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A: Scientific inquiry is a multifaceted activity; The processes of science include the formulation of scientifically investigable questions, construction of investigations into those questions, the collection of appropriate data, the evaluation of the meaning of those data, and the communication of this evaluation.

B: The processes of science frequently do not correspond to the traditional portrayal of "the scientific method."

C: Scientific argumentation is a necessary part of scientific inquiry and plays an important role in the generation and validation of scientific knowledge.

D: Scientific knowledge is based on observation and inference; it is important to recognize that these are very different things. Not only does science require creativity in its methods and processes, but also in its questions and explanations.

Standard 1 : The Practice of Science
Cluster Standards

This cluster includes the following benchmarks.

Visit the specific benchmark webpage to find related instructional resources.

  • SC.912.N.1.1 : Define a problem based on a specific  body of knowledge, for example: biology, chemistry, physics, and earth/space science, and do the following: 
    1. Pose questions about the natural world, (Articulate the purpose of the investigation and identify the relevant scientific concepts).
    2. Conduct systematic observations, (Write procedures that are clear and replicable. Identify observables and examine relationships between test (independent) variable and outcome (dependent) variable. Employ appropriate methods for accurate and consistent observations; conduct and record measurements at appropriate levels of precision. Follow safety guidelines).
    3. Examine books and other sources of information to see what is already known,
    4. Review what is known in light of empirical evidence, (Examine whether available empirical evidence can be interpreted in terms of existing knowledge and models, and if not, modify or develop new models).
    5. Plan investigations, (Design and evaluate a scientific investigation).
    6. Use tools to gather, analyze, and interpret data (this includes the use of measurement in metric and other systems, and also the generation and interpretation of graphical representations of data, including data tables and graphs), (Collect data or evidence in an organized way. Properly use instruments, equipment, and materials (e.g., scales, probeware, meter sticks, microscopes, computers) including set-up, calibration, technique, maintenance, and storage).
    7. Pose answers, explanations, or descriptions of events,
    8. Generate explanations that explicate or describe natural phenomena (inferences),
    9. Use appropriate evidence and reasoning to justify these explanations to others,
    10. Communicate results of scientific investigations, and
    11. Evaluate the merits of the explanations produced by others.
  • SC.912.N.1.2 : Describe and explain what characterizes science and its methods.
  • SC.912.N.1.3 : Recognize that the strength or usefulness of a scientific claim is evaluated through scientific argumentation, which depends on  critical and logical thinking, and the active consideration of alternative scientific explanations to explain the data presented.
  • SC.912.N.1.4 : Identify sources of information and assess their reliability according to the strict standards of scientific investigation.
  • SC.912.N.1.5 : Describe and provide examples of how similar investigations conducted in many parts of the world result in the same outcome.
  • SC.912.N.1.6 : Describe how scientific inferences are drawn from scientific observations and provide examples from the content being studied.
  • SC.912.N.1.7 : Recognize the role of creativity in constructing scientific questions, methods and explanations.
Cluster Information
Number:
SC.912.N.1
Title:
The Practice of Science
Type:
Standard
Subject:
Science
Grade:
912
Body of Knowledge
Nature of Science
Cluster Access Points

This cluster includes the following Access Points.

  • SC.912.N.1.In.1 : Identify a problem based on a specific body of knowledge, including life science, earth and space science, or physical science, and do the following: 1. Identify a scientific question 2. Examine reliable sources of informtion to identify what is already known 3. Develop a possible explanation (hypothesis) 4. Plan and carry out an experiment 5. Gather data based on measurement and observations 6. Evaluate the data 7. Use the data to support reasonable explanations, inferences, and conclusions.
  • SC.912.N.1.In.2 : Describe the processes used in scientific investigations, including posing a research question, forming a hypothesis, reviewing what is known, collecting evidence, evaluating results, and reaching conclusions.
  • SC.912.N.1.In.3 : Identify that scientific investigations are sometimes repeated in different locations.
  • SC.912.N.1.In.4 : Identify that scientists use many different methods in conducting their research.
  • SC.912.N.1.Su.1 : Recognize a problem based on a specific body of knowledge, including life science, earth and space science, or physical science, and do the following: 1. Recognize a scientific question 2. Use reliable information and identify what is already known 3. Create possible explanation 4. Carry out a planned experiment 5. Record observations 6. Summarize results 7. Reach a reasonable conclusion.
  • SC.912.N.1.Su.2 : Identify the basic process used in scientific investigations, including questioning, observing, recording, determining, and sharing results.
  • SC.912.N.1.Su.3 : Recognize that scientific investigations can be repeated in different locations.
  • SC.912.N.1.Su.4 : Recognize that scientists use a variety of methods to get answers to their research questions.
  • SC.912.N.1.Pa.1 : Recognize a problem related to a specific body of knowledge, including life science, earth and space science, or physical science, and do the following: 1. Observe objects and activities 2. Follow planned procedures 3. Recognize a solution.
  • SC.912.N.1.Pa.2 : Recognize a process used in science to solve problems, such as observing, following procedures, and recognizing results.
  • SC.912.N.1.Pa.3 : Recognize that when a variety of common activities are repeated the same way, the outcomes are the same.
  • SC.912.N.1.Pa.4 : Recognize that people try different ways to complete a task when the first one does not work.
Cluster Resources

Vetted resources educators can use to teach the concepts and skills in this topic.

Original Student Tutorials
Educational Software / Tool
  • Density: Sea Water Mixing & Sinking: This is an excellent resource for teachers and students that provides student sheets, data graphs, vocabulary, and teacher notes as well as Big Ideas, Essential Questions, Data Tables, Formative Assessment questions - extremely teacher friendly who need assistance on this Big Idea and Concept. (The Preconceptions were helpful to my students.)
Lesson Plans
  • Lesson 5: Insights into a Changing World:
    This lesson covers:
    • Background on ecosystems and why they are important.
    • What ecological services the Indian River Lagoon provides. • How environmental changes disrupt these services.

  • Lesson 4: All About Algae:
    This lesson covers:

    • Different types of plankton.
    • What species of algae are common in the Indian River Lagoon. • What a harmful algal bloom is and how they are caused.
    • How these events impact the health of the lagoon.

  • Lesson 3: Whirlwind Weather:
    This lesson covers:
    • Different types of weather patterns.
    • Extreme weather events in Florida.
    • How these events impact the health of the Indian River Lagoon. • Using IRLON to investigate these changes/impacts.

