According to the National Science Education Standards (National Research Council 1996), students in the middle school years should progress in studying life science from examining individual organisms to recognizing patterns in ecosystems and developing an understanding about the cellular dimensions of living systems. Students should broaden the…

An activity to promote student understanding of the nature of science as a method of inquiry by engaging students in a real-life experience that requires them to utilize their critical thinking skills is designed. The activity links scientific concepts to the real world experiences of students and increase the relevancy of the content.

The importance of introducing various projects or activities as a motivation towards inquiry-based learning, also satisfies the need for first year chemistry students to transfer scientific theory into practice. This approach, combined with the traditionally written laboratory methods, develops creative skills, and the spirit of exploration…

The new approach used for exploring new ways of enhancing experiences for students and instructors in science class is described. A fun activity conducted in the workshop for the observation of evolvement of group dynamics is discussed.

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of a socio-cognitive teaching strategy on young children. It tests their understanding of the factors that friction depends on when an object is projected across a horizontal surface. The study was conducted in three phases: pre-test, teaching intervention, and post-test. The sample…

Life is presenting humans with more and more issues that need careful consideration and teachers can be sure that children in their primary schools today will be faced with equally challenging dilemmas when they grow up. Even now, quite young children are being faced with some important decisions about what they should eat or whether they could…

An innovative collaboration between the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge and the University of Cambridge Faculty of Education encourages new questions to be asked of ancient objects. In the museum galleries children work directly from ancient Egyptian objects through activities designed to encourage questioning that unpicks the technologies of the…

This short article was written in response to a proposed practical featured in the Spring 2002 issue of the "Journal of Biological Education." Beaumont, Cotterill and Williams described a system representing a useful way by which the deleterious effects of free radical attack on enzymes can be demonstrated to undergraduate bioscience students,…

When identifying instruments that have had great influence on the history of physics, none comes to mind more quickly than the pendulum. Though first treated scientifically by Galileo in the 16th century, and in some respects nearly "dead" by the middle of the 20th century; the pendulum experienced "rebirth" by becoming an archetype of chaos. With…

Science instructors sometimes avoid inquiry-based activities due to limited classroom time. Inquiry takes time, as students choose problems, design experiments, obtain materials, conduct investigations, gather data, communicate results, and discuss their experiments. While there are no quick solutions to time concerns, the 5E learning cycle seeks…

To demonstrate how Newton's first law of motion applies to students' everyday lives, the author developed a learning cycle series of activities on inertia. The discrepant event at the heart of these activities is sure to elicit wide-eyed stares and puzzled looks from students, but also promote critical thinking and help bring an abstract concept…

Middle school science teachers know how easily their students are motivated by experiences related to community concerns and interests (Kielborn and Gilmer 1999). Students in middle grades are highly curious about science and are at the perfect age for exposure to scientific ways of thinking and behaving in their community (NRC 1996). Providing…

Instead of a science fair, the author's intermediate school holds an invention convention. Guided by an Inventor's Log, students must problem solve, think creatively, and budget their time and resources to brainstorm and build an invention. The inventions are built at home, with parental support and supervision. Then, when everyone is ready, the…

This article provides a science lesson for the middle school level, the metric system is used for all methods of measurement. The example lesson utilizes edible fruit as the real-world focus and offers ideas for additional lessons and the integration of disciplines beyond mathematics. This lesson requires students to handle, examine, and possibly…

In this article we present the fascinating reconstruction of an accident where a car hit a boy riding his bicycle. The boy dramatically flew several metres through the air after the collision and was injured, but made a swift and complete recovery from the accident with no long-term after-effects. Students are challenged to determine the speed of…