrates science, math, social studies, and language arts. An adventure story creates the context for student learning of the academic content, which is made relevant to students by inc...
Journal Article
Teaching Through Trade Books: Roller Coasters!
Students of all ages are fascinated by the ups, downs, loops, and twists of roller coaster rides! What they may not realize is that there is a lot of science involved in making a roller coaster work. This month’s column puts students in the shoes o...
Journal Article
Weaving in the Story of Science
Stories weave common elements of the nature of science between topics and activities, regardless of whether it’s short historical narratives about scientists or current event articles that are read. Stories also can help students realize the impor...
Journal Article
The experts address the following question in this month’s column: Are fish sensitive to lightning that strikes water? ...
Journal Article
Simple Machines in the Community
The community can be a powerful context and mini-laboratory for cultivating students’ common understandings of science and mathematics. On the island of Panay in the Philippines, the community was the starting place for a group of fifth- and sixth-...
Journal Article
Perspectives: Assessing and Addressing Student Science Ideas
Our students are not blank slates. They come to school with a wide range of experiences that have shaped their science understandings—reading books, watching TV, and playing video games. From many years of research about student science ideas, it i...
Journal Article
Scratch This! The IF-AT as a Technique for Stimulating Group Discussion and Exposing Misconceptions
Frequent and immediate feedback is critical for learning and retaining content as well as developing effective learning teams (Michaelson, Knight, and Fink 2004). The Immediate Feedback Assessment Technique (IF-AT) provides a single and efficient way...
Journal Article
Editor’s Roundtable: Beyond the classroom walls
It is no secret that students learn best when the topic they are studying interests them or relates in some way to their lives outside of school. With a little work and planning, science teachers should be able to make science content relevant to jus...
Journal Article
Research and Teaching: An Analysis of Calibrated Peer Review (CPR) in a Science Lecture Classroom
Calibrated Peer Review (CPR) is an online tool being used to integrate a writing component in classrooms. In an introductory zoology lecture class, the authors found that CPR-assigned scores were significantly higher than instructor-assigned scores o...
Journal Article
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
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
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
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...