Activities that focus on food and cooking can help students see how relevant and fascinating science can be in everyday life. In a recent illustration of the enduring appeal of food’s scientific underpinnings, one of the most sought-after classroom slots for Harvard undergraduates is in the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences’ course “Science [...]
Giving students opportunities to explore and observe plants, birds, or bugs on the school grounds or in nearby gardens and parks can bring multiple benefits. The Children & Nature Network highlights research findings that support the positive benefits of environment-based studies on school achievement, citing standardized measures in basic subject areas and other indications that [...]
NSTA’s Book Beat was honored in November 2010 with a Gold MarCom award for e-newsletters. The MarCom Awards is an international creative competition that recognizes outstanding achievement by marketing and communications professionals. Each month’s issue of Book Beat brings science teachers news of special offers in the online Science Store, the month’s list of top [...]
The on-site Science Store at the Kansas City Area Conference has been bustling. Books and gear items garnering a lot of attention include John Haysom and Michael Bowen’s new NSTA Press book Predict, Observe, Explain: Activities Enhancing Scientific Understanding and Michael Klentschy’s Using Science Notebooks in Middle School. Susan Koba and Anne Tweed’s Hard-to-Teach Biology [...]
Students today encounter a flood of images and content from print and online sources. Increasingly, the ability to read, process, and derive meaning from those images and pictures will be central to student success. Authors Jo Anne Vasquez, Michael Comer, and Frankie Troutman have assembled for teachers a thorough overview of this timely topic in [...]
We’ve added to the list of chapters you can download for free from NSTA Press books! Visit the free chapters page on the NSTA website to browse the newest additions, including selections from Uncovering Student Ideas in Physical Science, Volume 1: Force and Motion, Using Science Notebooks in Middle School, and More Chemistry Basics: Stop [...]
I’m getting ready for a camping trip to the Berkshire Mountains in Massachusetts for some sightseeing and hiking later this month. In addition to attending a concert at Tanglewood and perhaps adding to my birding lifelist, I’m also looking forward to propping up my feet and reading in the fresh air. As I packed my [...]
Science notebooking is a valuable exercise, as evidenced by an article in the current issue of NTSA Reports. “Enhancing Learning with Science Notebooks” is extremely timely as it coincides with the release of Michael Klentschy’s new book, Using Science Notebooks in Middle School. In his Introduction, Klentschy stresses the significance of Middle School as a [...]
Many of you are wanting to download the resources from the conference in Philadelphia. Here’s how. Highlights of stimulating conversations taking place right now on our listservs: Chemistry—iron titration, how to deal with dangerous chemicals, and what incoming freshman need to know; Earth Science—Friday, May 28th, being celebrated as the 2,595th “birthday of science,” and [...]
I read Jean Craighead George’s My Side of the Mountain at just the right time in my life—young enough to believe that I could live in the woods like Sam and old enough to try some of the living-off-the-land strategies he used (while I still lived comfortably at home). Her writing and illustrations taught me [...]
