Situating instruction in a local context, socioscientific issues (SSIs) offers students an opportunity to become active participants in the community and has the potential to encourage them to authentically and critically participate and engage in understanding, caring for, and transforming the world to which they belong. Photovoice is one way…

As both classroom teaching practice and literature show, many students have difficulties learning science concepts such as density. Here are some investigations that identify the relationship between density and floating through experimenting with successive dilution of a liquid, or the systematic change of concentration of a saltwater solution.…

Offers a practical explanation of constructivism to help teachers view it as a viable framework for instructional strategies. Presents a comparison of models and examples of how a unit on weathering and erosion would be taught in a traditional versus a constructivist classroom. (JRH)

In the spirit of the National Science Education Standards (NRC 1996), many teachers attempt to have their students experience science in a constructivist, inquiry-oriented manner. The egg bungee jump activity will certainly support that mode of teaching, and has the added benefit of providing a concrete context within which students can explore…

Legends and tall tales have been part of the American culture for ages. Students are probably already familiar with the tales of how Pecos Bill fearlessly tamed a ferocious tornado, or Paul Bunyan effortlessly restrained a great river. Such tales have been passed down from generation to generation to explain humanity, the natural world, and…

The interactive science notebook (ISN) is a perfect opportunity for science educators to encapsulate and promote the most cutting-edge constructivist teaching strategies while simultaneously addressing standards, differentiation of instruction, literacy development, and maintenance of an organized notebook as laboratory and field scientists do.…