The pet care service industry is booming. The U.S. Census Bureau (2019) recorded pet service industry payroll numbers at almost $11.2 billion (excluding veterinarian services). In this teaching case, Mark, the owner of a successful dog boarding business, is looking to capitalize on that growth as he expands his customer demographic to welcome cats…

Philosophy is concerned with fundamental questions about knowledge, truth, reality, experience, justice and what is right and wrong. In this article, the authors discuss how philosophy and science can be taught together in the primary classroom.

Many K-16 educators agree that active learning is a key component for student success in life sciences. At the same time, some instructors are frustrated by inconsistent student participation in these activities and may revert to traditional teaching strategies. Horse caregivers face a similar frustration when they lead a horse to water and it…

Visual data--or visual sources of information--are a crucial part of helping students understand STEM concepts, improve their reading skills, and engage in science and engineering practices (Finson and Pedersen 2011). Indeed, many science and engineering practices require students to make meaning from visual data. When students are developing and…

This article provides two activities, exploring genetic drift of small breeding populations, highlighting the black-footed ferret ("Mustela nigripes"). According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service, all black-footed ferrets are descended from 18 individuals, making them extremely vulnerable to genetic drift. They were thought to be…

This column provides original articles on innovations in case study teaching, assessment of the method, as well as case studies with teaching notes. This hybrid case has three overarching and interrelated goals. First, it can be used to familiarize students with a range of ecological concepts and terms. Second, it is intended to engage students in…

While curriculum designed as project-based learning is not suitable for use with every science standard, this methodology can be used when teaching concepts that naturally contain some flexibility. With small adaptations, teachers can implement these practices into the classroom regardless of the grade level. This article provides a detailed…

This column includes activities inspired by children's literature. This month's trade books teach students about external and internal structures that allow animals and humans to survive. This months trade books are: (1) "Creature Features" (Steve Jenkins and Robin Page); and (2) "Body Actions" (Shelley Rotner and David A.…

Principal component analysis (PCA) is one of the most important and powerful methods in chemometrics as well as in a wealth of other areas. Running a PCA results in two main elements, the score plot and the loading plot; the score plot provides the location of the samples, and the loading plot indicates correlations among variables, the trends in…

This article seeks to provide educators with strategies and activities that can be integrated within the 5E model (Bybee 1997) and demonstrate how argumentation can be assimilated into elementary classrooms to teach science concepts. In this lesson exemplar, 25 students in a first-grade English Language Development classroom (all of whom were…

"A Framework for K-12 Science Education" emphasizes the need to teach students the core ideas of science through capitalizing on students' curiosity to discover the world around them (NRC 2012). Children's experiences vary, and for educators to engage them in the process of science, they need to think of diverse ways to nourish their…

This case study is designed for use in graduate courses in student affairs and higher education administration. This case presents some of the challenges that higher education professionals face concerning policies and laws as they relate to student mental illness and emotional support animals. Requests for emotional support animals are becoming…

The fruit fly ("Drosophila melanogaster") is an ideal subject for studying inheritance patterns, Mendel's laws, meiosis, Punnett squares, and other aspects of genetics. Much of what we know about genetics dates to evolutionary biologist Thomas Hunt Morgan's work with mutated fruit flies in the early 1900s. Many genetic laboratories…

In this article, a class of preschool children completed a week of lessons on worms in preparation for a visit by real worms. Prior to the real worm visit, the students learned about the bodies of worms. They also learned vocabulary words such as "segments." They documented thoughts and predictions about worms using drawings. Preparing…

From a young age, children encounter different materials and learn color, hardness, texture, and shape. Focusing on observable properties is an engaging way to introduce young children to matter. In this investigation, students use observations and engineering design to decide which material would make the best roof for a doghouse. The authors…