Kids and nature seem like a natural combination, but what was natural a generation ago is different today. Children are spending less time outdoors but continue to need nature for their physical, emotional, and mental development. This fact has led author Richard Louv to suggest that today's children are suffering from "nature-deficit disorder"…

Unfortunately, middle school students often view human impact as an abstract idea over which they have no control and do not see themselves as contributing to the Earth's environmental decline. How better to uncover students' ideas concerning human impact in their local community than to have them take photographs. With this objective in mind, the…

Most educators have a love-hate relationship with field trips. On the one hand, field trips are a great way to get students out of the building, enhance learning, and have some fun. On the other hand, field trips are a lot of work and worry. Especially now, with the increased cost of transportation and the need for curricular ties, field trips…

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…

Why not combine the use of technology with the excitement of a scavenger hunt that moves middle-level students out into the "wilds" of their school campus to classify plants? In the lesson plan described here, students embark on a botanical scavenger hunt and then document their findings using a digital camera. This project was designed to allow…

NASA is involved in a project involving the International Space Station (ISS) and an Earth-focused camera called EarthKam, where schools, and ultimately students, are allowed to remotely program the EarthKAM to take images. Here the author describes how EarthKam was used to help middle school students learn about biomes and develop their…

When students design and build their own versions of instruments, they appreciate them more--and are more likely to appreciate how experimentation plays a critical role in explaining the world around them (NRC 1999). In this activity, students learn how science is done by becoming active participants. They use free lenses to build simple…

The NASA's Mars Student Imaging Project (MSIP) is led by the Arizona State University (ASU) Mars Education Program, a major partner of NASA's Mars Exploration Program. MSIP is based on the National Science Education Standards and includes curriculum on terrestrial planet characteristics, experimental design, and proposal writing. Three spacecraft…

While some textbooks still teach students that there is one scientific process that must be rigidly followed, this stagnant portrayal of the process of science can lead students to think that science and scientists are quite boring. Through integrating visual art and microscopy, students learn about the creativity of scientists and begin to…