Poetry reading is identified as a fun way to review chemistry topics and spark student interest in the beauty and mystery of chemistry. A reading of the poem "Jerry-Built Forever" (on various aspects of hemoglobin) is used as an example; the poem is included in the article. Details of how the reading was performed and reactions of the…

There are numerous benefits from using puppets in the classroom. There is evidence to suggest that puppets have a positive impact in motivating children and promoting language development. In this article, the authors explore the use of puppets to teach food science and nutrition. (Contains 2 figures.)

This article discusses a creative visualization project to motivate and engage students. Students depict a dinosaur in its ecosystem and include all three elements of the environment: air, land, and water. Students explore scientific content in evolution, natural selection, food webs, ecosystems and geologic time. (Contains 6 figures.)

Because little kids can't tell you how their minds work and what makes them learn, you need this book about new scientific discoveries that explain how young children learn and what teachers can do to use those findings to enhance classroom teaching. Discover where the desire to learn comes from and what occurs during children's development to…

There is ongoing interest in how and what we teach in physics courses for non-science students, so-called "physics for poets" courses. Art Hobson has effectively argued that teaching science literacy should be a key ingredient in these courses. Hobson uses Jon Millers definition of science literacy, which has two components: first, "a basic…

In the light of the European Union's interest in creativity and innovation, this paper, drawing on data from the EU project Creative Little Scientists (2011-2014), explores the teaching and learning of science and creativity in Early Years education. The project's conceptual framework, developed from detailed analysis of relevant literatures,…

I wrote a rap song to explain the process of photosynthesis to my students.

The use of recorded music to add interest to a variety of lecture topics is described. Topics include the periodic table, the formation of ionic compounds, thermodynamics, carbohydrates, nuclear chemistry, and qualitative analysis. (Contains 1 note.)

"Elements" is a competitive card game designed to help middle school students recognize and correlate the names and symbols of the most significant chemical elements. Each student is required to construct his or her own decks of playing cards--one with the names of the chemical elements and one with their corresponding symbols--and compete against…

The plasma membrane is the membrane that serves as a boundary between the interior of a cell and its extracellular environment. Lipid rafts are microdomains within a cellular membrane that possess decreased fluidity due to the presence of cholesterol, glycolipids, and phospholipids containing longer fatty acids. These domains are involved in many…

This article takes as its starting point the ongoing downturn in student interest in, and engagement with, the enabling sciences. We make a case that embedding of creative pedagogies in science education has significant potential to arrest the flight from modern science. Five propositions are explored in order to argue the case: that young people…

We present a fun activity that can be used to introduce students to error analysis: the M&M game. Students are told to estimate the number of individual candies plus uncertainty in a bag of M&M's. The winner is the group whose estimate brackets the actual number with the smallest uncertainty. The exercise produces enthusiastic discussions and…

The Earthquake Machine (EML), a mechanical model of stick-slip fault systems, can increase student engagement and facilitate opportunities to participate in the scientific process. This article introduces the EML model and an activity that challenges ninth-grade students' misconceptions about earthquakes. The activity emphasizes the role of models…

The Primary National Strategy for England argues that teachers need use the QCA units of work (or whichever scheme their school follows) only as a baseline or fallback: drawing on their "own" expertise as storytellers, creative thinkers, problem-solvers and as experts on their own pupils, to design activities that are engaging, motivating and…

Presents a twofold approach to teaching basic geology based on five principles to make science accessible to students who think they are bored with or afraid of the subject. The approach focuses on: appealing to the mind (to attack boredom) and appealing to the emotions (to attack fear). (BC)