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Journal Article
Career of the Month: An Interview with Landscape Architect Brandon DeRosa
From planning the layout of a zoo to recreating wetlands impacted by a development project, landscape architects use a blend of science and art to design outdoor spaces. As a consultant for the restoration of natural sites, Brandon DeRosa strives to ...
Journal Article
Inquiry labs in the science classroom help students make connections and discover scientific relationships for themselves. This article describes an inquiry-based laboratory in which students explore the properties of a pendulum. This activity illust...
Journal Article
Inquiry in the Chemistry Classroom
A recent survey of high school chemistry teachers indicated that many teachers are not using inquiry labs in their classrooms. One reason is that although teachers understand the theory of inquiry, they lack practical experience developing and conduc...
Journal Article
Idea Bank: Diving Into Professional Development
The challenge of the Research and Education: Volcanoes, Exploration and Life (REVEL) Project, sponsored by the University of Washington School of Oceanography, is to teach, energize, and reinvigorate teachers, so that they can excite their students a...
Journal Article
The Virtual Gorilla Modeling Project (VGOR)—a professional development project—is a collaboration of middle and high school in-service teachers, Zoo Atlanta primatologists, science and computer educators, and students. During a 10-day professiona...
Journal Article
Astrobiology refers to the “origin, evolution, and distribution of life in the universe.” Astrobiologists study extreme environments on Earth and characterize the life forms that occupy them. These environments provide Earthly analogues to enviro...
Journal Article
Commentary: Taking Responsibility for Professional Development
The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 contains numerous references to “high-quality professional development. The quantity and the quality of professional development are critical issues in the NCLB Act with direct impact on student achieveme...
Journal Article
Editor's Corner: Learning to Like Professional Development
Science teachers today face unprecedented opportunities for professional development. From genomics to planetary exploration, new scientific discoveries are announced almost daily, discoveries that are changing our basic understandings of nature. New...
Journal Article
Teachers can easily identify what subjects their students have trouble with, whether it is transcription and translation, glycolysis and fermentation, balancing chemical equations, or vector analysis of forces acting on an object. This article descri...
Journal Article
Focusing Labs on the Nature of Science
After learning about the scientific method, students are often left with mistaken impressions about how scientists work. This article seeks to give students a better understanding of the nature of science through laboratory work. Open-ended exercises...
Journal Article
In contrast with statements by institutions and science organizations about why science should be studied, nonscience majors at two- and four-year institutions said they were enrolled in a science course because it was required rather than because it...
Journal Article
Incorporating History into the Science Classroom
The use of history in science courses can humanize science, help students refine their critical thinking skills, promote a deeper understanding of scientific concepts, and address common student misconceptions that often resemble those of past scient...
Journal Article
The authors conducted a research case study to ascertain the effect of a bridge program on fostering self-growth and academic readiness for college. Academic wholism provided the vehicle to promote self-awareness, self-motivation, and academic maturi...
Journal Article
Point of View: Mommy Love and the Sciences
At the university level, instructors who embody Mommy-love give high marks for effort, are very charismatic, and often have a large and vocal following of dedicated students. However, the science faculty is more likely to be populated by Daddy-love i...
Journal Article
Tech Trek: A different phase change
In physical science, we often use water to demonstrate change of state. However, this teacher demonstration will expose students to unfamiliar substances whose phase changes can be compared to those of water. Subsequently, a phase change that is in r...
Journal Article
Writing, in conjunction with other activities such as reading and hands-on experiences, contributes to greater critical thinking, thoughtful consideration of ideas, and better concept learning. This article discusses a comprehensive approach toward s...
Journal Article
Keys to Teaching the Nature of Science
Despite continuous and well-reasoned recommendations that students need to have an understanding of science as a human endeavor and the nature and history of science across all grade levels, some students and teachers alike still fail to understand e...
Journal Article
Science Sampler: On the shoulders of giants
To help students understand that what they learn in science class is the product of the hard work of those who have come before them, and to encourage them to be future contributors to our understanding of how nature works, the author developed The G...
Journal Article
Editor's Corner: News Flash—<em>Science Is Important</em>
This issue of The Science Teacher is our attempt to give you some tools to move the understanding of science to the majority, to help provide a more secure future for the scientific habit mind. In our classes, we must help students understand the s...
Journal Article
After the Bell: Mapping for geographic awareness -- Part I
Maps and mapping are of great importance in the field of education because mapping concepts are linked to the development of students’ thinking and cognitive structures. In addition, mapping concepts are based on students’ experiences and learni...
Journal Article
The project described here involved the design, implementation, and evaluation of an upper-level, undergraduate elective course for science majors. Specific course goals were to help students gain an appreciation of the interdisciplinary nature of as...
Journal Article
Society for College Science Teachers: Facilitator Versus Teacher
Educational fads in higher education are interesting phenomena. They seem to bubble up from the K-12 sector, but have little substantial research to support their use in the college setting. Fads seem to gain footholds easily but are not so easily di...
Journal Article
Science Sampler: Making an impact -- Shatter cones
In this geology activity, students visited the Beaverhead, Montana site of a meteor impact and mapped the locations of shatter cones, which are geologic formations characteristic of an impact site. Using a global positioning (GPS) device and the proc...
Journal Article
In this month’s column, the experts address the following question: My students wondered how scientists give scientific names to hybrids such as mules?...