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Journal Article

Ask the Experts—November 2006

The following questions are addressed in this month’s Ask the Experts column: “If energy is conserved and we begin to store “renewable” energy sources such as wind and solar energy, what happens to our environment as a result of this “missi...

Journal Article

Scope on the Skies: Eclipse cycles

The Moon's orbit around the Sun with the Earth brings it into position twice each month for an eclipse at new Moon and at full Moon. However, we do not have an eclipse pair each month, nor do we have an eclipse every two weeks. In this issue of Scope...

Journal Article

Get a Grip! A Middle School Engineering Challenge

Investigating the field of engineering offers the opportunity for interdisciplinary, hands-on, inquiry-based units that integrate real-world applications; yet, many K-12 students are not exposed to engineering until they enter college. Get a Grip! is...

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Every Day Science Calendar: November 2006

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

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Editor's Note: Reading Strategies for Science

In recent years, the increased attention to standards and achievement in reading has pushed the pendulum back towards incorporating reading within science content knowledge. Teachers are looking for ways to integrate reading and science, while also ...

Journal Article

Perspectives: The Synergy of Science and Reading

Elementary teachers today are faced with a lot of pressure to focus their efforts on teaching reading. Often this means that other disciplines, such as science, are squeezed in or (worse) left completely. Is it possible that teaching science can ac...

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Game Time!

Sharks and fishes is both a classic playground game and a lighthearted model to introduce second- to fourth-grade students to the concept of predation, or the relationships between a predator and its prey. This game has been incorporated in a learni...

Journal Article

Becoming Environmentally Literate Citizens

The RAFT technique (Santa 1988) is a writing strategy that helps students understand their Role as a writer, the Audience they will address, various Formats for writing, and the expected Topic or content. This article describes how students can use t...

Journal Article

Teacher's Toolkit: No Child Left Behind -- What does this mean to middle school science teachers?

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 is the historic education reform effort that President Bush proposed his first week in office, which Congress passed into law on January 8, 2002. NCLB reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act...

Journal Article

Editor’s Corner: Problem-Based Learning

Problem-based learning (PBL) is finding a place in more and more secondary school science programs as teachers discover its power to engage students and develop critical-thinking skills. In the best PBL scenarios, constructivist learning is driven by...

Journal Article

Science Sampler: The science of Star Wars -- Integrating technology and the Benchmarks for Science Literacy

Star Wars: The name alone implies action, adventure, the vastness of space, alien creatures, and of course, who can forget light sabers? Since the Star Wars saga has entertained millions of people around the world for years, the author decided to...

Journal Article

Editor's Corner: Digital Frontiers

In 1960, JFK's rallying cry was "We stand at the edge of a New Frontier--the frontier of unfulfilled hopes and dreams." Our newest frontier is a digital one. It has changed the way we work, the way we shop, the way we communicate, and the way we get ...

Journal Article

Hot Off the Press

Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP), a peer-reviewed environmental health research journal (published by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health,) provides the EHP Student Edition for ...

Journal Article

Shampoo, Soy Sauce, and the Prince's Pendant: Density for Middle-Level Students

This article describes a series of activities that are designed to clear up common student misconceptions regarding the difficult concepts of mass and density at the middle-level. Concept development, problem solving, design, measurement, and quantit...

Journal Article

Energy Bowlerama

A bowling alley isn’t just a hangout where adolescents eat pizza, drink soda, and socialize with their friends. It can be transformed into a giant physics laboratory where students study energy transfer and calculate factors affecting their game. T...

Journal Article

Teaching With Jazz: Using Multiple Cases to Teach Introductory Biology

Case studies challenge students to think, to process ideas at a higher and more complex cognitive level, and to experience science as a process rather than as a collection of facts. This article describes an introductory biology course sequence that...

Journal Article

Editor's Roundtable: Do state standardized science tests bring out the Chicken Little in us?

Recently, discussions of state standardized science tests have been spreading anxiety and dread in science department meetings and teacher lounges across the country. Before you run for cover in anticipation of the world crashing down around you, tak...

Journal Article

Sinking & Floating: A Graphical Representation of the Concept of Density

Density is a derived quantity that can be confusing for middle school students. Try using a graphical depiction of mass and volume to guide students in understanding and applying this concept. In this activity, students will collect various materials...

Journal Article

Science Shorts: Maximum Capacity

Many adults are more skilled in estimating “how long” and “how far” than in estimating other ways to measure—possibly because of the many instances of linear measurements in our everyday lives. Asking students to think about “how much it...

