Twisters, Tall Tales, & Science Teaching

Journal Article | June 2006

Legends and tall tales have been part of the American culture for ages. Your students are probably already familiar with the tales of how Pecos Bill fearlessly tamed a ferocious tornado, or Paul Bunyan effortlessly…

Editor’s Corner: Community Service Learning—Making Education Interesting and Relevant

Journal Article | March 2007

It makes good sense that community service learning can engage students. For students at risk of dropping out, it may provide the vital connection with adults and peers—and the opportunity for interesting, authentic…

Building Science Process Skills

Journal Article | December 2005

A well-designed and executed field trip experience serves not only to enrich and supplement course content, but also creates opportunities to build basic science process skills. This article describes an onsite trip to…

Editor’s Note: Teaching Observation—Aim Higher

Journal Article | January 2008

Observation is a fundamental process in science. It is a skill that many science curricula emphasize. It seems like such a simple skill, but observation skills are not quite so simply mastered. Like anything else, just…

Community-Based Inquiry Lessons

Journal Article | February 2010

The National Science Education Standards suggest that students work as real scientists in the classroom (NRC 1996; 2000). To accomplish this task, the authors developed community-based inquiry lessons (CBILs) that…

Moving Research Into the Classroom: Successful Adaptations at a Service Academy

Journal Article | February 2006

To promote research exposure for biology students, a team developed a successful classroom-based research program in two elective courses. Students work in small groups mentored by faculty and allotted class time to…

The Early Years: Safe Smelling

Journal Article | September 2009

Using the sense of smell, animals find food or a mate and detect the presence of predators; their survival depends on this. In a discussion on using our sense of smell to keep use safe, some children may relate…

Science on Wheels: A school bus turned mobile laboratory brings biotechnology curricula and activities to schools

Journal Article | December 2000

This mobile science outreach project began as an extension of Citylab—a biotechnology learning laboratory for Boston middle and high school students and teachers at Boston University School of Medicine. Quality science…

Guest Editorial: Action Research—Expanding the role of classroom teachers to inquirers and researchers

Journal Article | August 2010

NSTA is breaking new ground with this month’s issue of Science Scope. For the first time, an NSTA journal is focused on action research and the role teachers play as classroom researchers. This issue chronicles the…

Science 101: What writing represents what scientists actually do?

Journal Article | October 2005

This article addresses whether or not a report based on scientific method accurately represents what scientists do as well as what kind of writing scientists engage in that goes beyond the reporting of conclusions.

Encouraging Equitable Enrollment—A Second Look: Five-year study results reflect increased science enrollment from underrepresented groups

Journal Article | January 2002

In 1997, Project JUST (Join Underrepresented in Science and Technology) was launched. This school system project increased the number of underrepresented minority students taking and completing high school science and…

Research and Teaching: Gauging Students’ Learning in the Classroom

Journal Article | October 2001

To find out what helps students to learn, the author administered Elaine Seymour’s Student Assessment of their learning Gains instrument to her introductory biology classes. Using the student feedback from the 1998…

Commentary: Challenging Gifted Students

Journal Article | December 2002

Gifted students in many states are not always provided the opportunity to take challenging advanced courses of study. Find out what steps the state of Virginia is taking to change this.

Mentors in Medicine

Journal Article | February 2000

Educators and scientists alike acknowledge the shortage of minorities pursuing science careers. To address this problem, West Virginia University (WVU) has created the Health Sciences and Technology Academy (HSTA),…

Research Collaboration With Learning-Disabled Students: Strategies for Succesful Student-Faculty Partnerships

Journal Article | October 2006

The process of a successful undergraduate student-faculty research collaboration involving a student with documented learning disabilities is detailed. As the student developed research skills, she also learned how to…