Variations on a Team: Changing Paradigms
Three paradigms related to teaming and how the might be revised to improve the quality of today's middle school programs are discussed: team configurations, teaming for interdisciplinary instruction, and teaming and advisory.,Volume 7, Number 2
Energy Transformation on a Roller Coaster
This webpage offers a discussion of work, energy, and force on a roller coaster as it goes through a loop in the track. It includes an animated image of the roller coaster with appropriate data for each point in the track. A multiple choice practice question using the relevant equations is also available.
Teacher's guide to the infrared
This is a page from a larger website, Seeing our World Through a Different Light, sponsored in part by NASA. This page contains side by side standard and IR photos to illustrate how IR photos show heat. It describes and compares visible light and infrared light. An explanation, accompanied by photos, of how infrared cameras work is also provided.
POP Goes Antarctica?
As students explore this Web site, they will learn how scientists work together to answer questions. This site follows several scientists to Antarctica where they are doing research on Persistent Organic Pollutants. A daily journal, glossary, and learning activities will help incorporate this into classroom lesson plans.
Turning Zeros to 60s
It's adjusting the grading scale so that each grade has an appropriate amount of influence on the student's summative evaluation and each grade provides information for effective decision making.,Volume 9, Number 3
What is sugar?
This reading, part of a site about the science of cooking, provides general scientific information about sucrose (white table sugar) together with explanations of the science behind some candy-making procedures. The general information includes the chemical formula of sucrose and a ball-and-stick model that illustrates that sucrose is made of fructose and glucose. Regarding candy, the reading describes how heating a sugar solution produces a supersaturated solution. A discussion about common tec
T.P. Away
What's a quick way to unroll a roll of toilet paper? This material is part of a series of hands-on science activities designed to arouse student interest. Here students use Bernoulli's principle and an electric leaf blower to force air over the top of the toilet paper to quickly unroll it. The activity includes a description, a list of science process skills and complex reasoning strategies being used, and a compilation of applicable K-12 national science education standards. Also provided are c
Describing Data Using Statistics
Investigate the mean, median, mode, and range of a data set through its graph. Manipulate the data and watch how the mean, median, mode, and range change (or, in some cases, how they don't change).
Bat talk
This video clip, viewable in RealPlayer, introduces students to the research that Maryland biologists are conducting to assess the status of bat populations in their state. Technologies are discussed that help scientists study the often elusive bats. The clip shows that when researchers descend into a cave to survey the number of hibernating bats there, they discover fewer bats are present than in previous years. The clip also notes that efforts to conserve bat populations are needed. Bats contr
Science Sampler : Rockin' around the rock cycle
The following inquiry-based activities were designed as part of a unit intended to aid students in understanding the rock cycle, with the assumption that, after being taught the lessons in the unit, students would have gone beyond a rote memorization of the rock types and rock cycle. The ultimate goal of this hands-on lesson is that students will know and be able to discriminate between them.
Students Take Center Stage in Classroom Assessment
Using the example of Shelburne Community School in Shelburne, Vermont, the authors emphasize the importance of involving students and parents in assessment and portfolio processes.,Volume 5, Number 2
EdWeb
This hypertext book by Andy Carvin includes chapters on the role of the Web in education, a crash course in HTML, history and explanations of the Internet, educational reform and information technology, successful case studies, and K-12 resources on the net.
Agricultural scientists
What are agricultural scientists, and what do they actually do? This is the introductory page for a set of materials about agricultural science as a career. Here the job of an agricultural scientist is defined and described. In the rest of the resource, students can examine two specialized job titles associated with agricultural scientists: organic specialist/assistant professor and senior research associate. Students can read narratives that are a few paragraphs in length about an organic speci
Solar two
What is a method of active solar energy production? This article, part of a series about the future of energy, describes the use of large reflector power plants in the Mohave Desert. Students are introduced to the use of large solar reflectors to heat molten salt and produce energy for homes. Students view four photographs of different aspects of the solar complex. Copyright 2005 Eisenhower National Clearinghouse
Will it Float?
Student preconceptions are one of the greatest challenges we face as science teachers. This Predict, Explain, Observe, and Explain (PEOE) activity challenges students' preconceived notions about why matter floats or sinks when placed in a liquid. The idea behind this model is to do a demonstration that first confirms students' conceptions followed by a second, similar demonstration that provides discrepant information creating cognitive dissonance. Learning happens as students are forced to modi
Observe some products of a Geographic Information System (GIS)
By combining a short paragraph and six enlargeable maps, this resource explains to students what a Geographic Information System (GIS) is. Introductory text explains that GIS technology enables users to plot multiple data sets onto maps of varying scales. Then six sample maps produced through GIS are provided. Among these maps is one that identifies where energy and mineral resources are located globally and another that highlights and labels the rivers that drain into the Mississippi River. Cop
Tutors in Print Form: Using Study Guides to Develop Multiple Literacies
The value of using study guides to develop multiple literacies is discussed. Strategies of study guides development and the components should be included in the guides are also suggested. Using study guides to develop multiple literacies.,Volume 6, Number 2
Data to Action: Technology's Role in Accountability
The roles of technology in students' performance assessment, teachers' professional development, data management, and teaching supports are discussed.,Volume 8, Number 2
The Spirit of Teaching Learning
Context of teacher learning is described. Strategies are suggested for promoting teacher learning. Maute, J. (2003). The spirit of teaching learning.,Volume 6, Number 3
Curriculum Integration in a Standards-based World
Curriculum integration involves not only helping students make connections across content areas, but also promoting democracy in the classroom. The concepts of curriculum integration are discussed. The reactions of teachers, students, and parents to curriculum integration are reported.,Volume 7, Number 1
