All Resources

Journal Article

Editor’s Corner: A Flat World?

Beyond preparing our students for imminent economic realities, we should prepare them to think globally. American economic competitiveness in a global economy is a significant challenge that will be addressed at least in our schools. But the greatest...

Journal Article

Science Sampler: Modeling the effects of drugs on the brain

The following activity teaches students about the neurobiological consequences of drug use on their brains and behavior. Students make clay models that allow them to visualize how drugs affect neural communication. If you’re concerned that this act...

Journal Article

Editor’s Roundtable: Health Literacy

In his 2003 testimony, the Surgeon General called for combating the obesity epidemic in America by increasing health literacy among our citizens, and especially among the nation’s children. Schools must teach students to lead healthy lifestyles and...

Journal Article

Building Migratory Bridges

The Building Migratory Bridges (BMB) program—a collaboration between the Marvelwood School and Audubon Sharon in Connecticut and Conservation Research Education Action (CREA), a U.S. not-for-profit in Panama—uses neotropical migratory bird resear...

Journal Article

Science and the Nonscience Major: Addressing the Fear Factor in the Chemical Arena Using Forensic Science

This article describes an approach to minimizing the “fear factor” in a chemistry course for the nonscience major, and also addresses relevant applications to other science courses, including biology, geology, and physics. The approach emphasizes...

Journal Article

Every Day Science Calendar—November 2007

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

Journal Article

Teaching Through Trade Books: Words to the Wild

A notebook is perhaps the single most important piece of equipment a naturalist takes into the field. But notebooks are not only for use by field scientists: They are also excellent tools for helping students record observations outdoors, develop com...

Journal Article

The Ripple Effect

Thomas Locker’s book about nature entitled Water Dance (1997) provides the basis for this interdisciplinary project on Earth’s water cycles. Through thoughtful consideration of the text and art in Water Dance, students build and express deep...

Journal Article

Case Study: Why I Like Clicker Personal Response Systems

For those of you unfamiliar with clicker personal response systems, a clicker is a handheld remote that students use to enter their responses to multiple choice questions. The question is displayed on the classroom overhead screen, usually within a P...

Journal Article

Idea Bank: Clay Pot Refrigerators

Access to refrigeration is something we take for granted in the United States. However, for many countries refrigeration is not an option for keeping food fresh. In 1995, a teacher in Nigeria named Mohammend Bah Abba developed and began to popularize...

Journal Article

Tried and True: Making the connection—Addressing students’ misconceptions of circuits

Electricity is an abstract phenomenon that students interact with every day. Interestingly enough, many eighth-grade students do not fully understand the requirements for a complete circuit. In an effort to "short-circuit" misunderstandings, the circ...

Journal Article

Science Sampler: You can learn a lot from your dog

Recently, dogs have been the focus of a great deal of scientific research. In fact, dogs were the inspiration for Professor Bruce Blumberg’s class, The Cognitive Dog: Savant or Slacker, at Harvard University. This course serves as the impetus for...

Journal Article

Scope on the Skies: Neptune—The planet exterior to Uranus

This month, the three most outer planets—Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune—and one of the larger dwarf planets, Pluto, will be in the evening skies after sunset. While only Jupiter and Uranus will be visible through small telescopes or binoculars, thi...

Journal Article

Tiny, Powerful Awesome Ants!

Peering through a thematic science lens—elementary students embarked on a one-week study of ants during a month-long summer school program. This integrated unit addressed reading and writing skills while developing the science-process skills of obs...

Journal Article

Investigative Labs in Biology: The Importance of Attending to Team Dynamics

This article provides some tips for success in facilitating teamwork. Working collaboratively is common in science and the functioning of teams has a large impact on both the implementation of a research project and student satisfaction with the expe...

Journal Article

Science 101: How is reading science books different from reading other kinds of books?

A good history book tells a story, much like a good novel. In reading those stories, one is able to read through the text relatively quickly and still get the main points. Science reading is a much slower process. You read science texts to understand...

Journal Article

Nurturing the Nature of Science

Historical stories of scientists provide an excellent opportunity to help students see that science is indeed a human endeavor and demonstrate the interrelationships among science, technology, and society. A number of engaging historical accounts ill...

Journal Article

Extra! Extra! Learn All about It

Communication and reporting of findings to peers are important to middle school students. One way to capitalize on students’ interests and incorporate the nature of science into the science curriculum is to have students create a science-based news...

Journal Article

Reinvigorating Science Journals

Science-themed books are wonderful tools for emphasizing the importance of observation and journaling. They can also be used to effectively promote literacy skills in science. This article shares a selection of nature books and the ways teachers and ...

Journal Article

Editorial: At a Glance

For many years, the remarkable artists and graphic designers at NSTA have given JCST intriguing and delightful covers. However, focus groups and conversations revealed that our attractive covers were triggering, for some people, an image that wasn...

Journal Article

Brain Awareness Day: A Service-Learning Experience in Neuroscience

Three local colleges in the Lehigh Valley collaborate on a service-learning project called Brain Awareness Day to enhance neuroscience literacy among the public regarding the functions of the brain and benefits of brain research. ...

eBook

Using Forensics: Wildlife Crime Scene! (e-book)

With Forensics: Wildlife Crime Scene!, your students investigate an actual crime, learn the science behind animal-species identification, and find out about efforts to fight real-world threats against wild animals. The book is designed to be e...

eBook

Exemplary Science in Informal Education Settings: Standards-Based Success Stories (e-book)

Just as science education doesn’t stop at the schoolhouse door, neither should effective application of the National Science Education Standards. Exemplary Science in Informal Education Settings shows real-world examples of how science education re...

Journal Article

A Geometric Scavenger Hunt

Children possess a genuine curiosity for exploring the natural world around them. One third grade teacher capitalized on this inherent trait by leading her students on “A Geometric Scavenger Hunt.” The four-lesson inquiry investigation described ...

Journal Article

Issues In-Depth: The pet food recall puzzle—Who, what, why, and how much?

Last spring, North America was gripped in the largest pet food recall in history. News outlets reported tens of thousands of dogs and cats becoming ill, and many dying, as a result of ingesting contaminated pet food. Several pet owners have filed law...

Journal Article

Biology Education Under the Microscope

For many students, high school science is biology and our best—and sometimes only—opportunity to impact students’ knowledge of and interest in science generally will remain linked to the quality and nature of biology instruction in U.S. high ...

Journal Article

Making “Photo” Graphs

Collecting data and analyzing the results of experiments is difficult for children. The authors found a surprising way to help their third graders make graphs and draw conclusions from their data: digital photographs. The pictures bridged the gap bet...

Journal Article

The Life and Work of John Snow

Due to his work to determine how cholera was spread in the 18th century, John Snow (1813-1858) has been hailed as the father of modern epidemiology. This article presents an inquiry model based on his life and work, which teachers can use to develop ...

Journal Article

Solar Sprint

In the “Solar Sprint” activity, students design, test, and race a solar-powered car built with Legos. The use of ratios is incorporated to simulate the actual work of scientists and engineers. This method encourages fourth-grade students to think...

Journal Article

Every Day Science Calendar—October 2007

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

Journal Article

Food Enzymes

Many students view biology and chemistry as two unrelated, separate sciences; how these courses are generally taught in high schools may do little to change that impression. The study of enzymes provide a great opportunity for both biology and chemis...

Journal Article

Editor’s Note: Science and Math Go Together Like…

The connections of mathematics and science are both basic and complex. As the articles in this month’s issue attest, we can deepen student understanding of science and math through an explicit and thoughtful connection in our lessons. ...