A focus of reforms in standards, learning environments, teacher preparation programs and professional development is to support teachers' and students' engagement with scientific practices such as argumentation, modeling and generating explanations for real-world phenomena (NRC, 2011). Engaging in these practices in authentic ways…

Understanding how DNA banding patterns in a gel can aid in the conviction or exoneration of suspects and be utilized for positive identification of biological fathers in paternity cases can be intimidating. In reality, the logistics and technology used in such cases are rather straightforward. This exercise is designed for use in high school…

"Fair" is a word people are hearing a lot at the moment if they listen to political discussion. There is much debate about how it means different things to politicians of different hues and can be used to justify seemly contradictory courses of action. In science, "fair" is also a word that is used by children and teachers in different ways.…

There was a doughnut thief loose and the students were determined to put their science skills to use to track down the culprit. They would use forensic science to eliminate suspects and identify the thief who stole the doughnuts. School staff take on the role of the likely suspects. It was their goal to develop an interdisciplinary unit that…

This activity presents an option for covering biology content while engaging students in an investigation that highlights the spirit of Halloween. Students are engaged in the story line and have fun trying to solve the mystery kidnapping by using science skills to examine the evidence and eliminate some ghoulish suspects. (Contains 1 figure.)