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Book Chapter
Making Prints From Fruits and Vegetables
Students may be familiar with eating fruits and vegetables, but have they ever taken a really close look at the anatomy of those specimens? In this activity, students have an opportunity to explore aspects of the internal and external anatomy of prod...
Book Chapter
What Do You See? Visual Observation
The famous New York Yankee catcher Yogi Berra once said, “You can observe a lot just by watching.” This activity helps strengthen students’ skills in a fundamental aspect of mathematics and science: visual observation. Students carefully examin...
Book Chapter
Examining Serial Sections of an Apple
In this activity, students make serial sections of an apple. Students make cross-section prints of the top portion of the apple, then another print further into the apple, and so on until they get to the bottom of the apple. This serial sectioning te...
Book Chapter
Science and Math on Television
Students certainly enjoy watching television, and they traditionally favor shows about science, mathematics, and technology. Consider the popularity of MythBusters, Bill Nye the Science Guy, National Geographic Explorer, and, of course, the old favor...
Book Chapter
A One-Sided Paper Loop—The Möbius Band
What can you make from a sheet of paper that has only one side, where inside equals outside? The answer is a Möbius band, of course, the one-sided paper loop. In this activity, students in grades 3 and 4 explore a mathematical conundrum: How do we d...
Book Chapter
Students constantly notice the world around them, and to help make sense of it all, they attempt to group and categorize objects and experiences they encounter. In science, the study of classification is referred to as taxonomy. To make this subject ...
Book Chapter
Your Very Own Museum—Making Collections
Much more than childish pastimes, collections form the basis for museums of natural history, found object art projects, and personal hobbies. Furthermore, many notable scientists—Charles Darwin, for example—began their lifelong investigations wit...
Book Chapter
Creating Art Projects From Recycled Materials
Why not challenge students to design a collage, mosaic, or shadowbox entirely from “found objects”—recycled, natural, and discarded materials? The aesthetic nature of the art of salvage connects students not only to ancient, creative roots, but...
Book Chapter
Experimenting With Force and Motion Using Origami Frogs
Objects in motion and the forces that move them are the subjects of this lesson. This practical series of activities offers students a dynamic understanding of Newton’s three laws of motion. In particular, the third law is investigated as students ...
Book Chapter
Everyday Conceptions Across the World
In the initial phases of the process of developing items for the PISA 2006 assessment of scientific literacy, efforts were made to develop a smaller number of units called focus units. In addition to contributing to the measures of scientific literac...
Book Chapter
A Perspective on U.S. Science Teaching and Learning
This chapter presents a sketch on how PISA 2006 assessed conditions of teaching and learning in science classrooms. With selected findings from PISA 2006, similarities and differences are shown between approaches taken toward science teaching and lea...
Book Chapter
Improving Science Teaching and Learning
In this chapter, attention is drawn to the issue of quality instruction and level of student achievement. The chapter begins with a review of the findings of the McKinsey report (Barber and Mourshed 2007) about the importance of providing effective i...
Book Chapter
Windows Into High-Achieving Science Classrooms
For most science teachers, the vision of science instruction has been limited to what transpires in their own classrooms and possibly those of a few select colleagues. Rarely do they have the opportunity to examine learning environments outside their...
Book Chapter
The Importance of Aligning Teaching and Assessment
This chapter focuses on the relation that is desirable between assessment and teaching activities in order to keep coherence with teaching goals and help all students to understand this coherence. The PISA 2006 assessment is discussed with respect to...
Book Chapter
PISA 2006 Assessment of Attitudes Toward Science
Science teachers want students to develop interest in science and value in learning science. Attitudes toward science play an important role in students' decisions to develop their science knowledge, pursue careers in science, and use scientific conc...