Journal Article

Kermit to Kermette? Does the Herbicide Atrazine Feminize Male Frogs?

This interrupted case study, developed for an honors seminar and a nonmajors chemistry course, is based on data taken from a series of published research articles. The case explores the unintended side effects of chemicals introduced into the enviro...

Journal Article

Sense of Wonder Science

Kids who do hands-on science are eager to talk about, write about, and read about their experiences. Those of us who have tried it know that this is true, but it’s still one of the best-kept secrets of the world of education!...

Journal Article

Scope on the Skies: Tidal forces

Tidal forces are gravitational and vary between objects; in this case between the Moon and Earth. With an elliptical orbit, the Moon's gravitational influence, its tidal force, on the Earth varies with each apogee and perigee. At perigee, one would e...

Journal Article

Science and Social Justice: Making the Case for Case Studies

Incorporating social justice into science curricula can attract and maintain the interest of students who shy away from science because of a lack of immediate relevance or role models, and permits them to make connections between what they learn in t...

Journal Article

Be a Citizen Scientist! Celebrate Earth Science Week 2006

During Earth Science Week (October 8-14, 2006), millions of citizen scientists world-wide sampled groundwater, monitored weather, toured quarries, explored caves, prepared competition projects, and visited museums and science centers to learn about E...

Journal Article

Assessment with Pumpkins

At the beginning of the year in life science, students learn about science equipment use, metric manipulation, and cells. This pumpkin activity assesses all these areas while the students enjoy themselves doing a seasonal activity. In addition, it ev...

Journal Article

Science Sampler: Building student mental constructs of particle theory

The concept of particle theory is a basic idea in chemistry and physics and leads students to understand why solids, liquids, and gases have different properties although they are they are made of the same materials. Understanding particle theory hel...

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Career of the Month: An Interview with Plant Geneticist John Stommel

As technology advances, so does the ability to better appreciate genetic diversity. Plant geneticists, such as John Stommel, use traditional research and biotechnology-based approaches to develop plants with improved quality, disease resistance, stre...

Journal Article

What's Hot? What's Not?

When Goldilocks finds three bowls of porridge at different temperatures in the three bears’ house, she accurately assess the situation and comes up with one of the most recognizable lines in children’s literature, “This porridge is too hot; thi...

Journal Article

Scope on Safety: (Lack of) safety in numbers?

What is the safe number of students for one teacher to teach? Like many issues in education, there is no one-size-fits-all answer. There are several factors that need to be considered when establishing the safe number of students to teach. In this mo...

Journal Article

A Platform to Stand On

One of the most powerful technology tools available to science teachers is often the least used. A course management system (CMS) is a web-based application that provides an online distance learning platform for teachers and students. CMS platforms s...

Journal Article

Science Sampler: Professor Color Presents... Acids, bases, and indicators

If you are looking for an exciting way to introduce a unit on acids, bases, and indicators, consider using the following demonstration, based on a chemistry presentation described by Hutton and Smith (1984), which has been adapted for use in the midd...

Journal Article

Activities that Really Measure Up

Linear measurement is more than just learning how to use a ruler. In the early grades, measurement activities develop students’ understanding of the properties of objects as well as what it means to measure objects. Hands-on activities can enable...

Journal Article

Editorial: Teaching With Cases -- Let Me Count the Ways

We're back, with yet another issue on the case study method of teaching. It's a method we think has expanding possibilities, especiallially in its application to science education. The use of stories to educate students has existed for thousands of...

Journal Article

Ask the Experts -- October 2006

In this month's Ask the Experts column, the following thought-provoking question is addressed: "Why did mother nature use uracil to replace thymine in mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid)? What is the advantage of using U instead of T in the RNA?"...

Journal Article

Building Knowledge & Intrigue: Creating an Interactive Science Museum

The energy and enthusiasm shown by young students walking through the doors of an interactive science museum is difficult to surpass. The excitement and wonder that informal science education generates were instrumental in the author’s decision to ...

Journal Article

Science Sampler: Mapping variables

One of the biggest obstacles students encounter during the inquiry process is conducting valid investigations. Many students get caught up in the questions they have, the variety of materials they have access to, and the excitement of "doing" science...

Journal Article

Idea Bank: More than Multiple-Choice

Multiple-choice questions typically dominate tests in high school chemistry classes. The modification described in this article requires students to explain their reasoning behind each multiple-choice answer. This testing format demands more grading ...