  • Lesson 2: 'Tis the Season:
    This lesson covers:
    • What seasonality is and how it relates to the Indian River Lagoon.
    • Spatial and temporal changes in water quality.
    • How to use real-time and archived water quality data from IRLON to

    explore these changes.

  • Lesson 1: Exploring an Estuary:
    This lesson covers:
    • How environments can change from natural and human causes. • An introduction to estuaries.
    • Human, ecological, and economic importance of an estuary.
    • Specific features of the Indian River Lagoon and its importance. • How scientists study estuaries.
    • How researchers monitor water quality.
    • How to access, use, and interpret real-time water quality data.

  • Environmental Policy Palooza: Part 2: Students will investigate how the legislature creates policies and passes laws in response to citizens’ needs through direct instruction. Students will then analyze three environmental policies, answer questions, engage in discussion and then transfer this knowledge to create a policy that works to solve their original researched environmental issue. This is lesson 2 of 3 in a mini-unit integrating civics and biology.

  • Environmental Policy Palooza: Part 3: Students will transfer the knowledge they gained from their researched environmental issue in part 1 and the policy making process in part 2 to now draft a policy that works to solve the issue they originally researched. Students will then engage in an activity in order to argue and defend their policy and to ensure that it is the most effective solution for their environmental issue. This is lesson 3 of 3 in a mini-unit integrating civics and biology.

  • Environmental Policy Palooza: Part 1: Students will be introduced to environmental issues that connect with their biology learnung and will then research to create a poster or model (in groups) that answers the Who? What? Where? When? Why? about the environmental issue they've chosen. This is lesson 1 of 3 in a mini-unit integrating civics and biology.

  • Technology vs. Time: Students will research different forms of electronic communication and how they have changed throughout time, how the government and the scientific community has used the media to communicate with the public, and how effective those communications have been.

  • South Florida's Environmental Timeline: Students will discover some of the ways humans have impacted South Florida’s environments and explore proposals to help improve and restore them in this integrated lesson plan.

  • Stop Invading My Space: Students will work in small groups to review information about an invasive species in Florida and learn to recognize scientifically reliable sources. Groups will teach their classmates about the assigned species and discuss some of the impacts that species has on the biodiversity of the local ecosystem where they have been introduced.

    Students will explore the role of the state government, specifically the Florida Wildlife Commission and the Florida Department of Agriculture, in preserving the biodiversity of Florida. Students will relate the creation of invasive species laws to the impacts government can have on the environment and daily lives of citizens.

  • Lesson 4: Interannual Variability- El Nino & La Nina:

     This lesson covers:

    •The El Niño-Southern Oscillation cycle

    •How El Niño/La Niña events affect Florida

    •How El Niño/La Niña events affect productivity off the coast of Peru

  • Sea Ice Analysis: The changing climate is an important topic for both scientific analysis and worldly knowledge. This lesson uses data collected by the National Snow and Ice Data Center to create and use mathematical models as a predictive tool and do critical analysis of sea ice loss.

  • Citizen Science:
    Citizen science is a critical component to many different scientific studies, and gives citizen scientists the opportunity to better understand the research and the process. In some studies, citizen scientists assist in major scientific discoveries that can change or create legislature. Students will participate in ongoing citizen science projects to learn more about the scientific method.

  • How Big Is a Mole? Do We Really Comprehend Avogadro’s Number?: The unit “mole” is used in chemistry as a counting unit for measuring the amount of something. One mole of something has 6.02×1023 units of that thing. The magnitude of the number 6.02×1023 is challenging to imagine. The goal of this lesson is for students to understand just how many particles Avogadro's Number truly represents, or, how big is a mole.  This lesson is meant for students currently enrolled in a first or second year chemistry course. This lesson is designed to be completed within one approximately 1 hour class; however, completion of optional activities 4 and 5 may require a longer class period or part of a second class period.

  • Help Behind-the-Scenes at a Museum as a Citizen Scientist: Students will learn about the importance of biodiversity research collections (specifically, herbaria), the types of data that their specimens hold, the process of digital data creation about the specimens, and the online publishers of that digital data. Students will act as citizen scientists and transcribe labels of plant specimens then explore the research value of the data that they create.

  • Do You See What I See: The student will be able to describe the process of human development including major changes that occur in each trimester of pregnancy. Students will become scientists and explore the major changes that occur during embryo development. First, students will work in groups and correctly match the fetal development picture cards with the appropriate description. Next, students compare and share their findings with other groups and record this data. Finally, students will act as physicians as they investigate a medical case study of a pregnant woman and determine what trimester she is in by analyzing ultrasound reports detailing certain makers of the stages of development. Students will use a claim, evidence, rationale style activity using the ultrasound pictures and learned content to support their answers. The lesson culminates with students sharing their findings through a gallery walk.

  • The Last Supper: Identifying Macromolecules: The students will solve a mystery using laboratory tests for different types of macromolecules. They will use argumentation to justify and communicate their claim. They will construct explanations and communicate with one another to determine which macromolecule would be best to eat in different scenarios. Students will be able to identify the structure and functions of the four main types of macromolecules. The students will use laboratory testing to determine the identity of an unknown. They will fill in a chart about the structures, functions, and examples for each macromolecule type and then they will practice their knowledge by answering short response questions relating the macromolecules to the real world. Finally, they will review using a whole-class cooperative activity and take a quiz about the structures and functions of macromolecules.

  • Eukaryotic Cells: The Factories of Life: Students will be able to identify the main parts of a cell and to describe the basic function of each part. The students will match parts of a cell to parts of a city that have functions that are analogous to each cell part. They will then develop their own analogy and present it to the class. Finally, they will practice their knowledge using a computer-based review game.

  • Languages: Barriers to Global Science?: In this lesson, students will analyze an intended to support reading in the content area. The research article discusses different languages as barriers to the transfer of knowledge within the scientific community and then provides potential resolutions to aid in the reduction of language barriers. This lesson includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

  • Modeling Moon Craters: In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text that highlights current research on high impact craters on the moon. Scientists have been studying the largest impact basins on the moon, such as the Orientale basin. Until now, how impact craters with rings form had not been well understood, but scientists have modeled Orientale's formation using data from NASA's GRAIL mission. This lesson is designed to support reading in the content area. The lesson plan includes a vocabulary guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

  • Can Snails Cure Diabetes?: In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text intended to support reading in the content area. The article addresses an innovative possible treatment for diabetes using cone snail venom. The venom contains a form of insulin that is faster acting than human insulin. Further research shows that the cone snail insulin requires no prep before it is used, therefore explaining its quick response time. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Numerous options to extend the lesson are also included.

