Establishing relevant applications for the science curriculum can be a challenge. However, the key that opens science for students is within a teacher's grasp: It is as simple as bringing science connections into his or her classroom through community resources and taking the students to the science that is available. The author encourages…

Visuals play an important role in the teaching and learning of science and should be embedded within and supportive of authentic science inquiry. Both researchers and teachers believe that visuals have a great deal of potential to help students understand science, but in practice, these visuals do not always live up to their promise. Teachers need…

Helping students understand how to learn is an important goal for all subjects and levels of education. While this goal is highly regarded, promoting it is extremely difficult. Many times, we as teachers are consumed with how to better help our students understand the content and forget to draw their attention to how they came to understand a…

The flashlight is a simple device that is composed of a lightbulb, usually two cells connected in series, a housing, a switch, and a reflector for the light. All flashlights essentially use these parts to complete a circuit that converts the stored chemical energy in the cells to light energy. In this lesson, students will take apart an…

The ballpoint pen is an ideal example of simple engineering that we use everyday. But is it really so simple? The ballpoint pen is a remarkable combination of technology and science. Its operation uses several scientific principles related to chemistry and physics, such as properties of liquids and simple machines. They represent significant…

Since 2004, middle and high school students have been monitoring the effects of ground-level ozone by collecting data on observable leaf injury on cutleaf coneflower ("Rudbeckia laciniata") and crownbeard ("Verbesina occidentalis") in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This project is part of an ongoing citizen-science effort in which…

High school chemistry can be intimidating to some students, so it is critical that we engage students in nonthreatening preparatory investigations during middle school. Based on the learning cycle model (Bybee and Landes 1990), this lesson invites students to investigate disposable diapers. As they explore the properties of sodium polyarcylate, a…

Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, a research project was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of video games as inquiry-based learning experiences for the science classroom. As a result, the video game, "Creature Control: The Quest for Homeostasis" was developed and field-tested in select middle schools in the United States.…

Meat thermometers can be awkward to use in terms of placement and avoidance of bones. Because of these problems, each year 30 million Thanksgiving turkeys have a built-in thermometer that pops up when the turkey is properly cooked. Turkey timers are an example of how engineering solved a common, everyday problem. The following 5E learning cycle…

Nanoscience, or the study of the world at the size of a billionth of a meter, has the potential to help students see how all of the sciences are related. Behavior of materials at the nanoscale differs from materials at the macroscale. This article introduces three nanoscale properties and how they relate to various science domains. Three…

Describes a unit of hands-on activities on the corrosion of iron and steel. The unit uses the learning cycle and the science/technology/society approach. Three activities are presented. (PR)

Presents a student project in which students in groups of three or four study an animal type using different learning styles and methods, including electronic media. (YDS)

Presents a series of lessons that use Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives to teach students the various levels of knowledge and how to form questions that address each level. (PR)

Explains what successful scaffolding requires and discusses three problems that teachers have when using scaffolding. (YDS)

Students can use seed characteristics to discriminate between the different kinds of legumes using taxonomic classification processes of sorting and ranking, followed by construction of taxonomic keys. The application of the Learning Cycle process to taxonomic principles, hierarchical classification, and construction of keys presents the…