All Resources

Journal Article

A Cultural Classroom Library

Native American and other cultural stories provide students with a broader perspective on the world. In addition, cultural stories connect science content and knowledge about the world to cultural interpretations and people’s life ways. By implemen...

Journal Article

Science Prop Boxes

A prop box is a teacher-created resource full of age-appropriate and meaningful activities focused on a central theme. Prop boxes work much like learning centers in an elementary classroom with the important addition of providing opportunities for so...

Journal Article

Safe Science: Circuit Safety

The study of electricity in general science or physics is fascinating for students. Unfortunately, a number of electrical dangers exist in the laboratory that are applicable to all types of science including biology, chemistry, physics, and Earth sci...

Journal Article

Inquiring Into The Digestive System

Teaching science by means of inquiry-based projects has the potential to transform the science lab into a place of debate and discovery, but teachers run the risk of either leaving students to work too independently or forcing them to be too dependen...

Journal Article

Inquiry by Design Briefs

Design briefs are plausible situations in which students are asked to solve problems given limited materials, a specific time frame, and a number of rules and limitations. It is the author’s contention that the design brief, an established format i...

Journal Article

Science Shorts: Taking a Look at the Moon

The communication skills of reading and writing go hand in hand with science as natural partners for fostering students’ understandings of the world. The similarities that exist between reading and writing strategies and science-process skills add ...

Journal Article

Ask the Experts—November 2007

In this month’s column, the experts address the following questions: If you are in a car traveling at the speed of light, what would you observe if you turned on the headlights? and Given that absolute zero is the lower limit to temperature, a theo...

Journal Article

Favorite Demonstration: Demonstrating Inquiry-Based Teaching Competencies in the Life Sciences—Part 2

This set of botany demonstrations is a continuation of the inquiry-based lecture activities that provide realistic connections to the history and nature of science and employ technology in data collection (see the September/October issue of JCST fo...

Journal Article

Society for College Science Teachers: Revisiting the Cone of Learning—Is it a Reliable Way to Link Instruction Method with Knowledge Recall?

In his article, Dale had constructed a tiered triangle to rank students’ ability to recall information that had been taught six weeks earlier (Dale 1969). Dale had found that only 5% of the knowledge gained through lecture was remembered by student...

NSTA Press Book

Why Science?

Prize-winning scientist and bestselling author James Trefil contends that in order to participate fully in the democratic process, people must understand fundamental scientific concepts. In Why Science? Trefil details the concepts needed in order to ...

By James Trefil

Postsecondary Elementary High School Informal Education Middle School Assessment Curriculum Instructional Materials NGSS Science and Engineering Practices Teaching Strategies New Science Teachers Preservice Science Education Professional Learning old Research Teacher Preparation