Students love learning about animals: how animals behave, what animals eat, why some animals are more dangerous than others are, and why animals look the way they do. In this 5E lesson, students investigate why some animals look the way they do--specifically, the advantages of camouflage and mimicry. What are an animal's advantages of being…

In this lesson, the teacher begins by reviewing some key energy topics with the students. Next, students are asked to focus closely on nuclear energy as a viable resource by closely reading, highlighting, and annotating an article regarding the future of nuclear energy. The culminating activity and evaluation of students understanding of energy…

One proven strategy to help students make sense of abstract concepts is to sequence instruction so students have exploratory opportunities to investigate science before being introduced to new science explanations (Abraham and Renner 1986; Renner, Abraham, and Birnie 1988). To help physical science teachers make sense of how to effectively…

Using an exploration-explanation sequence of science instruction helps teachers unveil students' prior knowledge about circuits and engage them in minds-on science learning. In these lessons, fourth grade students make predictions and test their ideas about circuits in series through hands-on investigations. The teacher helps students make…

This activity targets students' misconceptions about embryonic and adult stem cells while also addressing an important grades 9-12 science content standard. The authors designed the activity to provide students an opportunity to explore differences between embryonic and adult stem cells prior to formal explanation. The overarching goal of this…

A priority for all biology teachers must be for students to leave the classroom with a broad knowledge and understanding of science. Students need to be critical of science, analyze science, and relate new science knowledge to their daily lives. Unfortunately, many students are not reaching this goal. One strategy for making science laboratories…