  • Antifreeze Proteins Both Help and Hurt Fish: This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The article from the National Science Foundation discusses research conducted in the Antarctic concerning the notothenioid fish, which contains "antifreeze" proteins. The proteins prevent the fish from freezing in the cold waters of the Southern Ocean, but it was also discovered that these same proteins prevent ice crystals from melting when temperatures warm. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

  • This Dinosaur Can't Sing: In this lesson, students will analyze an intended to support reading in the content area. The article presents new research that suggests dinosaurs were not able to vocalize or "sing" in a way similar to modern birds. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Numerous options to extend the lesson are also included.

  • Determining Relative Salinity of Estuaries: Students will help their teacher figure out where her water samples came from by determining their relative salinity. With this information and a picture map of areas of the Intercoastal Waterway, they will locate possible sources of the samples.

  • Genetics, Genetics, and More Genetics: Students will use appropriate tools (Punnett squares) and techniques to gather, analyze, and interpret data.Students will explore various modes of inheritance through a hands-on activity creating offspring of a fictitious organism. Students will complete Punnett Squares for various genetic crosses, and analyze and interpret the results of those crosses. Students will be able to predict the genotype and phenotype of P1 and F1 generations using Punnett Squares. Students will be able to identify complex patterns of inheritance such as co-dominance and incomplete dominance.

  • Artificially Sweetened Foods and Drinks Can't Fool Your Brain: In this lesson, students will study an that describes how researchers at the University of Sydney have discovered a correlation between artificial sweeteners, like sucralose, and an increased appetite. There are estimates that over 4,000 types of food contain sucralose. Billions of people around the world consume artificial sweeteners in hopes of losing weight, and until this study, little has been known about how these sweeteners affected the brain. This lesson is designed to support reading in the content area; it includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

  • Sensoring Data: In this follow up lesson, students will explore data collection using the weather station sensor and perform statistical analysis of the data. Students will use a scientific method of inquiry to plan an investigation of their own. This activity is meant to allow students to use a variety of skills they have acquired throughout a statistics unit in a personally meaningful way.

  • Bird Migration: A Risky Business: In this lesson plan, students will analyze an informational text intended to support reading in the content area. The article reports new findings on bird migration patterns. Recent research points to migratory birds conducting a "risk assessment" based on factors like weather and their own amount of body fat. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Numerous options to extend the lesson are also included.

  • Far From Home: NASA's Year in Space Mission: In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text that presents information on a year-long space mission aboard the International Space Station. This lesson is designed to support reading in the content area. The text describes the mission of studying the long-term effects of microgravity on human health. Astronaut Scott Kelley and Cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko were used in the year-long study, along with Kelly's identical twin brother, Mark Kelly, who remained on Earth and was used as a control subject. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Options to extend the lesson are also included.

  • Research Project: Sensing Nature: In this week-long, open-ended activity, students will observe their local environment, devise and pose a testable research question, conduct observations using sensors, and use mathematics skills for quantitative analysis and plotting. To communicate results, students will summarize their findings on a custom poster that explains their work.

  • STEM Engineering Design Challenge: Yeast Fermentation: Students will design an experiment to measure the effect of various macromolecules on fermentation rates of yeast. Students will imagine, plan, and implement their designs in a collaborative manner and then will improve their experiment after the first results.

    The ultimate goal is for students to be able to discuss the role of anaerobic respiration in living things and develop their scientific thinking skills as they solve a problem within a small group.

    This is an inquiry-based lab that is to be facilitated by the teacher but will provide the students the opportunity to test and defend their own thinking as they design their experiment and analyze their results.

  • The Ups and Downs of Populations:
    Students will analyze population graphs, collect data to generate their own population graph, and experience limiting factors and their impact on carrying capacity in a small deer population. Students will be able to identify, explain, and evaluate the impact that different limiting factors have on the population of organisms including food, water, shelter, predation, human interference, changes in birth and death rate, changes in immigration and emigration, disease, and reproduction.
  • Some Assembly Required: Fighting Cancer with DNA: This lesson utilizes an informational text intended to support reading in the content area. The article describes a new nanotechnology technique that uses computers to rapidly and accurately assemble molecules that can fight cancer. The article also emphasizes how scientific research is supported monetarily through public (NSF) and private partnerships. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Numerous options to extend the lesson are also included.

  • A Whole New World: The Search for Water 5E Lesson: In this lesson, students will run a variety of tests on different liquids. During their experimentation, students will collect data, graph data, collaborate and discuss their findings, compare their findings to known characteristics of water, make a claim, provide evidence and justification to support their claim, and create an advisory report of their findings. Students will run various tests on several different liquids and compare those characteristic to those of water. Students will gain an understanding that water is unlike other liquids in the way that it moderates temperature, in its cohesive strength, in its ability to expand upon freezing, in its pH neutrality, and in its designation as the "universal solvent."

  • Enzymes in Action 5E Lesson: Students will predict, investigate, observe, and report on the effects that pH, concentration, and temperature have on catalase enzyme reactions. Students will conduct an experiment in which they will alter the pH, concentration, and temperature of the environment in which catalase enzyme reactions are taking place. Students will be able to describe how changes in these environmental conditions affect the action of the enzymes in living things.

  • It May Be A Planet, But Could Goldilocks Live There?: In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text resource intended to support reading in the content area. This text describes scientists' research on identifying "habitable" planets and explains how failed attempts might actually open the doors to more thorough research and understanding. Scientists faced the challenge of collecting specific data in order to determine if bodies qualified as planets. When research revealed that their original hypotheses were incorrect, scientists were able to take the new information and apply it to further investigations. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Options to extend the lesson are included.

  • Size Does Matter: Brain Size in Mammalian Carnivores: This lesson is designed to support reading in the content area. In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text that describes a recent experiment that helps to prove that larger brain size could indicate higher intelligence within carnivorous mammals. The research was conducted at nine U.S. zoos and included 140 animals from 39 mammalian carnivore species. The lesson plan includes text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, sample answers, and a writing rubric.

  • Engineering Design Challenge: Exploring Structures in High School Geometry : Students explore ideas on how civil engineers use triangles when constructing bridges. Students will apply knowledge of congruent triangles to build and test their own bridges for stability.

  • Easy Enzymes: In this lesson, students will learn how important enzymes are by functioning as a catalyst in most all biological processes. In learning about the functions of enzymes, they will also see how they are related to things they come across in everyday life. Students will observe the breakdown of hydrogen peroxide by catalase from potatoes.

