All Resources

Journal Article

Science 101: What causes the seasons?

In this article, we learn about the relationship between the Earth and the sun at certain times of the year. Certain myths are broken, and we get a real lesson on what causes the seasons....

Journal Article

Fabulous Weather Day

Each year, first graders at Kensington Parkwood Elementary School in Kensington, Maryland, look forward to Fabulous Weather Day. After studying weather for three months, we celebrate what we have learned and stretch our thinking further into the weat...

Journal Article

Combustion and Energy Transfer Experiments: A Laboratory Model for Linking Core Concepts Across the Science Curriculum

Core concepts can be integrated throughout lower-division science and engineering courses by using a series of related, cross-referenced laboratory experiments. Starting with butane combustion in chemistry, we expanded the underlying core concepts of...

Journal Article

After the Bell: Making a community information guide about nonpoint source pollution

A good slogan to introduce this project is “think globally, act locally.” The purpose of the project is to inform students that the actions they take at home may have a far-reaching effect. The assignment will help to create community awareness a...

Journal Article

Breaking the Sound Barrier

Student interest in science has been amplified at one elementary school. During a recent unit on sound, students in a fourth-grade class participated in a series of dynamic sound learning centers followed by a dramatic capstone event— an exploratio...

Journal Article

Research and Teaching: Small-Group Peer Teaching in Introductory Biology Classroom

All teachers want their students to learn, enjoy, and be engaged in their classes. A good way to create such results is to incorporate active learning approaches into classrooms. Many teachers, however, do not know how to start making these changes a...

Journal Article

Preparing Future Faculty: An Interdisciplinary, Undergraduate Science Course Taught by Graduate and Postdoctoral Teacher-Scholars

To adequately prepare future faculty for their multiple roles as researchers, teachers, and colleagues, innovative teaching opportunities must be made available to doctoral students that allow them to maintain a high level of research productivity ...

Journal Article

Using Science Fiction Movie Scenes to Support Critical Analysis of Science

This article discusses the pedagogical advantages and challenges of using science-fiction movies and television shows in an introductory science class for elementary teachers. Two instructional episodes are described in which scenes from the movies R...

Journal Article

Teacher’s Toolkit: Making the most of concept maps

A concept map is a two-dimensional, graphic or schematic diagram illustrating the interconnections, and often the hierarchy, of a particular concept or topic. Concept maps are especially important in teaching science because they depict the interrela...

Journal Article

Tabizi Pythons & Clendro Hawks: Using Imaginary Animals to Achieve Real Knowledge about Ecosystems

In the engaging unit described here, imaginary organisms are used to teach a variety of topics related to ecosystems—food chains and energy flow, food webs, limiting factors, carrying capacity, and the effects of natural and human-made events on ec...

Journal Article

Analogies and the 5E Model

We have all sat in classes in which a teacher made a difficult or abstract concept understandable by using an analogy. Science classes are full of abstract or challenging concepts that are easier to understand if they are related to something from ou...

Journal Article

Scope on Safety: Is safety included in your science activity kits?

For some school districts, the convenience, organization, curriculum scope, and sequence provided by science kits make them a tempting choice for incorporating hands-on, process- and inquiry-based science in the classroom. When teachers consider adop...

Journal Article

Classroom Applications of Top-Down & Bottom-Up Processing

Recent research in cognitive neuroscience has yielded a more comprehensive understanding of brain function. The advances in neuropsychological research have greatly added to our understanding of top-down and bottom-up processing. However, top-down an...

Journal Article

Science Sampler: Ozone notebook

To combat the problems associated with high levels of ground-level ozone, the Clean Air Act of 1970 called on all government agencies to take measures to reduce ground-level ozone in our air to 120 parts per billion (ppb). Detection of ozone levels i...

Journal Article

Society for College Science Teachers: Finding Time Through Specialization

As part of the Early Career Development Program at the Institute of Teaching and Learning Excellence, colleagues presented a segment entitled Managing My Course. Among the key points was the notion that effective classroom management helps provide t...

Journal Article

Editor’s Roundtable: Granny knew best!

If our citizens are ever to be effective stewards of our environment, acting responsibly needs to be modeled and taught at home, and reinforced by the school and the rest of the community. We must also get our students out of the classroom and into t...

Journal Article

Science Sampler: Bubbles on a soda can: A demonstration of Charles’s Law

The bubbles-on-a-soda can activity is an illustration of Charles’ law, which states that for a fixed amount of gas, there is a direct relationship between the temperature of the gas and its volume. In other words, if the temperature of a fixed amou...

Journal Article

A DASH of Inspiration

When most of us think about how we learned science, we generally remember it as a textbook-based affair, with experiments set-up in advance by a teacher. We tend to think of science as a body of facts to be memorized and of inquiry as a set of teache...

