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Journal Article

Salton: A Sea of Controversy

The Salton Sea is an accidental lake that receives used irrigation water from the Colorado River. Humans have profoundly altered the area’s ecosystems. The sea is important for wildlife and recreation but is now saltier than the ocean. How might it...

Journal Article

Lavosier Measures with Polymers

Measurement activities in middle school classrooms are usually lectures followed by an activity of measuring known samples. As an alternative, the author developed a creative, hands-on activity for teaching measurement skills inspired by Antoine Laur...

Journal Article

Studying Racial Bias: Too Hot to Handle?

Students evaluate a research proposal to determine if it is consistent with ethical principles and federal guidelines for the conduct of research with human subjects. The case can be taught either as a discussion case, as described here, or using rol...

Journal Article

Breathing Easy About New Air Pollution Standards

A town hall meeting is the backdrop for a role-playing case about ground-level ozone air pollution. The case consists of a flier and scripts drawn from public comment records on the current government mandate to reduce ground-level ozone by limiting ...

Journal Article

Integrating Forensic Science: Forensics can be the basis of a unique curriculum that fosters analytical thinking and problem solving

Forensic science is appealing because people want to be "detectives" in the general sense. This has resulted in an explosion of interest in the study of forensic science. This interest makes it an effective mechanism for teaching integrated science, ...

Journal Article

Conversion Contraption

It’s show time for eighth grade physical science students after a week of designing, building, and refining Conversion Contraptions. The contraptions are fun combinations of moving parts that use many forms of energy and many conversions of energy....

Journal Article

A Bad Day for Sandy Dayton

Designed to help nonscience majors learn about motion, forces, and kinetic energy, students reconstruct a rear-end car accident that takes place in an intersection outside their classroom. They then explore the relationships between the speed of a ve...

Journal Article

Assessing Air Quality: An integrated curriculum teaches high school science students about indoor air quality

The Science and Math Investigative Learning Experiences (SMILE) Program, a pre-college program at Oregon State University, developed an educational framework that enables teachers and students to adopt an integrated science format for studying local ...

Journal Article

GIRLS: Gifted, Intelligent, Real-Life Scientists—High school students teach younger girls at science camp

The Webb Schools break down the barriers that deter intelligent young women from studying science. The GIRLS Science Camp (GIRLS stands for gifted, intelligent, real-life scientists) is a week-long program where a select group of female high school ...

Journal Article

Puppets and Prose: Using puppets and children's literature in the science classroom

Adding puppets and children’s literature to the science classroom makes learning entertaining and motivating. Realistic puppets hold children’s attention and actively engage their natural curiosity as they learn about animals and insects. A mini,...

Journal Article

Thought Patterns in Science & Creationism: Understanding the vast difference between creationism and evolutionary theory

The concept of evolution has been an important part of biology curricula, especially in high school, since the 1960s. Nevertheless, teaching the subject continues to be controversial because of the efforts of creationists to have "creation science" t...

Journal Article

A Reflection on <em>Rocket Boys/October Sky</em> in the Science Classroom

As the author of Rocket Boys: A Memoir, Homer H. Hickam, Jr. received thousands of letters and e-mails from fans, including many science teachers at both the secondary and college levels, who have decided to use his work, including the spin-off movie...

Journal Article

The Dirt on Outdoor Classrooms

Tired of hauling materials into the schoolyard for outdoor science activities? Why not dig up what you need to create a permanent, central, outdoor space that lends itself to integrated learning? This article describes the three main components that ...

Journal Article

The Color of Soil: Exploring the chemistry of soil color

Soil color is a study of various chemical processes acting on soil. These processes include the weathering of geologic materials, the chemistry of oxidation-reduction actions upon various minerals of soil, and the biochemistry of the decomposition of...

Journal Article

Teaching Tomorrow’s College Science Courses: Are We Getting It Right? Preparing Students to Become Informed and Responsible Participants n the Decision-Making Process

The goal of educational reform in the United States is to shift from the dominant method of teaching facts to emphasizing higher-order cognitive skills (HOCS) learning. Outlining the benefits and feasibility of implementing HOCS-style learning, the a...

Journal Article

Assessment—A Way of Thinking About Learning—Now and in the Future: The Dynamic and Ongoing Nature of Measuring and Improving Student Learning

Assessment in our classrooms involves measuring: 1) individual student achievement to informally and formally judge student progress, and 2) total class learning to evaluate pedagogy and adjust teaching to maximize effectiveness. The author offers so...

Journal Article

Commentary: Those Were The Days

An opinion piece about reflecting back to when you were a child and sharing some science-related experiences in the classroom....

Journal Article

Mystery Boxes, X Rays, and Radiology

When teaching the electromagnetic spectrum, it is often difficult to move beyond the concepts of light and color and create memorable, hands-on learning experiences. How do you teach students that the twentieth century began with the discovery of the...

Journal Article

Multimedia Rocks: Using technology as a tool to improve achievement in science

As part of a unit on rocks and minerals, students engaged in hands-on, inquiry-based activities that helped them discover what geologists do, how to identify rocks and minerals, and how rocks change over time through the rock cycle. This article desc...

Journal Article

Editor's Corner: A Vision for the Trenches

The Science Teacher’s editor shares thoughts on the current issue....

Journal Article

Rocks and Minerals—Foundations of Society

Virtually everything we use—from the food we eat to the cars we drive—is produced from the Earth’s rock and mineral resources. As our society becomes more urbanized, students have fewer opportunities to interact with the Earth. As a result, stu...

Journal Article

Guest Editorial: Looking Ahead—Challenges and Rewards in Undergraduate Science Teaching—2000 and Beyond

An opinion piece about the rapidly changing future that students in undergraduate classes face—one that is difficult to imagine. This issue reflects on the impact these changes may have on teaching undergraduate science....

Journal Article

Commentary: The Courage of His Convictions

An opinion piece about the 75th anniversary of the Scopes "Monkey Trial."...

Journal Article

Idea Bank

This article features activities on the value of using authentic models for lab reports, learning by osmosis, and why it is essential to include units....

Journal Article

Electronic Leaf Project: An innovative method for plant identification

This article demonstrates the benefits of a direct application of technology into a science classroom by transferring a traditional activity, such as leaf identification, into an electronic format. The new dynamic medium possesses attributes that can...

Journal Article

Seeds for Thought: Teaching students to teach themselves

The experiment in this article erupted when a student shared that they had dumped grape juice into a flower bed and the custodian expressed frustration stating that nothing would grow. This prompted the teacher to design an experiment to determine if...

Journal Article

Research and Teaching: How Do College Students Best Learn Science? An Assessment of Popular Teaching Styles and Their Effectiveness

This paper is based on William Leonard’s “How Do College Students Learn Science?” Chapter 1 in Effective Teaching and Course Management for University and College Science Teachers, edited by E. Siebert, M. Caprio, and C. Lyda. Dubuque, IA: Kend...