  • Rats on the Move: This lesson plan uses an informational text intended to support reading in the content area. The article describes a research project undertaken by Tulane University students, who collected rodents from neighborhoods affected by Hurricane Katrina. The text describes how a mathematical model can be used to simulate how environmental changes affect the populations of rodents that carry pathogens harmful to human health. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

  • Submarines of Jelly: The Remarkable Siphonophore: This lesson uses an informational text resource intended to support reading in the content area. The text informs readers about siphonophores, a relatively little-studied organism related to jellyfish and corals. It can grow as long as 160 ft. (49 m) and can move through the water column in a coordinated fashion, and knowledge of its locomotion may help humans propel themselves efficiently underwater. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Numerous options to extend the lesson are also included.

  • Everyday Mysteries: Why Do We Yawn?: In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text that seeks to answer the question "Why do we yawn?" Students will learn that while many claims regarding the social and physiological functions of yawning have been presented from Hippocrates, 17th and 18th century scientists, and experts today, scientists have yet to reach a consensus about the answer to the title question. All the while, this frequent challenge and re-examination of scientific claims helps to strengthen scientific knowledge. This lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric, as well as options to extend the lesson.

  • Purple Haze: In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text designed to support reading in the content area. An ancient coloring pigment is leading to new research in magnetic fields and superconductivity. Will this lead to new technologies involving quantum computers? The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Options to extend the lesson are also included.

  • Investigating Rulers of the Reef: Coral Reef Parasites: This lesson uses an NSF article to inform the reader about the influence of parasites on damselfish, a coral reef species. The author explains how his team determined the reason for the consistent behavior of damselfish leaving their aggressively guarded territory each morning to go to a cleaning station. He also explains how more questions arose throughout his investigation, questions like "Do these parasites carry other parasites that infect fishes?" and "Do these gnathiid parasites infect other species of fish?" This first-person account creates an interesting view of how marine research is done, including field work, lab work, and collaborating with other scientists. This lesson is designed to support reading in the content area. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

  • Innovative Methods: Using Drones to Study Glaciers: In this lesson, students will read a text that describes new and creative technologies that are being used in climate research to study high-altitude glaciers and map how they are changing. The text describes the ways in which the use of drones with time-lapse thermal camera systems are being used to gather data over the Peruvian Andes more effectively than satellites or planes. The text also describes some of the researchers' early findings based on the data they have gathered through the use of these drones. The text used in this lesson is designed to support reading in the content area. The lesson includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions and a writing prompt, sample answer keys, and a writing rubric.

  • Using Scientific Methods to Starve the Beast: In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text that describes how scientists employed use of scientific methods to discover what may lead to a new method to treat cancer. The article describes the preliminary research done in eliminating protein cell chaperones that bring copper into cancer cells. Depriving cancer cells of copper causes them to stop growing. Use of this informational text is designed to support reading in the content area. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, sample answers, and a writing rubric.

  • Yeast Fermentation Inquiry - Predict, Observe, Explain: Using the Predict, Observe, and Explain model, students will be able to identify the basic function of cellular respiration. Students will predict what is needed for yeast fermentation, why they do it and what gas is being released. With a teacher led debrief, students will then decide what factors allow fermentation to occur and finally explain why it's happening.

  • Landing on Mars and Beyond – A 3D Printer Design Challenge: Students will utilize a 3D printer to design a landing device simulating landing men and equipment on Mars safely. Once they have settled on a design, then they will move to designing a parachute that, when attached to the lander, provides a slow, low impact landing.

  • The Real Story of Where Babies Come From: Students will observe, explore, and create a story about the main structures of the female/male reproductive systems, describing how these systems interact during the process of fertilization to a create human being.

  • One Fly, Two Fly, Red Fly, Blue Fly: Students apply the scientific process in an online lab inquiry of how traits are inherited with the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. They also learn and apply the principles of Mendelian inheritance. Students make hypotheses for monohybrid, dihybrid and sex-linked traits and test their hypotheses by selecting fruit flies with different visible mutations, mating them, and analyzing the phenotypic ratios of the offspring. Students record their observations into an online notebook and write an online lab report.

  • Sensoring Data: In this follow up lesson, students will explore data collection using the weather station sensor and perform statistical analysis of the data. Students will use a scientific method of inquiry to plan an investigation of their own. This activity is meant to allow students to use a variety of skills they have acquired throughout a statistics unit in a personally meaningful way.

  • Where'd that come from?!?: This is a lab activity resource to accompany learning of photosynthesis and the Calvin cycle. Students are able to measure change in water conditions and gaseous production associated with autotrophs.

  • Planting Science: With this lesson, students are able to evaluate scientific inquiry firsthand by applying variables to their own enclosed ecosystems. With this experimental process they will also be able to personally devise their own experimental method and execute the process to the point of sharing their own data with their peers. The only limits to their discovery are the materials available. This can be done with anything from simple household products to the most advanced chemicals in the storeroom.

  • Why Do Apples Turn Brown?: Students design an experiment to determine the effects of pH and temperature on enzyme activity in apples.

  • Sea Turtle Sex and Climate Change: In this lesson students will examine how changes in an ecosystem result from environmental factors specifically demonstrating the consequences of climate change on sea turtles. The lesson is in four parts: 1) a fact finding/research component; 2) a group discussion and student presentation; 3) a multi-media component; and 4) a laboratory activity.

  • Crime Scene Measurements: Using a crime scene scenario, students will measure length, mass, volume and temperature. They will calculate area and shoe size using a chart. Students will analyze soil samples using a microscope. Students will use the process of elimination based on their data to determine a suspect.

  • Two-Way Math Survey: In this lesson, students will construct a two-way table based on data given. They will interpret the data to find if there is a correlation between the two variables from the same subject. As the lesson progresses, students will create their own testable questions that they will collect data on using the survey method. Students will show their mastery of this math concept with the presentation of the data in a two-way table and interpretation of the data to draw inferences.

  • Pendulum Conundrum Inquiry Lab: In this exploration, students will answer the following essential questions:

    1. How does the length of a pendulum impact how long it takes to swing back and forth?
    2. How does the amount of mass hanging from a pendulum impact the amount of time to swing back and forth?
    3. How can we calculate the value of acceleration due to gravity (g) from the behavior of a moving pendulum (optional activity for math reinforcement)?
  • Describing Populations of Frogs and Salamanders: Students use real world examples of sampling frog and salamander populations to explore the different characteristics of a population and the process of observation and inference. The lesson includes individual and group activities.

