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Book Chapter
Students may have the impression that all kinds of reaction time responses can be improved through practice. They may believe also that every kind of stimulus produces the same kind of reaction time. The story, in the chapter, provides the opportun...
Book Chapter
In this chapter, this story really leaves us hanging! It’s a great one for real investigation! There are two purposes of the story: the first is to investigate closed systems. Anything that happens inside uses up only the materials in the jar, beca...
Book Chapter
Melting and dissolving are two of the most often misunderstood concepts in both child and adult populations. Many children believe that when a substance dissolves in a solvent it does not exist any longer. This chapter’s story’s purpose is to a...
Book Chapter
Your students will probably not be able to distinguish between heat and temperature as concepts. The main purpose of this chapter and story is to help students understand the dynamics of heat energy transfer. Another purpose is for them to understand...
Book Chapter
Students often focus more on the visible properties of objects, like shininess, than the material of which they are actually made. In this chapter, the story will allow students to become aware that some materials give up and take in thermal energy ...
Book Chapter
The story in this chapter has two purposes. One is to apply what is known about pendulums to a new problem and the other is to use technical skills to solve a problem. The swing operates on the principles of periodic motion and the crooked branch, up...
Book Chapter
This chapter’s story is based a bit on the ESS (Elementary Science Study) activity “Mystery Powders.” The problem with the original activity was that the students were introduced to the tests for various ingredients without a motivating hook. A...
Book Chapter
Your students will probably not consider friction to be a force. In this chapter, the story focuses on friction, both static and kinetic. Jimmy had trouble overcoming the static friction that needed a pushing force to get him started and then had t...
Book Chapter
Using the Book and the Stories
It is often difficult for overburdened teachers to develop lessons or activities that are compatible with the everyday life experiences of their students. A major premise of this book is that if students can see the real-life implications of science ...
Book Chapter
Using the Book in Different Ways
Although the book was originally designed for use with K–8 students by teachers or adults in informal settings, it became obvious that a book containing stories and content material for teachers who are intent on teaching in an inquiry mode had oth...
Book Chapter
There is currently a strong effort to combine science and literacy, because a growing body of research stresses the importance of language in learning science. Discussion, argumentation, discourse of all kinds, group consensus, and social interaction...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this story used in this chapter is to help students learn about the source of heat energy that warms their planet. Of course that is the Sun, and it only has an effect on the temperature of the Earth when it is shining on a particula...
Book Chapter
The author’s research and that of others show that children have a difficult time understanding the recycling of organic matter in an ecosystem. The story in this chapter aims to have students speculate about what happens to organic material over t...
Book Chapter
What’s the Moon Like Around the World?
A great deal of confusion arises from the lack of understanding about the Moon’s journey around the Earth and its apparent shape changes. This investigation is aimed at confronting this confusion by looking at the Earth-Moon system and how it appea...
Book Chapter
Astronomical rules are not always correct, especially when they use the word “always.” Students should learn that unless they live on or very near the equator, there are only two days in the year that the Sun rises directly in the east—the sp...