Natural Cycles: Coming Full Circle—Using natural cycles to teach elementary science objectives

Journal Article | February 2000

Native Americans commonly use a circle in their art and stories to represent the fact that matter is conserved. From generation to generation, Native Americans passed on the idea that matter is conserved and used the…

Rock Cycle Roulette: Using dice and probabilities, students interactively learn about the rock cycle

Journal Article | October 2000

Teachers of environmental science, Earth systems, geology electives, or traditional Earth science courses must teach the rock cycle at some point in the curriculum. This activity moves students through the rock cycle…

Methods and Strategies: Literacy in the Learning Cycle

Journal Article | September 2009

Trade books can be used in all phases of the learning cycle to support effective teaching and learning. Romance and Vitale (1992) found that texts and other nonfiction science books can be effective tools for teaching…

Listserv Roundup: Teaching the Water Cycle

Journal Article | January 2017

This column shares recent conversations taken from the NSTA listserv community about current science education topics. The water, or hydraulic, cycle is a popular topic on the NSTA listservs. This month’s column…

Teacher To Teacher: Teaching With Learning Cycles and Storylines

Journal Article | October 2017

This column provides practical advice from your peers. This issue discusses how to frame the learning cycle around a storyline.

Tried and True: A Water Cycle of Many Paths

Journal Article | December 2014

This column provides classic demonstrations and experiments with a new twist. This month’s issue describes an activity that allows students to explore the complexity of the water cycle, create their own model of it, and…

Science Sampler: Rockin' around the rock cycle

Journal Article | September 2005

The following inquiry-based activities were designed as part of a unit intended to aid students in understanding the rock cycle, with the assumption that, after being taught the lessons in the unit, students would have…

Tried and True: Chipping away at the rock cycle

Journal Article | January 2009

The National Science Education Standards recommend that middle school students have a clear understanding of the history, composition, and formative processes that shape the Earth. To accomplish this goal, the authors…

A Negotiation Cycle to Promote Argumentation in Science Classrooms

Journal Article | June 2013

Cycle through the steps of a strategy for reaching a classroom consensus through argumentation.