Science Scope

Read NSTA's award-winning, peer-reviewed practitioner journal for middle level and junior high school science teachers.

Current Issue

September/October 2021

Creativity in the Science Classroom

What can you do to promote creative thinking in your classroom? Consider a project-based learning approach and involve your students in competitions, science fairs, and engineering tasks. Connect them to working scientists. Engage them with robotics. Above all, let them see you struggle with failure, because failure plays an important role in the engineering and design process. For it is failure that catalyzes us to analyze, refine, invent, and apply creative approaches and models for solving problems.

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Journal Article

Creativity in the Science Classroom

By Patty McGinnis

Interdisciplinary Teaching Strategies

Journal Article

By Daniel J. Bergman

Pre-service Teachers Assessment Inquiry Labs Lesson Plans New Science Teachers NGSS Pedagogy Teaching Strategies

Journal Article

Engaging and Empowering Students Through Choice

By Katie Coppens

Middle School Pre-service Teachers Assessment Earth & Space Science Instructional Materials Interdisciplinary Learning Progression Performance Expectations Teaching Strategies

Journal Article

Using Past Science Events

By William Sumrall and Kristen M. Sumrall

Middle School Crosscutting Concepts Curriculum General Science Instructional Materials Research Teaching Strategies Technology

Journal Article

Heat Reinvented

By Helen Zhang, David Jackson, Jeffrey Kiel, Leigh Estabrooks, So Lim Kim, Deoksoon Kim, Stephanie Couch, and G. Michael Barnett

Middle School Crosscutting Concepts Curriculum Engineering Interdisciplinary Multicultural Physical Science Science and Engineering Practices STEM

Journal Article

Crafting and Critiquing Climate Change Evidence Arguments

By Brian E. Gordon

Middle School Climate Change Earth & Space Science Environmental Science Teaching Strategies

Journal Article

Outrageous Optics

By Lisa Pike, Nathan Harness, Stephen Welch, and Dana Wright

Assessment Biology Curriculum Disciplinary Core Ideas Engineering General Science Inquiry Interdisciplinary Labs Life Science Maker Spaces NGSS Phenomena Physical Science Teaching Strategies

Journal Article

No Bones About It

By Lydia Lytal, Brooke A. Whitworth, and Gail Morton

Middle School Biology Crosscutting Concepts Instructional Materials Interdisciplinary Labs Life Science NGSS STEM

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