The ocean provides humanity with many services and goods, including clean air, minerals, and food. Sustainable use and management of our marine resources are important to ensure that these resources are available for future generations. The turn-based activity presented in this article teaches students the challenges of managing a sustainable…

There is a particular need for inquiry-based lessons in the early elementary grades, when students are starting to develop their analytical skills. In this article, the authors present a 2-tiered inquiry-based lesson plan for 1st and 2nd grades that has been successfully used by graduate teaching fellows involved in the National Science Foundation…

For curriculum content-related reasons, inquiry activities can be difficult in classrooms unless the activities are approached in a manner that makes variations among student group findings understandable in the context of the study. Studies of individual animals and plant reactions to stimuli, such as insect exploratory behavior, allow the…

This article provides basic information on how a common species of earthworm, "Eisenia fetida," can be used in the biology classroom as well as a discussion of how to establish and care for a vermicompost bin. We discuss ideas for inquiry activities with the organism and provide a sample-guided inquiry that demonstrates how a long-term,…