JoinAll Resources
Journal Article
Everybody Needs a Rock by Byrd Baylor (1974) is an inspiring book in which the author invites readers to go “rock finding” by laying out ten rules for finding a “perfect” rock. In this way, the book encourages children to look closely, using ...
Journal Article
The Experts address the following question in this month’s column: "Since helium is an inert gas that drifts to space, where do we get the helium that we use here on Earth for balloons and other applications?"...
Journal Article
One strategy for enhancing students’ understanding of nanoscale is to shift students’ existing understandings of relative scale by helping them conceptually transport their strongest scale benchmark—themselves—into the nanoscale world. This a...
Journal Article
Science Sampler: Differentiated assessment
One of the goals of science education is to encourage students to think and reason at increasingly higher levels. In order to accomplish this goal, the authors created a unique form of assessment that not only encourages students to work at the highe...
Journal Article
Idea Bank: Students as Nano-Detectives
Nanotechnology is quickly beginning to revolutionize medicine, building materials, electronics, and even the clothes we wear. The internet offers a plethora of information, images, and interactive simulations dealing with the world at a nanoscale lev...
Journal Article
Three Steps for Better Reading in Science: Before, During, and After
It’s exciting to have a beautiful new science textbook—if students can read it! Unfortunately, many students can’t read their science textbook unassisted. Since reading and critical thinking skills are an integral component of science, teachers...
Journal Article
Every Day Science Calendar: December 2006
This monthly feature contains facts and challenges for the science explorer. ...
Journal Article
Teaching through Trade Books: Rock Solid Science
Children are naturally curious about the world around them, including the rocks beneath their feet. By observing, describing, and sorting a variety of rocks, students can discover that rocks have certain physical properties by which they can be class...
Journal Article
Science Sampler: Consistency + Diversity = Scientific Literacy
Celebrate diversity, build a sense of community, and foster science literacy in each of your students by implementing the strategies that are described in this article. Students will learn how to communicate within small groups and how to become inde...
Journal Article
The black box activity described in this article, created as part of the National Science Foundation-funded Internships in Public Science Education Program (IPSE) at the University of Wisconsin—Madison, introduces students to the idea of remote ima...
Journal Article
Though you can’t tell just by looking at them, layers of sediments tell us much about Earth’s history—when the ocean flooded continents, when mountains were formed, when climate was warmer or cooler, and so much more. Stratigraphy, the study o...
Journal Article
Student inquiry projects with first graders? What a frightening idea! At least that’s what one first-grade teacher thought until she actually did it. Although she taught and extended the inquiry-based science kits with gusto, she had done little to...
Journal Article
Perspectives: On Writing in Science
Many teachers use writing in science as a recording tool (science notebooks) or to find out what students have learned (constructed response tests). Yet writing experts Judith Langer and Arthur Applebee (1987) tell us that writing to evaluate knowled...
Journal Article
Issues In-depth: The ins and outs of curbside recycling
In recent years, numerous municipalities in the United States and abroad have implemented either mandatory or voluntary curbside recycling programs. While the materials are not recycled at the curbside, the term curbside recycling generally represe...
Journal Article
Science Sampler: Special lessons from special needs students
Something amazing happens when you change your teaching methods to accommodate learners at all ability levels: It can improve your overall success as a teacher. In this article, the author shares five lessons that she has learned from students with s...
Journal Article
Science Sampler: Thriving in the co-taught classroom
Classrooms are becoming more diverse as students with specific learning needs are moved out of self-contained special education classrooms and into mainstreamed classrooms with their non-disabled peers. The use of the co-teaching model allows for ext...
Journal Article
Career of the Month: An interview with Ear, Nose, Throat Doctor Scott Howard
Ear, nose, and throat complaints, such as allergies, ear infections, sinusitis, and sore throats, are the number one reason people go to the doctor. Diseases and disorders of the head and neck, particularly the ear, nose, and throat (ENT), are treate...
Journal Article
The NSTA President's Message: Feedback and Response
In her editorial, “Quality Science Teachers: Essential to America’s Future,” which appeared in the September 2006 issue of several NSTA journals, NSTA President Linda Froschauer wrote passionately about the importance of cultivating the science...