Journal Article

Teaching Anatomy and Physiology Using Computer-Based, Stereoscopic Images

Learning real three-dimensional (3D) anatomy for the first time can be challenging. Two dimensional drawings and plastic models tend to over-simplify the complexity of anatomy. The approach described uses stereoscopy to create 3D images of the proces...

Journal Article

Methods and Strategies: Science Homework Overhaul

Do your students groan when you announce a homework assignment? Do they have so much math and language arts homework that they just don’t have time for science homework? Does the homework you give help students to better understand key science conc...

Journal Article

Tech Trek: The size of things to come

While using photos and illustrative images for teaching purposes is very appealing, you are likely to find that digital images of any kind take up a lot of storage space. In fact, many of the technological enterprises that teachers undertake are stor...

Journal Article

Editor's Roundtable: Leveling the playing field

Special education has evolved from separate classroom settings, to pull-out programs, to mainstreaming, to the current practice of full inclusion. Inclusion involves many more regular education teachers than did previous special education programs. I...

Journal Article

Personal Care Chemistry as a Bridge to Careers in Science and Technology

This activity in personal care chemistry seeks to provide middle school girls with an opportunity to learn firsthand about science and engineering technology. The activities--the preparation of lip balm and hand lotion--are fun, easy to do, and they ...

Journal Article

Science Sampler: Success for all is just a heartbeat away

To unlock student understanding and enable a large percentage of the class to successfully complete a full range of inquiry activities, try using the differentiated instruction approach described in this article. Students of varying levels will thriv...

Journal Article

Scope on Safety: Collaborating safely

With the advent of inclusion legislation such as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) or PL 105-17 Reauthorization Action of 1997, many schools have focused on teaching partnerships between regular education and special education te...

Journal Article

Scope on the Skies: The real shape of the Moon's orbit

In the typical Moon phase lesson, students learn that the rotation period for the Moon is approximately the same as its revolution period around the Earth. However, as your students complete the following activity, they will discover that the Moon's ...

Journal Article

Editor’s Corner: Small Science

We know that nanotechnology offers real possibilities. It already appears in commercial products such as computers, sunscreens, high-performance sporting equipment, and stain-resistant fabrics. The evolution from vacuum tubes to transistors and high-...

Journal Article

Seeing the Unseen

The National Center for Learning and Teaching Nanotechnology (NCLT) based at Northwestern University is developing “nanoconcept” materials to bring nanoscience into the classroom. These materials center around key new concepts in nanoscience, inc...

Journal Article

Science Shorts: Nothing But Blue Skies

Why is the sky blue? Why are sunsets orange and red? These are some of children’s favorite questions to ask, but answering them at a level appropriate for primary students’ level of understanding can be tricky, even for veteran teachers. In order...

Journal Article

Fats, Oils, and Colors of Nanoscale Materials

Phase changes and intermolecular forces are important physical science concepts but are not always easy to present in an active learning format. This article presents several interactive activities in which students plot the melting points of some fa...

Journal Article

Science Sampler: Mail time! Addressing student questions in science class

How can you encourage students to question and explore their day-to-day encounters with science and still get through the curriculum for the year? At a local hardware store--you'll discover the solution--a big metal mailbox. It has all the trimmings:...

Journal Article

14 Writing Strategies

That a relatively small piece of writing such as Albert Einstein's three-page paper of relativity could be so important certainly illustrates the significance of writing to science. A science class is not complete unless it helps students learn to th...

Journal Article

The Structures and Properties of Carbon

The four main forms of carbon—diamond, graphite, buckyballs, and CNTs—are an excellent vehicle for teaching fundamental principles of chemical bonding, material structure, and properties. Carbon atoms form a variety of structures that are intrins...

Journal Article

What Happened to Our Volcano?

One third grade teacher reflects on her students living by the ocean and their frequent jaunts to the beaches where expansive slabs of granite jut out into the sea. During the summer, they run along the rocks and explore the cracks and crevices. Thro...

Journal Article

Science 101: Is it possible to turn coal into diamonds?

How cool would it be to be Lois Lane? Anytime she wants a diamond, she just has Superman use his super strength to squeeze a lump of coal. But is this really possible? Using a high enough temperature and enough pressure, can you turn coal into diamon...

Journal Article

Science Sampler: Rocket boys and girls

Teachers at a middle school located in West Virginia didn’t want their students to limit themselves to local jobs when faced with future career decisions. They wanted them to investigate a world of science within their state that they might not be ...

Journal Article

This Land is Your Land

Soil is all around us, in fact there is so much of it that we often don’t think of it as a valuable natural resource, and we might even take it for granted! We rely on its productivity for our food and fiber and its firmness to support our building...

Journal Article

Commentary: Putting Nanotechnology Under the Microscope

Nanotechnology is all over the news: Particles that become translucent or change color according to size! Particles smaller than viruses in the shape of hollow soccer balls! Particles that can destroy tumors, prevent sunburn, and keep your windows cl...