Skip to main content
 

All Book Chapters

Optical Illusions: Seeing and Cognitive Construction

Book Chapter

Optical Illusions: Seeing and Cognitive Construction

Optical illusions can be used as interactive, everyone-participates demonstrations to show teachers that the act of visual observation is not a passiv...

Utensil Music: Teaching Sound Science

Book Chapter

Utensil Music: Teaching Sound Science

“Sound science” is more than just a play on words—it is a powerful metaphor for the mind-opening and mind-expanding effect of integrated curricu...

Identification Detectives: Sounds and Smells of Science

Book Chapter

Identification Detectives: Sounds and Smells of Science

This simple, hands-on exploration can be used to emphasize the role of sensory perception as a necessary antecedent to mental conception, the nature o...

Two-Balloon Balancing Act: Constructivist Teaching

Book Chapter

Two-Balloon Balancing Act: Constructivist Teaching

This activity explores LaPlace’s law where membranes exert pressure on their contents that decrease as the membranes are stretched to larger sizes a...

Batteries and Bulbs: Teaching is More Than Telling

Book Chapter

Batteries and Bulbs: Teaching is More Than Telling

This activity features a simple, three-component system that can be used to explore a variety of concepts including closed versus open electrical circ...

Creating a Space for Learning

Book Chapter

Creating a Space for Learning

Did you ever look out the window on a nice day and dream about what fun it would be to hold class outside? Your students probably feel the same way! T...

Does Money Grow on School Yard Trees? Resources for Your Outdoor Classroom

Book Chapter

Does Money Grow on School Yard Trees? Resources for Your Outdoor Classroom

Activities in this book may excite you, but how will you pay for them? Money does not grow on trees—even trees in a school yard. The challenge for e...

It All Adds Up! Math + Science + Outdoors = Fun

Book Chapter

It All Adds Up! Math + Science + Outdoors = Fun

Creative mathematics teachers will tell you that math is everywhere and science cannot be taught without math. When students are taken outdoors, they ...

Reading and Writing About Nature

Book Chapter

Reading and Writing About Nature

The integration of science and language arts is an effective way for teachers to enhance students’ comprehension and critical thinking and the requi...

Social Studies: Humans and the Outdoors

Book Chapter

Social Studies: Humans and the Outdoors

The history of humans interacting with the land is the perfect context for a number of outdoor learning experiences. Humans have relied on the Sun to ...

Topography

Book Chapter

Topography

This chapter introduces the topic of topography, including map use and interpretation. Activities are provided to help students apply their understand...

Physical Geography

Book Chapter

Physical Geography

Physical geography becomes a way to identify and better understand the components in the environment and the structure of the landscape. The activitie...

Soil: It's Not Dirt

Book Chapter

Soil: It's Not Dirt

The focus for this chapter is soil, and the activities investigate the general soil characteristics of color, structure, and texture. Students learn t...

Energy and Nutrients

Book Chapter

Energy and Nutrients

This chapter explores the concepts of energy and nutrients and goes back to the fundamental connection of these concepts with the environment. Activit...

Biodiversity

Book Chapter

Biodiversity

Biodiversity can be defined as the variation of taxonomic life forms within a given ecosystem or biome, or for the entire Earth. It can be used as a m...

Asset 2