This year marks the U.S. National Park Service's 100th anniversary. Although the nation's first national park--Yellowstone--dates to 1872, the government organization protecting and administering the national parks was founded just a hundred years ago, in 1916. Many U.S. national parks were established to preserve their unique geology or biology.…

A Rube Goldberg device is a complicated, yet comically involved machine that performs a simple task such as closing a door, watering a plant, or typing a key on a keyboard. Creating one is an open-ended activity that challenges students to use prior knowledge, resourcefulness, investigatory skills, and imagination. This reverse engineering…

During the second industrial revolution (1870-1914), scientists moved away from trial-anderror methods to more systematically apply the principles of chemistry, physics, and biology (Mokyr 1998). The authors chose this period as the foundation of a project-based learning (PBL) unit integrated with the ninth-grade U.S. history curriculum (Thomas…

This article describes how the authors began a science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM) collaboration and completed three projects of varying complexity in their art and chemistry classrooms. The projects align with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States 2013).

The authors developed an integrated science-and-art program to engage science students from a performing arts high school in hands-on, inquiry based lab experiences. The students participated in eight biology-focused investigations at a local university with undergraduate mentors. After the laboratory phase of the project, the high school students…

While teaching science in an alternative arts high school, the author continuously addresses the challenge of welcoming creative, right-brained students into the world of systematic inquiry. Busily mixing paint colors, choreographing futuristic dances, performing comedic theater, and practicing the banjo, the students rarely initiate authentic…