  • Evaluating Claims About Cancer: Students identify claims about UV exposure presented in a selection of media items, then design, execute, and report the results of an experiment designed to test one such claim.

  • Investigating the pH of Soils: In this activity students will conduct research then test the effects of adding products to soil. Students will learn about soil pH, what factors affect the pH of soil and how important it is to the growth of plants. Students will learn to use reputable resources to support their findings. Students will be expected to write a detailed lab report that thoroughly explores the concept while integrating the data from their investigation.

  • Cleaning Up Your Act: In this Model Eliciting Activity (MEA), students will address a real world engineering problem in which they must work as a team to design a procedure to select the best material for cleaning up an oil spill. The main focus of this MEA is to recognize the consequences of a catastrophic event, and understand the environmental and economical impact based on data analysis. Students will conduct individual and team investigations in order to arrive at a scientifically sound solution to the problem.

    Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought processes. MEAs follow a problem-based, student-centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEAs visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx

  • Distance and Displacement.:
    • In this lesson students, will be able to identify frames of reference and describe how they are used to measure motion.
    • Identify appropriate SI units for measuring distances.
    • Distinguish between distance and displacement.
    • Calculate displacement using vector addition.
  • Camouflage in the Ocean: In this lesson, students will complete two mini-labs to explore how colors change as you descend in an aquatic environment. Based on their observations they are challenged to design a camouflage pattern which could be used below the upper, sun-lit portions of the ocean, AND defend their design decisions in written form.

  • Conductors vs. Insulators: An Inquiry Lab: This is a basic introduction to the difference between conductors and insulators when either is placed into a series circuit with a battery and a light bulb. This introductory activity is primarily used as a vehicle for students to better understand how to write a lab report with the appropriate sections and to integrate technology through Google Docs and a virtual lab simulation.

  • Current Events in Marine Science: Science is ever-changing. Students in Marine Science have the opportunity to see how classroom topics relate to current events and research from around the world. Students will decipher claims and support given by author to evaluate the purpose of the article. (can be adapted to other Science courses)

  • My 2 Cents: Students predict how the mass of a penny changes over time, devise a method to test their prediction, collect/analyze data and determine the composition of a penny based on physical properties and calculations. This student-centered activity allows freedom from mistakes as they explore their learning in a supportive environment.

  • Virtually Possible: This is a ray drawing activity to aid students in their understanding of how virtual images are formed by plane mirrors, and how the image size and distance from the mirror compare to those of the object.

  • Picture This!: This is a short unit plan that covers position/time and velocity/time graphs. Students are provided with new material on both topics, will have practice worksheets, and group activities to develop an understanding of motion graphs.
  • Can You Read My Mind?: This engaging activity is a fun game requiring a teacher to team up with a student and provide insider information before the activity begins. The team will cleverly involve the rest of the class in a guessing game where students must apply logic and their understanding of variables to devise questions aimed at figuring out the trick, which allows the chosen student and the teacher to always know what the other is thinking! The concept of changing one variable at a time is critical to making progress in this game of reasoning and observation.

  • Defining Problems and Planning Investigations: This lesson, if well planned out and conducted properly, addresses every component of the benchmark it is intended to cover. It involves a whole-group segment, during which the teacher provides a demonstration for students to observe. It also involves a segment that requires the students consult other sources of information related to what they observed in making their hypothesis and planning their investigation. It also involves a group-learning segment, that can easily be adjusted to incorporate differentiated instruction to accommodate students with special needs, during which students conduct the investigation they planned. Finally, it also involves a segment that allows the students the opportunity to communicate the results of their investigation and to evaluate the results of investigations conducted by others. It may also involve another segment involving direct instruction of the components of the scientific method and practice opportunities for students to develop their understanding of these components if this is determined to be necessary based upon the results of the pre-lesson assessment.

  • Profile: Judah Folkman Cancer Research: This PBS/NOVA lesson combines a discussion of the Nature of Science using a renowned Cancer researcher (and supported by the profiles of several other renowned scientists in the activities) to study concepts of creativity and tentativeness in the Nature of Science with a study of the biological characteristics of cells in disease (cancer).
  • Natural Records of Climate Change: Working with Indirect Evidence: Students play a dice game to explore the differences between direct and indirect evidence. Student pairs roll dice and record the numbers rolled as a series of colors instead of numbers. Other pairs of students try to crack the color code to figure out the sequence of numbers rolled. In this way, students gain an understanding of how indirect evidence of climate change can be interpreted. In conclusion, the class discusses the various records made by humans and indirect evidence found in nature that can be studied to understand how climate has varied through time. Key Concepts

    • Scientists collect data from many sources to identify, understand, and interpret past changes in Earth's climate.
    • Natural records of climate change, such as tree rings, ice cores, pollen and ocean sediments offer indirect evidence of climate change. They require knowledge of how the natural recorder works.
    • Records made by humans , such as artwork, harvest records, and accounts of changing seasons, are more direct, but can be incomplete.
  • Checks Lab: Each team has an envelope containing a series of bank checks. A few are removed at a time, and the team attempts to construct a plausible scenario which involves those checks. With each subsequent removal of checks, appropriate revision of the scenario is done. Final scenarios are compared by the class. Class discussion is designed to show how human values and biases influence observation and interpretation, even in science. This is one of the few nature-of-science lessons which have a biological connection.
  • Personal DNA Testing: A lesson with multi-media components from PBS/NOVA that focuses on DNA testing, including techniques, purposes, and considerations for biotechnology and human decisions regarding health. Students will learn about single nucleotide polymorphisms, how they are used in science, and how they are being used in the medical field. Students will apply this knowledge by looking at a mock data set and probabilities to inform medical recommendations.
  • Behavior of Gases: Disaster at Lake Nyos: Students, through discussion and structured inquiry, will learn about the behavior of gases under various conditions. Students will be able to apply these concepts to everyday objects such as soda bottles, fire extinguishers, hot air balloons, propane tanks, and aerosol products.

  • Blood flow: A Student-Centered Inquiry: This is set of related lessons including direct instruction, games, readings, small group work and an inquiry activity to model factors affecting the human circulatory system.

