Describes a method of introducing secondary or college students to direct-current electricity via a technique used for elementary level students. (SL)

Scientific inquiry reflects how scientists come to understand the natural world, and it is at the heart of how students learn. From a very early age, children interact with their environment, ask questions, and seek ways to answer those questions. Understanding science content is significantly enhanced when ideas are anchored to inquiry…

Outlines a way for instructors to teach astronomy and the nature of scientific inquiry. Highlights a discussion with students during coverage of the Earth-Moon system. (CCM)

Describes a method for teaching advanced ecology to juniors and seniors at an independent high school. Uses questions as the primary organizational tool to organize the curriculum. Facilitates teaching science in a manner closer to how it is practiced by scientists and helps students understand and appreciate science itself. (SAH)

Examines the required cluster of terms and transmission techniques in Newtonian mechanics. Suggests some characteristics of what a student acquires in the course of becoming a licensed practitioner in the field. (CCM)

Good resources for teaching elementary science content abound, making science more accessible to everyone and helping teachers enhance their presentation of science topics. However, there is one important aspect of science that sometimes proves a bit more difficult to teach: introducing students to the idea of the nature of science. Nature of…

The demonstration-focused laboratory course enables students to work in the laboratory to create and practice chemical demonstrations based on topics they study in lectures. This laboratory-focused class has proven successful and has resulted in an increase in student interest in material, a willingness to ask more questions and a better…

Every time an English professor assigns a novel, poem, or play for a class to analyze, he or she is using the case study method. Why shouldn't scientists do the same? They don't always have to write their own material. After all, there are some pretty good writers out there, and some of them actually slip a lot of science into the nooks and…

Andreas Libavius' (c. 1555-1616) three part collection of letters, the "Rerum chymicarum epistolica forma...liber" (1595-1599) is a particularly important text in fashioning the subject of chemistry as a demonstrative science and as a didactic discipline. Where Libavius' "Alchemia", which some have claimed to be the first textbook of chemistry,…

This laboratory exercise affords students a hands-on experience learning about traditional dyes, fiber strength, and paper making. It is economical, simple to prepare, provides satisfactory results, and is student friendly. Dyes were extracted from plant leaves, stems, roots, and fruits. Hard-boiled eggs were place in the dyes for 15 minutes to…

Nanotechnology deals with machines, materials, and structures and their behaviors at the scale of atoms and molecules, or the nanoscale. By working on this scale, scientists are able to create enhanced materials with desirable properties, such as stain-resistance. The authors developed the activity described in this article to introduce middle…

This article offers a specific example of the benefits that might result from integrating scientific principles into the daily practice of dance training. Using the mastery of turnout as our focus, we 1. describe the anatomy of turnout in terms familiar to the dance artist, 2. explore conditioning and imagery work designed to improve the use of…

Demonstrations are sometimes perceived as merely entertaining and expendable ancillaries for lectures and laboratory sessions. Nothing can be further from the truth. If done properly, demonstrations have much more value than lectures and labs when used to teach critical thinking in the sciences. There are effective ways to model scientific…

This study assessed the influence of a 3-year professional development program on elementary teachers' views of nature of science (NOS), instructional practice to promote students' appropriate NOS views, and the influence of participants' instruction on elementary student NOS views. Using the VNOS-B and associated interviews the researchers…