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A Change in Seasons: Increasing Student Observation Skills
Journal Article |
The ability to accurately observe and notice small details is a skill important to scientists. To help students develop this skill, have them record and share observations, successively focusing in on smaller, more…
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The Pennies-as-Electrons Analogy
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Everyday experiences familiarize students with the ways in which electricity is used, but often the underlying concepts remain a mystery. Teachers often use analogies to help students relate the flow of electrons to…
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Students in a general education science course made significant gains in scientific reasoning skills when they were taught using carefully designed hands-on activities and writing assignments. The activities required…
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Captivating young children is at the heart of teaching, making it fun and challenging. Rogoff (1990) argued that children learn how to think and act in various settings mostly through informal apprenticeships in…
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Developing the Essential Features of Inquiry
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This lesson can be used at the beginning of the year to teach students how to conduct inquiries using the essential features described in Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards (NRC 1996). The lesson is…
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Flexible Professional Development
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Among the major challenges for teachers is finding time to translate what they learned during professional development programs into materials they can use in the classrooms. To address this and other concerns, the…
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Teaching fourth and fifth graders about engineering optimization and trade-offs.
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Safer Science: SC3 = Formula for Chemical Management
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The aim of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) “Schools Chemical Cleanout Campaign” (SC3) is to ensure that all schools are free from hazards associated with mismanaged chemicals, including science laboratories…
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Visualizing the Earth and Moon Relationship via Scaled Drawings
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Students’ difficulties with accurately conceptualizing the relationships among the Earth, Moon, and Sun are well documented. Any teacher who has seen the film A Private Universe (Schneps and Sadler 1988) will remember…
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This project is an Internet-based environmental project. Paper grocery bags are borrowed from local stores and students decorate the bags with environmental messages. The bags are then returned to the store and on Earth…
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Journal Article |
Wikis are particularly useful in education because they are easy to use, accessible, and allow students to collaborate on projects both in and outside of class. Most wiki platforms provide a “history” function that…
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Scope on the Skies: Dance of the planets
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This article highlights the movements of the planets during the months of November and December. It includes a set of observation-based questions for students, and the dates to observe the various phases of the moon.…
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After the Bell: Problem solving with parents
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This article features activities for students and parents to perform at home in an effort to get students and parents to work together on science.
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Science 2.0: Using Online Data
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This column shares web tools that support learning. This month’s issue discusses using online scientific data.
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Science and Technology: A Great Combination
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As educators meet the challenge of teaching a new generation of technologically literate and curious children, opportunities for classroom inquiry is crucial. The Internet becomes the perfect vehicle for assisting…
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