Science Sampler: Water-use awareness

Journal Article | February 2008

National rainfall maps show large areas of the United States experiencing major droughts. Government agencies are intervening with water awareness programs, and in extreme cases, rationing. Because students are both…

Home Connections: Up Goes the Water

Journal Article | March 2004

Have you ever wondered how water performs its gravity-defying act of moving upward from the roots to the leaves of a plant? How does water get all the way up to the top of a tall tree? This month's Home Connections…

Editor's Note: Investigating Water (Summer 2007)

Journal Article | June 2007

Water is a major world currency and continues to be critical for all. We can figure out how to live without oil but it is quite a cumbersome task to consider living without water. In this month’s installment of the…

Tried and True: Water Screen: A Discrepant Event

Journal Article | October 2011

This column provides classic demonstrations and experiments with a new twist. This month’s issue uses a discrepant event to demonstrate properties of water and the effects of air pressure.

Disequilibrium: How Heat Affects the Density of Water

Journal Article | June 2017

This column shows how to use discrepant events to confront misconceptions. This month’s discrepant event illustrates what happens when a container filled with warmer, less dense water is placed on top of a container…

Teacher to Teacher: Designing the Water Treatment Process

Journal Article | January 2017

This column provides practical advice from your peers. The ongoing water crisis in Flint, Michigan, served as the inspiration for a design brief the author created that asked students to explore the process of water…

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…

Teaching Through Trade Books: Wonderful Water

Journal Article | September 2015

This column includes activities inspired by children’s literature. This month’s issue discusses how to help children understand the water cycle, the importance of water, and where and how they use water so that they can…

Engineering Design and EFFECTs: A Water Filtration Example

Journal Article | October 2014

Teach students the language of engineering while addressing a real-world problem.

The Early Years: Where Did the Water Go?

Journal Article | March 2010

Everyday occurrences with evaporation are so ordinary that adults may not realize that children wonder about them and create explanations about what happens to water as wet objects dry. The process of evaporation is not…