  • Discover the Planimal: In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text intended to support reading in the content area. The article explains how scientists utilized the scientific method to discover a plant-animal hybrid between a sea slug and algae. Students also analyze another text reviewing the attributes of scientists that are employed to make discoveries. By reading and synthesizing two texts, students will explore a real-world example of how the scientific method led to the discovery of the first case of gene transfer between multicellular organisms. This lesson includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

  • SMALL: Shape Memory Alloy Lab: Shape Memory Alloys are metals that can return to or 'remember' their original shape. They are a cutting edge application for Chemistry, Physics, and Integrated Science. The activities in this lesson work well for the study of forces, Newton's Laws, and electricity in physics. They also lend themselves well to crystalline structures, heat of reaction, and bonding in chemistry. In addition, students could study applications for the materials in the medical and space industries.

  • Sunburn Stamp Out: In this Model-Eliciting Activity (MEA), students are given an everyday problem they are familiar with in which they must work as a team to develop a procedure to choose the best sunscreen product for children ages 8 to 10. Students will read an informational text and then create a ranking system for the sunscreens in order to decide which product meets the client's needs.

    Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought processes. MEAs follow a problem-based, student-centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEAs visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx

  • Uncertainty of Measurement: The students will learn the application of scientific notation, significant figures, accuracy and precision as they pertain to the collection of data (measurement).

  • Visualization of Social Networks with Node Graphs: This lesson introduces the concept of node graphs for the purpose of visualizing social networks.

    The lesson is presented with an introductory physical activity where students create a living graph. Students, building on their existing knowledge regarding common graph types, learn how node graphs can be used to visualize data from social networks.

    Students will then participate in a simulated contagious infection event and will accurately record data about the transmission of the disease. These data will be used to construct a single computer file to be used to create a single node graph for describing the network. Students will then be responsible for understanding how to interpret the resulting network graph in the context of the activity.

Perspectives Video: Experts
Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiasts
Perspectives Video: Teaching Ideas
Presentation/Slideshow
  • What Killed the Dinosaurs?: It is often difficult, sometimes impossible, to get a definitive answer to some of life's most enduring questions. Scientific processes provide alternative explanations for a wide variety of phenomena by piecing together all the available information. This interactive activity on the Evolution website explores four possible hypotheses to explain what caused the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, inviting the viewer to consider the evidence and come to their own decision.
Project
  • Transpirational Design Lab: This is an inquiry design lab for students to understand transpirational pull of plants. Like all inquiry labs, it is open for more designs than the one presented in the PowerPoint example. The example in the PowerPoint is the easiest to implement in the classroom. It requires a growlite (a bulb that produces the UV light plants need to grow), a fan, a light source with a 100 Watt bulb, Ziplock bags, rope, and plants that are the same (I use petunias).

Teaching Ideas
Text Resources
  • A Green Sea Slug Steals Power from Algae: This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Researchers are gaining more insight into how Elysia chlorotica can survive for months without food in a well-lit laboratory. It is well known that the slug can store plastids from the algae it consumes. However, scientists questioned how the organelles remained active for several months in the slug's gut even after a drug was given to shut down photosynthesis. Using fluorescent DNA markers, scientists were able to find a gene that allows the slug to keep the chloroplasts working. It is the first known case of gene transfer from one multicellular organism to another.

  • Languages Are Still a Major Barrier to Global Science: This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The article describes a Google Scholar survey, focusing on environmental issues, as the basis for presenting an argument that language is a barrier to global communication in the scientific community. The recognized barriers are two-fold: the limitation of knowledge transfer and the inability of local policy makers to make decisions based on existing knowledge. The article provides possible solutions to the problem, including the "multilingualization" of texts through changes in journal requirements.

  • Analysis of Fossilized Antarctic Bird's 'Voice Box' Suggests Dinosaurs Couldn't Sing: This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Scientists have presented new findings on the fossilized voice box called a syrinx -- and its apparent absence in non-avian dinosaur fossils of the same age. This may indicate that other non-avian dinosaurs were not able to make noises similar to the bird calls we hear today.

  • Antifreeze Proteins in Antarctic Fish Prevent Both Freezing and Melting: This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The National Science Foundation article discusses research conducted in the Antarctic concerning the notothenioid fish, which contains "antifreeze" proteins. These proteins are essential because they prevent the fish from freezing in the cold waters of the Southern Ocean, but it was discovered that these same proteins prevent ice crystals from melting when temperatures warm.

  • Cone Snail Venom Reveals Insulin Insights: This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the context area. The text describes how cone snail venom, a simpler form of insulin than human insulin, works more rapidly. Diabetes is a disease that occurs when the body is no longer to control the glucose levels in the bloodstream. Cone snail venom could help scientists develop a better, more efficient way of treating diabetes.

  • NASA Moon Mission Shares Insights into Giant Impacts: This informational text resource supports reading in the content area. The GRAIL mission is a research project tasked with studying large impact basins. Orientale basin is a giant, ringed impact crater on Earth's moon. Until now, how impact craters with rings form had not been well understood. Scientists have reconstructed Orientale's formation using data from NASA's GRAIL mission.

  • Why Artificial Sweeteners Can Increase Appetite: This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The text describes how researchers at the University of Sydney have discovered a correlation between artificial sweeteners, like sucralose, and an increased appetite. There are estimates that over 4,000 types of food contain sucralose. Billions of people around the world consume artificial sweeteners in hopes of losing weight, and until this study, little has been known about how these sweeteners affected the brain.

  • Ten things to know about Scott Kelly’s #YearInSpace: This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The article describes an ongoing NASA research project where astronaut Scott Kelly and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko are being tested for the effects of a year-long spaceflight. However, the science of their mission spans three years: one year before they left, one year in space, and another upon their return. In addition, part of the research also includes the Twin Study; Scott’s identical twin brother, and a former astronaut, served as a human control on the ground during Scott’s year-long stay in space.

  • Risk Assessment, for the Birds: This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Bird migration patterns have shown to be much more complex than once thought. Birds change their patterns based on a variety of factors, recent research indicates. The article refers to this as risk assessment; it includes the availability of food, strength, and even weather. The research was completed using three different species of songbird. Researchers are hoping that understanding of these patterns will help us in our conservation efforts.

  • Drag-and-Drop DNA: Novel Technique Aiding Development of New Cancer Drugs: This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. It informs readers of how cutting edge nanotechnology is being combined with supercomputing and drug production. The new process it describes uses unique algorithms to search for DNA sequences that will self-assemble molecules tailored to locate, attach, and kill cancer cells. The passage also is a good example of how public agencies can support private-sector entities through various grants.

