You see it all around you – snarled lanes of traffic stopped in all directions as commuters struggle to reach their jobs; frazzled airline passengers stuck on a runway, certain to miss their connection; disgruntled urban dwellers packed onto train cars. It’s obvious: the nation has a transportati...
Like people, gardens come in all shapes and sizes. Adding a school garden to your curriculum is a big undertaking, but it is one that has many positive outcomes. In addition to providing real-world applications for many scientific principles, these living laboratories engage learners at a deeper ...
With April designated as World Habitat Awareness Month, the time is right to lead your learners on a journey of discovery related to this topic. In classrooms from kindergarten to high school, learners explore and evaluate how a habitat affects the behavior of an animal or human. Through research...
On Earth, there are many natural wonders we have yet to fully explore, most of which the ordinary person will never experience. Depths of the ocean beckon, and mass networks of caves lay undiscovered. Yet, perhaps the most fascinating of all frontiers is one we engage with every day: the human br...
When I'm at home with my kids, I love to have them help me with different tasks around the house. They enjoy cooking, gardening, and even folding clothes. I don’t know if it is just me, but as a science teacher, I find myself narrating every activity and relating it back to some classroom concept...
When teachers are lucky enough to have control over their own curriculum, or to work in an environment of collaboration, the opportunity to develop cross-curricular lesson plans should be a main focus. Students will benefit from hearing about topics from varied points of view, and will develop re...
Whether or not you live in a place that snows, there’s no better way to get into the winter spirit than by making your own snowflakes to hang in the classroom. Creating snowflakes with your class is a great way to discuss symmetry in math or science class as part of a winter theme. However, teach...
When I think about our galaxy, one of countless others in the solar system, I feel a sense of awe. Scientists agree that it formed around 4.6 billion years ago when a cloud of gas was compressed and collapsed inward under the force of gravity. When the cloud collapsed, most of its mass and energy...
When the shuttle fleet was retired in 2011, it marked the end of an era in manned spaceflight. But spaceflight is definitely not passé. Over the next few years, commercial spaceflight will be the new buzzword as companies, such as Virgin Galactic, plan to take anyone who wants to right to the fri...
For several decades people concerned about the environment have had their eye on Brazil where vast areas of land are being deforested each year. Brazil loses more than 15,000 square kilometers to deforestation each year -- an area about the size of New Jersey, Northern Ireland, or twice the size ...
When learning about the parts and interactions in an ecosystem, it is essential to understand the dynamic nature of living things. However, despite understanding how living things change, students often perceive ecosystems themselves as stable and unchanging. Because of this, learning about succe...
When a baby is born, we cannot help but look for family resemblances. Shared traits can be a joy or a burden, but they are often inescapable. We still often think of an offspring as a blend of its parents, but from the work of Gregor Mendel, we now know it is not so simple. Mendel is known as the...
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Using Satellite Imagery to Discuss the Science Behind Brazilian Deforestation
“Is there anyone who can show me the steps to create the before-and-af...”