All Resources

Journal Article

Science Sampler: Self-assessment helps classroom focus on learning and understanding

In our science classrooms, teachers are the science practitioners demystifying our practice—from reading, inquiry, and problem solving to test taking, and even note taking. Placing learning and understanding in an explicitly prominent position in t...

Journal Article

Idea Bank: Asking Authentic Questions with Tangible Consequences

For physics teachers, it seems irresponsible to teach energy without asking students hard, relevant questions such as, “What will we do when oil becomes prohibitively expensive?” Therefore, in the fall of 2005, the author asked senior-level physi...

Journal Article

Perspectives: Making Time for Science Talk

Cognitive scientists (Donovan and Bransford 2005) conclude that when teachers “simply give students the knowledge to incorporate, the practice and skill development of doing one’s own mental search is shortchanged”, but when students engage in ...

Journal Article

Teaching through Trade Books: Into the Woods

In today’s electronic age of video games and mp3 players, children are not spending as much time outdoors as past generations did. Many fear that as a result children are becoming increasingly alienated from the natural world. This month’s trade ...

Journal Article

Using Video Games to Understand Thermoregulation

Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, a research project was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of video games as inquiry-based learning experiences for the science classroom. As a result, the video game, Creature Control: The Quest for H...

Journal Article

Scope on the Skies: Conjunction functions

This spring, as the school year starts to wind down, there will be many opportunities for students to observe bright planets and to wrap up the year with some great conjunctions and close occultation with the Moon, planets, bright stars, and star clu...

Journal Article

A Natural Integration

A five-week study taught students how to write a field guide that identified the plants in a small wooded area they passed through on their way to their school playground. By creating this authentic genre of science writing, students came to understa...

Journal Article

Environmental Research Puts Science into Action

The new paradigm for student research should be articulations and collaborations with local governmental, academic, and civic entities. This will enable students to make lasting contributions to bettering their communities through scientific research...

Journal Article

Science Sampler: Using simple statistics to ensure science-fair success

Judging science fairs is a way to see students’ enthusiasm for science, their courage as they overcome nervousness to share findings with a real scientist, and their pride when they show their hard work, condensed in a nicely prepared display. Occa...

Journal Article

Using Sound Knowledge to Teach About Noise-Induced Hearing Loss

Throughout our lives we are surrounded by sounds in our environment. Our ability to hear plays an essential part in our everyday existence. Students should develop an understanding of the role technology plays in personal and social decisions. If we ...

Journal Article

Empowering Youth

The Gulf of Maine Institute (GOMI) is striving to empower youth to take on stewardship roles in their communities. Through its Community Based Initiative (CBI) program, GOMI addresses environmental degradation by working with teams of students, t...

Journal Article

Trash or Treasure?

Most children know they should not pollute but have never considered why. One elementary school teacher creates a lesson for third- through fifth-grade students that makes the connection concrete. In the lesson, students consider the possible effects...

Journal Article

Methods and Strategies: The Teaching-With-Analogies Model

Teachers often use analogies and are unaware of it—they are using them automatically. Whenever they begin an explanation with “It’s just like…,” “It’s similar to…,” or “Think of it this way…,” they are using an analogy to expl...

Journal Article

Firsthand Nature

It’s no secret that many school programs don’t give children enough opportunity to explore the natural world—i.e., to “mess about” and to have firsthand experience with nature and animals. Not so at the Muscota New School in New York City! ...

Journal Article

A WebQuest for Spatial Skills

The WebQuest is a four-step process integrated at appropriate points in the Animal Studies unit. Through the WebQuest, students create a series of habitat maps that build on the knowledge gained from conducting the various activities of the unit. The...

Journal Article

Editor's Note: Looking at Environmental Education

Science education must prepare students to make informed personal and political decisions. Many of those decisions will revolve around issues of the environment. We are drenched daily in reports about alarming environmental trends. The learning envi...

Journal Article

Ask the Experts—April/May 2007

The experts address the following question in this month’s column: What color is the blood in a person’s veins? I’ve heard it described as “blue,” but it looks to me to be dark red, as it appears when blood is drawn during a lab test....

Journal Article

Science Sampler: The DEP saves the beans—A Performance assessment task for acid rain

Using performance assessment tasks allows students to demonstrate conceptual understanding of the important ideas of science, use scientific tools and processes, apply understanding of ideas to solve new, draw on what was learned to form explanations...

Journal Article

Idea Bank: Learning Through Stories

While studying gas laws, high school chemistry students at Unionville High School in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, created children’s books about the properties of gases, geared toward ages 8-12, to display their understanding of the science conten...