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Science Sampler: Familiar toys and abstract ideas

Journal Article

Science Sampler: Familiar toys and abstract ideas

In this article, learn how to use some toys to teach students various abstract science concepts, such as ratios, percentages, and conservation of mass....

It's Alive: Students observe air-water interface samples rich with organisms

Journal Article

It's Alive: Students observe air-water interface samples rich with organisms

After collaboration with a university researcher, students found that the air-water interface was a thin biofilm on the surface of still water composed of a rich variety of living microorganisms. Samples exposed to day-night intervals and in total da...

A Pond Investigation

Journal Article

A Pond Investigation

What lives in the pond? Did frogs hop from another pond to ours? How do tadpoles get into the pond? And Could our pond be polluted? These questions were addressed in a professional development program that takes advantage of a school pond to teach en...

Rolling on the River: Professional mentors motivate students to learn environmental science

Journal Article

Rolling on the River: Professional mentors motivate students to learn environmental science

Students participate in an interdisciplinary project, Research@the.River.com. By collaborating with their professional mentors while working in the field, students learned environmental science curricula through discussion and interaction. Most impor...

Idea Bank: Fruit Fundamentals

Journal Article

Idea Bank: Fruit Fundamentals

The Idea Bank provides tips and techniques for creative teaching, in about 1,000 words. This month’s Idea Bank features a unique activity using halved apples, oranges, and onions as the "specimens" that teaches necessary dissection skills to prepa...

Writing a Statement of Teaching Philosophy

Journal Article

Writing a Statement of Teaching Philosophy

Writing a statement of teaching philosophy is a cornerstone of reflective and scholarly practice in teaching and learning. A strategic set of practical and philosophical guidelines, including a definition, elements, and structure of a statement of te...

Weekly Reports: Student Reflections on Learning

Journal Article

Weekly Reports: Student Reflections on Learning

Weekly reports, a structured journal form of formative assessment, allow instructors to receive information from the students, to address students’ difficulties in a timely manner, and to alter their instruction based on the students’ needs. In a...

Wacky Machines: A unit on simple machines gets a new twist with old junk

Journal Article

Wacky Machines: A unit on simple machines gets a new twist with old junk

The next community yard sale might be a repository of old, quirky items that are just the things to get students thinking about simple machines. By introducing some "wacky machines" at lab stations as mystery objects, teachers can watch students' min...

Editor's Note (May 2002)

Journal Article

Editor's Note (May 2002)

Science and Children’s editor shares thoughts regarding the current issue, and also the neighborhood excitement of a bird building a nest on the front porch. ...

Research and Teaching: Practical Considerations for Assessing Inquiry-Based Instruction

Journal Article

Research and Teaching: Practical Considerations for Assessing Inquiry-Based Instruction

Research shows that inquiry learning promotes achievement and positive student attitudes toward science. One obstacle to implementing inquiry learning, however, is the development and use of appropriate assessments. This difficulty can be eased by ta...

Pond Life Magnified

Journal Article

Pond Life Magnified

An aquatic insect aquarium is a great tool for teaching students about life cycles, food webs, environmental niches, and adaptations to pond life. Complete directions for setting up the aquarium are provided, along with several ideas for investigatio...

Students as Storytellers

Journal Article

Students as Storytellers

Students enrolled in an Enhanced Bioscience Education (EBE) program maintained two documents: a group notebook to record observations made in the bioscience laboratory and a personal journal to note reactions to the literature read in the humanities ...

What Do Amphibians Have to Offer? Students monitor and map amphibians in local pond habitats

Journal Article

What Do Amphibians Have to Offer? Students monitor and map amphibians in local pond habitats

Scientists have expressed concern over amphibian decline. In a cooperative project with a university and a local high school, students monitor and map amphibians in local pond habitats and try to distinguish population fluctuations from actual declin...

What A Puzzle!

Journal Article

What A Puzzle!

At its heart, science is fundamentally about solving questions, or puzzles. Puzzles are those things to which the solution is unknown—now. Each generation of scientists tackles an array of problems, solving some and leaving many more to future gene...

Acting Out Science

Journal Article

Acting Out Science

Role-playing is an effective summative activity that aids student learning and integrates science information and concepts. The authors describe the use of a role-play activity. Senate hearings centered around the theme of global climate change, and ...

