JoinAll Resources
Journal Article
Science on a Roll Part Two: How Many Sheets to Saturn?
Students gain a better appreciation for and understanding of the distances between the planets using a roll of toilet paper. This activity also integrates math, actively engages students, and promotes inquiry....
Journal Article
Science and Children’s editor shares thoughts and suggests an extraordinary effort to involve parents in their child's science learning. Try sharing your educational challenge with your students' parents--together this is a potent combination!...
Journal Article
Defining Inquiry: Exploring the many types of inquiry in the science classroom
Different types of lessons and different types of inquiry are used for specific needs in the science classroom. Understanding the different aspects of inquiry can help educators vary the types of teaching and learning experiences to better meet the n...
Journal Article
After the Bell: Science of the symphony II: Sound intensity
The sounds that reach our ears when we listen to an orchestra performance are founded on scientific and mathematical principles. The science of sound can be used to engage students in explorations of tone, pitch, frequency, and the decibel scale....
Journal Article
Tech Trek: Graphing calculators
Middle school science curriculum should include explorations of statistics in real-world situations that require students to collect, organize, and represent sets of data. A graphing calculator is the perfect tool to help achieve this goal....
Journal Article
It's All the News: Critiquing Evidence and Claims
To develop their ability to critique scientific claims, students evaluate the science behind articles on a fictitious Internet tabloid. Students critique the scientific claims, then make recommendations for ways to improve the credibility of the publ...
Journal Article
Commentary: Never Have an Ordinary Day
An opinion piece—from a retired science teacher—about ways to avoid having an ordinary day, featuring suggestions on things that can influence your teaching the most....
Journal Article
Mission to Mars: A Classroom Simulation
Upper elementary children build a scale-model Martian habitat by laying a grid over scattered items. They develop science-process skills by conducting research on Mars and evaluating data; mathematics skills by figuring basic population data; and lan...
Journal Article
Problem Solving in the Chemistry Laboratory
In a pilot project implemented at the University of Kansas, a team of instructors from the education and chemistry departments modified the introductory chemistry laboratory curriculum to center on problem-based inquiry learning units. The new labora...
Book Chapter
This first chapter deals with one of the most basic principles of motion, which happens to be known as Newton’s first law. Not coincidentally, it has something to do with Isaac Newton. It’s a nice law to start out with because it doesn’t requir...
Book Chapter
In order to get a more complete understanding of how and why things move the way they do, it is necessary to consult with Newton one more time. Newton's Third Law, which sums up this idea of objects pushing on each other and pushing back, is discusse...
Book Chapter
Round and Round and Round in the Circle Game
If you recognize where the title of this chapter came from, then you're showing your age and your taste for FM music in the old days. For the record (and it was a record), it comes from a song written by Joni Mitchell. Anyway, this chapter is all a...
Book Chapter
Energy is such a common notion. We talk about it all the time. Should you buy energy-efficient windows? The country needs an energy policy. That little kid at the store who screaming at the top of his lungs sure has a lot of energy. This chapte...
Book Chapter
Up until now, we've been talking about things having a certain amount of energy and not about things gaining, losing, or changing their form of energy. We've already seen how energy can change, though. A marble at rest at the top of a ramp has a ce...
Book Chapter
It Slices, It Dices--It Gathers Dust!
In case you can't tell from the title, this chapter is about machines. No, not salad shooters and makers of julienne fries but rather everyday things such as scissors and bottle openers and car jacks. These are known as simple machines, and they in...
Book Chapter
Temp-a-chur and Thermal Energy
In this chapter you will learn the basic concept of temperature and what it means for one thing to be hotter than another. The hotter something is, the faster its molecules are moving. And that means that a hot collections of molecules has more kin...
Book Chapter
Close the Door--You're Letting the Cold In!
Actually no, you aren't letting the cold in when you leave the door open in winter. That's a common misconception that will be gently put to rest in this chapter. There will, however, be a discussion of the tranfer of energy that makes things hott...
Book Chapter
Energy transformations take place all over the Earth without humans ever getting involved. Being the control freaks that we are, though, we spend a lot of time trying to direct those energy transformations to make our lives easier. This chapter is ...
eBook
Energy: Stop Faking It! Finally Understanding Science So You Can Teach it (e-Book)
Confounded by kinetic energy? Suspect that teaching about simple machines isn’t really so simple? Exasperated by electricity? If you fear the study of energy is beyond you, this entertaining book will do more than introduce you to the topic. It wi...
eBook
Force and Motion: Stop Faking It! Finally Understanding Science So You Can Teach it (e-Book)
Intimidated by inertia? Frightened by forces? Mystified by Newton’s law of motion? You’re not alone—and help is at hand. The stop Faking It! Series is perfect for science teachers, home-schoolers, parents wanting to help with homework—all of ...
Book Chapter
In Which We Describe Motion and Then Change It
As far as inanimate objects are concerned, if you know what the object is doing and know all the things that will affect that object, you can predict what the object will be doing at a later time. That's useful for lots of things, such as flying pla...
Book Chapter
There's No Such Thing as Gravity--The Earth Sucks
What happens when you drop an object on the ground? Though it might not be obvious, the object speeds up as it falls. That means it's accelerating and there must be a force acting on it. The force that's acting on it is--all together now--gravity. In...
NSTA Press Book
Energy: Stop Faking It! Finally Understanding Science So You Can Teach It
Confounded by kinetic energy? Suspect that teaching about simple machines isn’t really so simple? Exasperated by electricity? If you fear the study of energy is beyond you, this entertaining book will do more than introduce you to the topic. It wi...
By William C. Robertson, Ph.D.
NSTA Press Book
Force and Motion: Stop Faking It! Finally Understanding Science So You Can Teach It
Intimidated by inertia? Frightened by forces? Mystified by Newton’s laws of motion? You’re not alone—and help is at hand. The Stop Faking It! Series is perfect for science teachers, home-schoolers, parents wanting to help with homework—all of...
By William C. Robertson, Ph.D.
Journal Article
What are slurper balls? Slurper balls are a unique way to stimulate interest and develop science skills at the middle level. Teachers can enhance students’ data collection and graphing skills using an activity that investigates the chemical propert...
Journal Article
Commentary: Learning with Virtual Skies
An opinion piece about NASA"s Virtual Skies website developed with the goal of teaching aviation concepts to high school students. This article features two lessons designed to help students apply current genetics research and to enrich their underst...
Journal Article
Drawing Out the Quiet Voices: Making science lectures accessible to all students
Lectures are still a key component of most science courses. During a survey of student groups who find lectures particularly challenging, a science teacher implemented “interactive lectures,” a method of conveying concepts, ideas, facts, and info...
Journal Article
Tech Trek: Technology-based planetary exploration
The lesson in this article is an example of how science educators can incorporate the Internet into the classroom....
Journal Article
Taking Science Dialogue by Storm
One teacher examines classroom discourse through a unit on tornadoes and natural catastrophes....
Journal Article
Science Sampler: The atomic dating game
This chemistry activity helps students visualize and understand how and why atoms combine. This concept is critical to a student's understanding of chemistry....
Book Chapter
How Students Learn and How Teachers Teach
In this chapter, the author explores the relationship between learning theories and teaching practices. It compares three features of scientific and educational theories, provides an overview of some historically noteworthy learning theories and the ...
Book Chapter
Assessment involves an ongoing investigation of student learning that influences teachers’ planning and instruction. Multiple assessment strategies should be used to provide feedback to students and teachers. Such strategies include questioning, co...