Compost bins are beginning to make their way into home gardens and classrooms, allowing students to actively participate in greening their environment. However, do they really understand the process of composting? According to the "National Science Education Standards" (National Research Council [NRC] 1996, 20), "Learning science is something…

Water is an essential resource for all living things. How we live on our watershed can impact water quantity and quality. It is important to recognize how humans alter watershed dynamics, but students often find it challenging to visualize watershed processes and understand how decisions that they make as individuals and together as a community…

The ocean provides humanity with many services and goods, including clean air, minerals, and food. Sustainable use and management of our marine resources are important to ensure that these resources are available for future generations. The turn-based activity presented in this article teaches students the challenges of managing a sustainable…

Proven through more than a decade of rigorous research to be effective with both teachers and students, "Making Sense of SCIENCE" helps teachers gain a deep and enduring understanding of tricky science topics, think and reason scientifically, and support content literacy in science, thereby increasing student achievement. The materials…

Developing expertise, whether from cook to chef or from student to scientist, occurs over time and requires encouragement, guidance, and support. One key goal of an elementary science program should be to move students toward expertise in their ability to design investigative questions. The ability to design a testable question is difficult for…

Capturing students' interest in science at the junior levels is crucial to not only improving the uptake of science at senior levels but to promoting science literacy in all students in order to prepare them for a society that is very science and technologically driven. This paper presents nanotechnology as an emerging science that is both factual…

Biology teachers know how important it is for them and for their students to engage first-hand with nature. Ideally, bringing students to fields, woodlands, and wetlands to observe, explore, and wonder is the best way to stimulate curiosity and practice scientific inquiry. However, for many reasons, field excursions are not always practical or…

Biobottles are miniature ecosystems made from 2-liter plastic soda bottles. They allow students to explore how organisms in an ecosystem are connected to each other, examine how biotic and abiotic factors influence plant and animal growth and development, and discover how important biodiversity is to an ecosystem. This activity was inspired by an…

Acid rain is a complex environmental problem which affects the United States and many other countries around the world. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was established in 1970 to address environmental issues, such as acid rain. Through its programs, EPA works to protect human health and the environment in the United States…

Testing the pH of various liquids is one of the most popular activities in 5th- through 8th-grade classrooms. The author presents an extensive pH-testing lesson based on a 5E (engagement, exploration, explanation, extension, and evaluation) teaching model. The activity provides students with the opportunity to learn about pH and how it relates to…