Science Sampler: The Iron (Fe) Scientist

Journal Article

Science Sampler: The Iron (Fe) Scientist

Can pennies be used to teach science? Learn how in this article using the science lesson, or Iron (Fe) scientist competition. as the author called it, The lesson was created for pre-service teachers but can be easily adapted to students....

It's NOT Just a Theory: Why teachers need to address the nature of science and the "hidden" curriculum

Journal Article

It's NOT Just a Theory: Why teachers need to address the nature of science and the "hidden" curriculum

As science educators we are faced with some issues associated with our choice of words and their implications for learning outcomes. Because the “hidden” curriculum influences student learning, it is important that terms such as theory and conce...

Take It Outside!

Journal Article

Take It Outside!

Hands on the Land, a new initiative to promote the use of public lands for environment-based education, consists of a national network of field classrooms designed to link students, teachers, and parents to national public lands. Each education site ...

230 Million Tons of Trash

Journal Article

230 Million Tons of Trash

Help slow the growth of landfills with strategies found in this month's insert provided by Keep America Beautiful, Inc. ...

Summer Science Camp, Anyone?

Journal Article

Summer Science Camp, Anyone?

While most schools offer different types of camps, a growing number are offering summer science camps. This provides a way for children to enjoy the summer while learning science at the same time. One school looked to Camp Invention® for its summer ...

Summing It Up: Teaching summary writing to enhance science learning

Journal Article

Summing It Up: Teaching summary writing to enhance science learning

Students can learn to recognize information that is most important to the author of a science article or book by using repeated references and generalization. This strategy—designed for college reading classes but adapted for secondary school scien...

Science Sampler: Exploring Floating Concrete and Beam Design

Journal Article

Science Sampler: Exploring Floating Concrete and Beam Design

These construction activities increase students' awareness of math and science careers, especially in the area of engineering....

Reconstructing the Geologic Timeline:
Adding a constructivist slant to a classic activity

Journal Article

Reconstructing the Geologic Timeline: Adding a constructivist slant to a classic activity

The geologic timeline activity is revisited, adding a constructivist slant. This project provides evidence that time-honored activities still have a place in today's science classes. ...

Science Adventures at the Local Museum

Journal Article

Science Adventures at the Local Museum

To promote science learning outside the traditional classroom and encourage preservice teachers to use hands-on science, a local university and museum partner to promote informal science education....

Tech Trek: Personal digital assistants

Journal Article

Tech Trek: Personal digital assistants

The personal digital assistant (PDA) is rapidly becoming an essential classroom tool. This article provides an overview of some of the science related programs available to classroom teachers....

What Does It Mean To Be Standards-Based? Examining Standards and initiatives in the classroom

Journal Article

What Does It Mean To Be Standards-Based? Examining Standards and initiatives in the classroom

The standards-based teacher is patient, working to create a classroom climate that supports a need to know and explain on the part of the students. This article features a brief history of the benchmarks and Standards and provides a checklist of crit...

Project FLORA: Flora Love Our Revegetation Areas

Journal Article

Project FLORA: Flora Love Our Revegetation Areas

A small school district in southwestern Texas comes together to protect its own backyard. In this project students collected native seed, built a greenhouse to propagate native plants from this seed, learned to identify disturbed areas within the par...

Commentary: The Digital Divide

Journal Article

Commentary: The Digital Divide

An opinion piece about the technology gap....

Toying with Motion: Exploring Newton's laws of motion with student activities

Journal Article

Toying with Motion: Exploring Newton's laws of motion with student activities

Students are motivated to understand and apply Newton’s laws of motion by playing with toys. This activity allows students to demonstrate their understanding of the laws of motion and requires far more than just memorization. ...

The Coast Guard Comes to Class

Journal Article

The Coast Guard Comes to Class

The United States Coast Guard offers many programs and resources without cost to teachers and their students. The author describes his visit to a sixth-grade classroom, where he demonstrates an oil spill and explains how pollution affects the marine ...

Scope on the Skies: April's planetary line up

Journal Article

Scope on the Skies: April's planetary line up

This column focuses on astronomy throughout the year. Sit back and enjoy the month of April as the five brightest planets are arranged over the western horizon at sunset....

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