All citizens will make bioethics decisions as a result of today's biotechnology revolution. The decisions made require citizens to find possible acceptable solutions to dilemmas that have become public issues. In this activity, students practice making decisions in ethical dilemmas after evaluating the influences of their own ethical beliefs and…

One dilemma science teachers face every day is balancing the content demands of state and federal testing requirements while providing opportunities for inquiry. Using the 5E learning cycle is a realistic, constructivist way to address this dilemma. The 5E learning cycle leads students through a sequence of learning in which they become engaged in…

The main goals of these activities are to help students learn how a convex lens can serve as a magnifying lens and how light travels and creates images. These explorations will introduce middle school students to different types of lenses and how they work. Students will observe and describe how lenses bend light that passes through them and how…

In this extended earth science activity, students create a hands-on model of a volcano to achieve an understanding of volcanic structure, lava flows, formation of lava layers, and the scientific work of archaeologists and geoscientists. During this simulation activity, students have opportunities to learn science as inquiry and the nature of…

Density is a difficult concept for students to learn because it is abstract and because it is derived from the concepts of mass and volume. The solution is to address density at each of the three levels of scientific understanding: macroscopic, particle/modeling, and symbolic. This article demonstrates how to help students gain a conceptual…

Quality science programs extend well beyond the classroom or school yard. A local shoreline is a great place for inquiry-based "science activities". Students can explore seaweed clumps, conduct a gull census, or implement an investigation of their own design.

Science within the folds of highway maps is explored through a series of hands-on experiences designed to reinforce and extend map-reading skills in grades 6-8. The increasingly sophisticated, standards-related activities include measuring distances between population centers, finding communities named after trees, animals, and geologic features,…

A modification of the popular C-Fern system, the tropical fern Ceratopteris richardii is developed in which students plate out a genetically mixed set of fern spores and then select for specific mutants. This exercise can provide students with an experience in plant mutant selection and can be used as a platform to expose students to a diverse…

A description of learning experience that uses a four-step instrumentational framework involving concrete and representational experiences to promote conceptual understanding of abstract biological concepts by a series of closely-related activities is presented. The students are introduced to the structure and implications of DNA using four…

Hands-on science is fun, but it can be challenging for teachers to "switch minds on" and still retain children's natural enthusiasm for investigating. The authors describe how two researchers and a classroom teacher worked together to try out two simple strategies to help young children develop their reasoning skills. The context used is fair…

In the activity described in this article, students will explore how variables in a first-class lever, specifically arm length, position of the fulcrum, and placement of the load, affect the effort needed to lift the load. To begin the lesson, demonstrate to the class how a first-class lever works and review what is meant by the terms fulcrum,…

Watching Old Faithful transform from a smoldering mound to an explosive 50-meter high geyser is enough to generate awe in any observer. Behind this stunning, visual geologic display is a triad of heat, water, and plumbing that rarely unify on our planet. But geologists are not the only scientists drawn to geysers. Biologists have recently…

How can teachers explain the functioning of something students cannot see with their own eyes? Often, the study of cells is the first exposure that students have to the microscopic world. Even then, they can only make out a few of the details: cell wall, cell membrane, nucleus, sometimes a few chloroplasts. How can teachers help students gain an…

We describe an intriguing genre of assignment in which students respond to a fake scientific paper by designing an experiment to test its claims. Put another way, we ask students to be experimentalists, albeit in an artificially controlled and prescribed domain; we hope that through this, students get a better picture of what science is about and…

A project module designed for biochemistry or cellular and molecular biology student which involves determining the secondary structure of Bacillus circulans xylanase (BCX) by circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy under conditions that compromise its stabilizing intramolecular forces is described. The lab model enhanced students knowledge of the…