Teaching Middle School Science

This blog post provides ideas on how to turn a science news article into an inquiry-based lesson.

Blog post about how turkeys are raised and how to mitigate the waste using natural, sustainable materials. Ways to turn the science story into an inquiry-based lesson are included.

Well worded response to critics of Twitter usage with students.

A great activity for students!

Forensic science is always interesting to students. The mystery and puzzle solving are hard to resist. Here's a real case you can use to get students thinking scientifically while integrating knowledge of insect life cycles-a timely topic for spring.

Rotting corpses always get kid's attention!

This publication gives you a variety of angles to choose from in implementing a study of polar science in the middle school science classroom. Topics covered include visualizing the polar regions, the physical attributes, biology and ecology, research projects and environmental issues, and the associated National Science Education Standards.

Ever thought of integrating polar science into your teaching? Kim

In this article, we discuss some common misconceptions about light, heat, and the sun. We also provide tools for formative assessment and ideas for teaching the correct scientific concepts. Most of the examples are aimed at elementary students but many are appropriate for middle school students as well.

Students hold lots of misconceptions about the light and heat.

A neat tool for students to work on reading a triple beam balance

Games, blogs, science history, myths, solar system, the universe - this site provides an amazing number of exemplary resources.

Windows to the Universe is a user-friendly learning system covering the Earth and Space sciences for use by the general public. The site includes a rich array of documents, including images, movies, animations, and data sets, that explore the Earth and Space sciences and the historical and cultural ties between science, exploration, and the human experience. The site is written in three reading levels approximating elementary, middle school and high school reading levels. These levels may be chosen by using the upper button bar of each page of the main site. A Spanish version of the site is available.

This website uses video of exemplary classroom teaching to showcase K-12 instrction on watersheds and nonpoint source pollution. Nine lessons (five at the middle level) cover topics such as testing for water quality and watersheds. The site also provides an electronic field trip to a watershed.

Follow the journey that Darwin took on the Beagle. A ship makes the journey on a map as the user scrolls through a series of text boxes that are rich with images.

At this website produced by NASA and NOAA, students in grades 4-8 learn about weather through interactive games, illustrated text, and fun facts. Includes How and Why sections as well as weather folk lore. Weather jokes are dispensed by a Joke Machine. Teacher materials are available.

This publication is all about developing your middle school students' understandings of earths oceans and the major effect they have on climate. Understanding and interpreting local weather data and understanding the relationship between weather and climate are important first steps to understanding larger-scale global climate changes. Activities that ask students to collect and analyze local weather data as well as analyze global data can be found in the Lessons and Activities section. Analyzing and interpreting data is a major focus of this publication. Numerous data sets can be found in the Sources for Real Data section. The Background Information section and the article Tomorrows Forecast will help reinforce your own content knowledge.

More exemplary resources from the Middle School Portal 2: Math & Science Pathways project.

This article from the Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears online magazine answers the questions what kinds of energy comes from the sun, how does it travel through space, and what happens when it reaches earth.

Did you know that the sun blasts more than a billion tons of matter out into space at millions of kilometers per hour? Ultimately, energy from the sun is the driving force behind weather and climate, and life on earth. But what kinds of energy come from the sun? How does that energy travel through space? And what happens when it reaches earth?

One of many outstanding collaborative projects from Stevens Institute of Technology.

Join schools from around the world from March 2 to May 22 as they determine how their geographic location (i.e. where they live) affects their average daily temperature and hours of sunlight. Specifically, students will: Measure the temperature and record the number of minutes of sunlight per day over a common week; Compare and contrast the results with classes from all over the world; and Determine how proximity to the equator affects average daily temperature and hours of sunlight.

Which lasts longer - the cold virus or flu virus?

In this Science Update, you'll find out how long a germ can hang around and wait for its next victim. The transcript and additional information is at http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/sci_update.cfm?DocID=202.

Mammals 101 - hair, milk, three bones in the inner ear

Dr. Ross MacPhee, curator and researcher at the American Museum of Natural History provides content background on polar mammals past and present, explains basic adaptations of Arctic mammals, and discusses current means of studying mammals in the field. [10:43]

Citizen science, poetry, birds, and long johns.

Join us on a special trip up to Bathurst Island to record birdsongs, and learn about how you can use bird observations to create scientific inquiry in your classroom using ebird.org and birds.cornell.edu/birdsleuth. [15:02]

We already know why polar bears don't eat penguins, but what do they eat? In this podcast, we'll share a simple activity that opens a window to understanding a unique ecosystem as one example of a food chain - the Arctic Ocean.

This podcast includes directions for an activity where students build a mobile that represents an Arctic food web.