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  • Making Sense of Your Results: Interpreting Graphs

    Book Chapter |

    Graphs can tell a story and are like a silent interpreter. They give meaning to numbers and turn numbers into pictures, but words still need to be input. This chapter presents the case of the bean seed planted in a…

  • Explanations: Deepening Your Understanding: Analogies and Models

    Book Chapter |

    This chapter highlights the project—“The Right Nail for the Right Job”—and extends the understanding of the behavior of wood and nails. Scientists often use analogies to extend their understanding. Analogies help to “…

  • Sharing Your Findings: Talking About Your Project

    Book Chapter |

    After finishing investigations or experiments, scientists frequently present their findings at a conference. If their presentations are well received, scientists are then encouraged to send the papers to scientific…

  • Judging Projects: Making Judgments

    Book Chapter |

    Scientists often put themselves in other scientists’ shoes to make judgments by saying “if I had been doing that piece of research, what would I have done?” Making judgments involves making such comparisons. In this way…

  • Generating Ideas for Projects: Ideas From the Scientific Literature

    Book Chapter |

    Scientists keep in touch with one another by writing about their experiments in journals. These are the original sources of information that spread quickly to others through science magazines, newspaper reports, and…

  • What's the Moon Like Around the World?

    Book Chapter |

    A great deal of confusion arises from the lack of understanding about the Moon’s journey around the Earth and its apparent shape changes. This investigation is aimed at confronting this confusion by looking at the Earth…

  • What’s Hiding in the Woodpile?

    Book Chapter |

    Wood comes from trees, right? It is full of potential chemical energy that can produce heat when it is put into a stove or fireplace and burned. Yet, in this story, the Earth’s bounty seems to produce a cooler room.…

  • The New Greenhouse

    Book Chapter |

    This story is based upon using solar energy and a variety of materials to modify and channel this energy to capture and hold heat. Almost everybody has experienced the differences in temperature due to sunshine passing…

  • Where Did the Puddles Go?

    Book Chapter |

    Some students may not believe that it is possible for a puddle that appears larger to evaporate more quickly than one that seems smaller. The story in this chapter has to do with evaporation. The authors explore the…

  • Where Are The Acorns?

    Book Chapter |

    The main purpose of the “Cheeks” story is to get the children to learn something about the behavior of shadows cast by objects in sunlight. Although the story takes liberties with the “thoughts and projections” of…

  • The Coldest Time of the Day

    Book Chapter |

    The purpose of this story used in this chapter is to help students learn about the source of heat energy that warms their planet. Of course that is the Sun, and it only has an effect on the temperature of the Earth when…

  • Frosty Morning

    Book Chapter |

    The theme of the story can be summed up in one word: microclimates. Have you noticed that there are variations among the temperatures broadcasted on your radio or TV and your own thermometer? Have you noticed that there…

  • Master Gardener

    Book Chapter |

    This story is designed to spur an inquiry activity about the process of weathering and soil formation. Evidence lies all around us if we look closely enough and ask the right questions. Eddie is helping us by asking…

  • A Day on Bare Mountain

    Book Chapter |

    Students may have the idea that all mountains are volcanoes and were formed by eruptions. The story in this chapter brings up questions about the geology of mountains and the weathering and erosion that takes place as…

  • What Are The Chances?

    Book Chapter |

    Your students will probably not be aware of the amount of water that covers the Earth’s surface. The story in this chapter will help introduce students not only to a clearer idea of the characteristics of our planet,…

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