JoinAll Elementary resources
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit ideas about genetic traits. The probe is designed to see if students recognize that some traits, such as eye color, are complex and cannot be predicted solely by the result of one gene. ...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about the cellular makeup of the human body. The probe is designed to see if students recognize that the body is an organized collection of cells and not a structure or “outline...
Journal Article
Science 101: What causes surface tension?
This column focuses on background science information for elementary teachers. In this month’s column, learn about surface tension....
NSTA Press Book
Tried and True: Time-Tested Activities for Middle School
A compilation of popular “Tried and True” columns originally published in the award-winning journal Science Scope, this new book is filled with teachers’ best classroom activities—time-tested, tweaked, and engaging. These favorites are organi...
NSTA Press Book
Hop Into Action: The Amphibian Curriculum Guide for Grades K–4
K–4 teachers, homeschoolers, camp leaders, and naturalists will find the standards-based lessons in this slim volume the perfect introduction to environmental science for young learners. Hop Into Action helps teach children about the joy of amphibi...
By David Alexander
NSTA Press Book
Exemplary Science for Resolving Societal Challenges
Amid a flurry of national standards and high-stakes assessments, it’s easy to overlook the curiosity and invention that is inherent to science and that should be central to any science lesson plan. Similarly, the connections between what students l...
NSTA Press Book
Picture-Perfect Science Lessons, Expanded 2nd Edition: Using Children's Books to Guide Inquiry, 3-6
How do you improve upon perfection? For years, new and experienced elementary school teachers alike have extolled the virtues of Picture-Perfect Science Lessons—the expertly combined appeal of children’s picture books with standards-based science...
By Karen Ansberry, Emily Morgan
NSTA Press Book
Uncovering Student Ideas in Physical Science, Volume 1: 45 New Force and Motion Assessment Probes
Nationally known science educator Page Keeley—principal author of the hugely popular, four-volume NSTA Press series Uncovering Students Ideas in Science—has teamed up with physicist and science educator Rand Harrington to write this first volume ...
By Page Keeley, Rand Harrington
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to comprehensively elicit students' ideas about the relationship between force and motion. The list of possible answers includes several distracters that are based on learning research; thus the probe will tell...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to see whether students recognize that units of distance traveled must be measured with a measurement device from the starting point to the ending point. The probe reveals whether students take into account the...