This article describes the use of project-based instruction in activities and labs intended to develop higher-order thinking skills with high school students and pre-service teachers through the use of soap making.

Would You Rather (WYR), with a Sexual Health Twist! teaching technique uses two youth games, "Would you rather…" and Twister®, to actively engage students in developing decision-making skills regarding human sexuality. Utilizing the "Would you rather" choices, the teacher provides a short scenario with two difficult choices.…

This practical resource shows teachers how to enact robust forms of civic education in today's schools. Both instructive and thought-provoking, it will inspire teachers to craft curricula addressing a wide range of genuine civic problems such as those related to racial discrimination, environmental damage, and community health. Dividing civic…

The internet abounds with free science education applications. But, on their own, these applications have limited capacity to teach students curricular concepts or skills. The author integrated several free web-based applications into a broader pedagogical approach called T-GEM, in which the teacher guides student investigations. In this article,…

In this article, the authors document their experiences with a new resource called "My Money." The resource consists of units for teaching financial capability at key stages 3 and 4, and is broken into six main sections: (1) "Money--What is it?"; (2) "Earning it"; (3) "Spending it"; (4) "Investing…

Technology can be a powerful tool to increase motivation, engagement, and achievement (Park, Khan, and Petrina 2009). In this article, the authors describe their collaborative approach to integrating technology with a lab on bacterial transformation. Students view websites and create videos to increase their conceptual understanding. Although the…

As teachers, one of our most important responsibilities is to help students develop dynamic and useful views of science. Using current issues to create learning experiences can help generate student interest in science and help students appreciate its significance in both personal and societal contexts. This article presents a lesson based on news…

Good design brings the excitement of the Olympic Games into the visual realm of public media. Inspired by the design involved in the making of the Olympic Games, the author developed a lesson called Fashion Forward. Fashion Forward, which is taught to ninth and tenth graders, is based on the enduring idea that visual images are power communication…

This paper describes the development of different lesson plans dealing with authentic and controversial socio-scientific issues in the framework of climate change. These lesson plans orient themselves along the socio-critical, problem-oriented approach to science teaching. They deal with the use of bioethanol as an alternative fuel and with the…

The concept of energy is central to all the science disciplines, seamlessly connecting science, technology, and mathematics. For high school and upper middle school teachers, this compendium comprises inquiry-based activities, lesson plans, and case studies designed to help teach increased awareness of energy, environmental concepts, and the…

No other food industry depends so heavily on a wild caught resource than those associated with aquatic food products. Domestication of fish, shellfish, and other aquatic resources production has lagged behind other terrestrial livestock products; however, demand for these aquatic natural resources has continued to increase dramatically. Teaching…

Taking advantage of pedagogical opportunities afforded by new technology requires appropriately designed lessons. This article reports on the use of "lesson study" to research principles for the design of a lesson aiming to take advantage of multiple representations. The lesson, for year 10 students who had personal access to TI-Nspire, focused on…

As part of its proposal to the U.S. Department of Education, the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) committed to developing model content frameworks for English language arts/literacy (ELA/Literacy) to serve as a bridge between the Common Core State Standards and the PARCC assessments. The Model Content…

This study has been carried out to develop a tool to measure the level of anxiety of students studying in the 10th and 11th grades of high schools in Turkey. The scale has been created by the application of a pool of items consisting of 45 sentences based on student opinions and expert advice to 365 students and the branching of the results with…

Today's society is continuously coping with sustainability-related complex issues in the Science-Technology-Environment-Society (STES) interfaces. In those contexts, the need and relevance of the development of students' higher-order cognitive skills (HOCS) such as question-asking, critical-thinking, problem-solving and decision-making…