Journal Article
The Early Years: Rocks Tell a Story
Sedimentary rocks, formed by an accumulation of sediments (tiny pieces of rocks or minerals) in a water environment, tell a story that many students may be familiar with. They may have visited areas where water or wind carried sediments and deposited...
Journal Article
Many microscopy activities used in classrooms involve observations of structures in cells and organisms, and in research the microscope is an important and powerful tool for investigating cellular processes. To introduce high school students to exper...
Journal Article
Paper Towers: Building students' understandings of technological design
“What do you think the National Science Education Standards are referring to when they talk about science and technology?" The authors posed this question to a group of undergraduate education majors during a science teaching methods course. The st...
Journal Article
Repairing Femoral Fractures: A Model Lesson in Biomaterial Science
Biomaterial science is a rapidly growing field that has scientists and doctors searching for new ways to repair the body. A merger between medicine and engineering, biomaterials can be complex subject matter, and it can certainly capture the minds of...
Journal Article
The Early Years: Communicating About Collections
Children love to collect all kinds of things, from sticks to colorful leaves to trading cards. These objects are special to children because they found the objects and chose them for a quality determined by them. For preschool students, the quality...
Journal Article
Using technology to Blend Teaching and Basic Research
The CHANCE (Connecting Humans and Nature in the Costa Rican Environment) program is a coordinated effort between The Pennsylvania State University (PSU) and the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) that trains 9th- through 12th-grade teachers ...
Journal Article
Using Biographies in Science Class
One fifth grade teacher recalls the conversations that took place in grad school regarding the nature of science and science as a human endeavor after her fifth grade students inquired about what a scientist looks like. Students shared descriptions ...
Journal Article
Nanomedicine: Problem Solving to Treat Cancer
Students rarely have the opportunity to delve into the unknown and brainstorm solutions to cutting-edge, unsolved science problems that affect thousands of people. To counter this trend, the following activity was developed to expose students to issu...
Journal Article
Favorite Demonstration: Using a Demonstration for an End-of-Semester Review
Demonstrations are an ideal way to end a course, and can be much more than a fun or even memorable diversion before the intense week of final exams. When paired with an in-class worksheet, they can serve as an excellent course review mechanism, offer...
Journal Article
Science Sampler: Catapulting into technological design
Unleash your students' interest in technological design by implementing this exciting, hands-on activity into your science curriculum. In this activity, students explore levers by designing and building a working catapult. Each catapult is tested for...
Journal Article
Science 101: Why is Pluto no longer a planet?
On August 24, 2006, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) decided that Pluto was no longer a planet, but rather a "dwarf planet". Our understanding of the solar system has not undergone any radical changes, our understanding of Pluto did not ch...
Journal Article
Teaching Through Trade Books: Moving My Body
The human body is amazing! This month's trade books help students understand their growing bones, muscles, and joints while engaging in some investigations to help them become aware of their bodies and how exercise helps their bodies stay strong....
Journal Article
Primary Students and Informational Texts
Anyone who has spent time looking into science books with young children has no doubt experienced the endless questions that the information and visuals in the books can stimulate. Can snakes climb trees? How do frogs hide from predators? Why do v...
Journal Article
This article presents an approach for integrating instruction of scientific writing and reading into undergraduate science courses, inspired by the pedagogical theory of cognitive apprenticeship. Included, is a demonstration of its implementation and...
Journal Article
Retaining Undergraduate Women in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering
The purpose of this research study was to examine the effectiveness of a program in retaining women in science, mathematics, and engineering majors. Undergraduate women participating in a support and mentoring program were compared with nonprogram ...
Journal Article
Editor's Roundtable: Classroom benefit of being bionic!
The National Science Education Standards indicate that “technology as design is included in the Standards as parallel to science as inquiry.” As a result, this issue of Science Scope contains a collection of design and construction activiti...
Journal Article
Science Shorts: Seeing is Believing
Many students enjoy the reading about new worlds or imaginary places. The world of microscopy can generate the same kind of excitement and help children rethink the immature idea that only what they see exists. This month's Science Shorts explores ...