  • Astronomers Developed Technology While Studying Gliese 581: This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The author describes research on identifying "habitable" planets and explains how failed attempts might actually open the doors to more thorough research. Scientists faced the challenge of collecting specific data in order to determine if readings pointed to the existence of a planet. When research revealed that their original hypotheses were incorrect, the scientists were able to take the new information and apply it to further investigations.

  • Do Bigger Brains Make Smarter Carnivores?: This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The text describes an experiment that helps to confirm that larger brain size could indicate higher intelligence within carnivorous mammals. The experiment involved 140 animals and each was given the same task of retrieving food from a locked box within 30 minutes. The results of the test show that having a larger brain really does improve an animal’s ability to solve a problem it has never encountered before.

  • Where Do Rats Move in After Disasters?: This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The article describes how a mathematical model can be used to simulate how environmental changes affect populations of pathogen-carrying rodents. A "capture" program undertaken by researchers at Tulane University allowed them to capture rats in post-Katrina neighborhoods in order to determine how rats migrate after natural or man-made disasters.

  • Clues to Future of Undersea Exploration May Reside Inside a Jellyfish-like Creature: This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The article relates the findings of a study by four scientists about siphonophores, a relatively little-studied organism related to jellyfish and corals. Their study focuses on this organism's ability to move through the water column in a coordinated fashion and how this knowledge may help humans propel themselves efficiently underwater.

  • Parasites: Rulers of the Reef: This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The text informs readers about the influence of parasites on damselfish, a coral reef species. The author explains how his team determined the reason for the consistent behavior of damselfish leaving their aggressively guarded territory each morning to go to a cleaning station. Through the scientist describing how his research lead to new observations that lead to new questions and research, the text is a good example of how scientific investigations are conducted, including working collaboratively and communicating important results.

  • Why Do We Yawn?: This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The article seeks to answer the question, "Why do we yawn?" Scientists have yet to reach consensus about the function of yawning. Social and physiological claims about why we yawn are presented from Hippocrates, 17th and 18th century scientists, and scientists today.

  • Starving the Beast: New NSF-Funded Research Finds Way to Withhold Cancer Cells' Favorite Food: This informational text resource supports reading in the content area. This text describes the findings of a scientific study to determine how cancer cell growth can be halted by reducing the amount of copper that is transported to the cell. The text also describes how the scientists used the scientific method to develop their experiment.

  • Purple Haze: Ancient Pigment Reveals Secrets about Unusual State of Matter: This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The text explains how extreme cooling of an ancient pigment comprised of metallic compounds, as well as exposure to strong magnetic fields, converts the matter into a state called a Bose-Einstein condensate. In this state, the behavior of electrons within the pigment's atoms shifts and they form a single magnetic three dimensional structure. When the condensate is cooled even further in this case, the magnetic structure loses a dimension.

  • Three Miles High: Using Drones to Study High-Altitude Glaciers: This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. This text describes new and creative technologies that are being used in climate research to study high-altitude glaciers and map how they are changing. The text describes the ways in which the use of drones with time-lapse thermal camera systems are being used to gather data over the Peruvian Andes more effectively than satellites or planes. The text also describes some of the researchers' early findings based on the data they have gathered through the use of these drones.

  • Ultracold Atoms: This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Most students are familiar with the four most common states of matter, but what about the 5th state of matter, the Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC for short)? This article explains what a BEC is and how researchers are exploring this unique state of matter.

  • Feathers Yield Mysteries of Pigment Chemistry to Spectroscopic Analysis: This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The pigments in the feathers of bird specimens have been traditionally hard to analyze because it required destroying the feathers. Now, scientists have come up with a new, non-destructive way to explore the complex chemistry of bird feather pigments, using lasers and Raman spectroscopy.

  • Phrenology-History of a Science and Pseudoscience: This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article discusses phrenology, which is a pseudoscience that claims to be able to use bumps on human skulls to make inferences about personality traits. The article details why phrenology is not a true science, and reviews the history of phrenology, the role of phrenology in the debate about the organization of the brain, how phrenology came under scientific criticism, and modern iterations of the technique.

  • Iron in Earth's Core Weakens Before Melting: This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Researchers have created models that can be used to understand previously unexplained properties of the Earth's core. Previously, we have not been able to explain the behavior of seismic waves traveling through the core. However, a new model suggests that the iron in the core greatly weakens before melting, which slows the waves down.

     

  • Heaviest Named Element is Official: This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The article describes the addition of copernicium, the heaviest named element, to the periodic table. It discusses the process of validation required for elements to be named and added to the periodic table.

  • Chemistry Unearths the Secrets of the Terracotta Army: This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. In 1974 a group of Chinese farmers digging a well came across a great discovery: the Terracotta Army from the tomb of the first emperor of China. Since the discovery, archaeologists have been researching many aspects of the artifacts. Recently, with the use of chemistry, they have been able to determine many details of the weapons of the Terracotta Army, including their chemical composition and production techniques.

  • Newly Discovered Paddle Prints Show How Ancient Sea Reptiles Swam: This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area.

    Scientists have found fossils in seabeds in China that are tracks left by nothosaurs, ancient sea reptiles. These tracks provide evidence that these reptiles moved by rowing their forelimbs in unison, answering a long-standing question about how they propelled themselves.

  • With Data and Resolve, Tacoma Fights Pollution: This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Rain and runoff carry pollutants from human activity to the sea in places like Tacoma, Washington. The city has devised a scientific process for identifying sources and pathways of pollution and is making headway in reducing pollutant buildup and damage. By utilizing forensic methods to find the source of pollution and fining polluters, Tacoma is winning the war.

  • The Weird, Wild World of Citizen Science is Already Here: This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article describes the collision course between citizens and scientists as "makers" and "hobbyists" begin aiding and supplementing the scientific community more and more. The article gives many examples of amateurs helping out on active projects, especially when science cannot dedicate the hours or money necessary to complete them.

  • How Basic Research Fuels Medical Advances: This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Research out of Scripps Research Institute's Florida campus illustrates how studying simple processes, such as DNA replication, can lead to highly beneficial medical advances: in this case, a possible cure for adult-onset muscular dystrophy. The article also shows how basic research has led to some familiar medical applications.

  • The Unexplained Mystery of Why Hot Water Freezes Faster than Cold: This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The article describes the Mpemba Effect - the odd phenomenon that causes hot water to freeze faster than cold water. The author discovers how a high school student brought the Mpemba Effect to the attention of a physicists and explores potential hypotheses for the cause of the phenomenon. The author goes on to discuss some experiments that have sought to explain the Mpemba Effect, but none have done so conclusively.

  • Math for Hungry Birds: This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. A new study indicates that the flying patterns of hunting albatrosses may resemble mathematical designs called fractals. This article describes the basics of fractals and why scientists think the albatross may hunt in such patterns. As it turns out, many animals may use math to find food!

  • NASA Widens 2014 Hurricane Research Mission: This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article focuses on the technology used by NASA for its most recent research being conducted on hurricanes. It describes the technology used as well as the data that is collected. It is an excellent article for explaining how scientists "know what they know" about weather.

  • Deploying the Body's Army: This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Scientists have been making breakthroughs in immunotherapy: the use of infectious pathogens as a method for treating cancer. The infections heighten the response of the immune system and eradicate the cancer in the process.

  • Urban Bees Respond to Littering by Adopting Innovative Nest-Building Techniques: This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The text explains how some bees living in an urban environment have started to build their nests out of human-made materials such as plastics. Furthermore, the bees seem to prefer the materials to plants! Scientists theorize that these nests may actually prove to be safer for the bees, as they are stronger and protect against parasites.

  • The Calamitous Climate Responsible for Florida's Record Rainfall: This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article introduces extreme rainfall as an effect of climate change that is both measurable and personal - as it occurred in our own back yard. The article discusses the storm in Pensacola before heading into information about climate change.

  • Antimatter: This informational text is intended to support reading in the content area. The article describes the history of the study of antimatter in language that is easier to understand than most technical texts.

  • The Sloth's Busy Inner Life: This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The article is about how scientists sought to understand why some sloths descend from trees, risking their lives, to defecate on the ground. Their research results suggest that the behavior is to increase the benefit gained from the sloth's mutualists: moths and algae.

  • Skull Fossil Suggests Simpler Human Lineage: This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article discusses the discovery of "Skull 5" and the traits that have led scientists to the conclusion that early Homo was a more diverse genus than realized before.

  • F-16 Accident Investigation Complete: This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Investigators give their final conclusion of what caused an F-16 crash after making scientific observations.

  • New Problem Linked to 'Jet Lag': This resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Scientists have discovered that when they disrupt waking and sleeping times in mice, their immune systems responded in a harmful way causing disease, asthma, allergies, and maybe even immune disorders.

  • The Story of Serendipity: The article explains how some famous scientific discoveries that happened "by accident" more accurately resulted from scientific habits of mind, which allowed researchers to take full advantage of these serendipitous moments.

  • Faster than the Speed of Light: This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The article discusses how neutrinos seem to be arriving at their destination slightly faster than mathematically calculated and describes how the discovery of new scientific evidence must undergo scrutiny from many angles before being accepted.

  • Illuminating the Perils of Pollution, Nature's Way: This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article explores the work of Dr. Edith Widder in researching animals that make light. Specifically, she has has found a way use bioluminescence to fight pollution in the Indian River Lagoon.

  • Threatened Coral Get Fishy Rescue: This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article describes an experiment that was done by scientists to show how corals are being destroyed by a certain type of seaweed and how goby fish rescue the coral.

  • The Structure of DNA: Cooperation and Competition: The insight, innovation, and persistence of James Watson, Rosalind Franklin, Francis Crick, and Maurice Wilkins led to a detailed understanding of the structure of DNA, the stuff that genes are made of. This discovery brought together information from many disciplines and many researchers to answer one of the most fundamental questions in life science: How do living things pass on traits to their offspring?
Tutorials
  • Infectious Evidence: Click "View Site" to open a full-screen version. This tutorial is designed to help secondary science teachers learn how to integrate literacy skills within their science curriculum. This tutorial focuses on using specific textual evidence to support students' responses as they analyze science texts. The focus on literacy across content areas is designed to help students independently build knowledge in different disciplines through reading and writing.

  • Not All Scientific Studies are Created Equal: Every day, we are bombarded by attention grabbing headlines that promise miracle cures to all of our ailments -- often backed up by a "scientific study." But what are these studies, and how do we know if they are reliable? David H. Schwartz dissects two types of studies that scientists use, illuminating why you should always approach the claims with a critical eye.

Unit/Lesson Sequence
  • Modeling for Understanding Natural Selection: This series of lessons introduces students to evolutionary reasoning and to the explanatory power of the Darwinian model of natural selection. Students read three evolutionary scientists' (Paley, Lamarck and Darwin) original work and compare their thinking, proposed mechanism of evolution, use of evidence, and explanatory power of their theory. They apply the three scientists thinking to another scenario to refine their understanding of the explanations.
Video/Audio/Animations
  • Will an Ice Cube Melt Faster in Freshwater or Saltwater?: With an often unexpected outcome from a simple experiment, students can discover the factors that cause and influence thermohaline circulation in our oceans. In two 45-minute class periods, students complete activities where they observe the melting of ice cubes in saltwater and freshwater, using basic materials: clear plastic cups, ice cubes, water, salt, food coloring, and thermometers. There are no prerequisites for this lesson but it is helpful if students are familiar with the concepts of density and buoyancy as well as the salinity of seawater. It is also helpful if students understand that dissolving salt in water will lower the freezing point of water. There are additional follow up investigations that help students appreciate and understand the importance of the ocean's influence on Earth's climate.

  • Citizen Science: In this National Science Foundation video and reading selection lab ecologist Janis Dickinson explains how she depends on citizen scientists to help her track the effects of disease, land-use change and environmental contaminants on the nesting success of birds.
Virtual Manipulatives
  • Split Brain Experiments: The split brain experiments revealed that the right and the left hemisphere in the brain are good at different things. For instance, the right hemisphere is good at space perception tasks and music while the left is good at verbal and analytic tasks. This game guides students through some examples of the split-brain phenomenon and how the differences are understood.

  • Mesquite - Phylogenetic Trees: Students use software to create evolutionary trees by comparing and contrasting physical traits. This activity demonstrates the complexity of creating evolutionary trees when multiple traits are being analyzed. The use of the software simplifies the analysis without compromising the learning objectives.

Worksheets
  • Position-Justification-Evidence Framework: This resource provides students with a framework to form an academic argument. Students must provide a justification for their position statement and support it with evidence.

  • Point-Counterpoint Framework: This resource provides students with a framework to examine multiple sides of an argument before taking a position. It is useful in helping students examine opposing views and strengthen their argument by anticipating the opposition's main points.

  • Yes-No-Because Framework: This resource provides students with a framework to take and support their position on an open-ended or yes/no question. Its simplicity is especially useful for students with little to no experience forming an academic or scientific argument.