Elementary Science Education Articles for Teachers - Page 4

“Today I wanted to talk to you about something I’ve noticed about our class pets, the Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches. They seem to always congregate in the right side of the cage, closest to the heat lamp. I never see any cockroaches over on the left side of the cage. It got me thinking about the...

Summer is often a time when school is the last thing students are thinking about! However, time off from math worksheets, reading assignments, and state assessments doesn’t mean learning needs to cease – in fact, summer can be one of the best times for conducting some great science investigations...

Graphs are an effective tool used to visually display data. There are many important elements embedded in a graph, and there are a number of different types of graphs. Students need to know that all graphs should include a title, labels, a legend, a source, and the data. These characteristics sho...

What do contact lenses, milk jugs, computers, sandwich bags, and chewing gum all have in common?  They are all made out of synthetic polymers, which were originally developed by a team of American researchers led by chemist Wallace Carothers in the early 1930s. Before that time, almost everything...

“Pacific submarine volcano issues 'big burp'?! "Volcano blasts terror in Central and South America?.”  “Giant ash cloud threatens flights in Pacific?.” Headlines like these can be found on any given day in world news reports, and they can easily be used as a springboard for a unit on volcanoes.  ...

With the arrival of warmer weather, students love to spend more and more time on the playground. However, most kids rarely consider the playground what it can be - a source of scientific knowledge!  Playgrounds consist of endless opportunities to teach elementary physics, one of my favorite scien...

When asked to describe a “scientist,” most children imagine a man with glasses and a white coat working alone in a lab.  Words that sometimes come to mind include “Einstein”, “genius,” and, unfortunately, “nerd.” However, the ways in which scientists actually think and act often contradict these ...

It's amazing how often students will do a "science experiment" without even realizing it. When I was a middle school choir student, my classmates and I used to entertain ourselves by becoming human conductors. We would all stand in a line holding hands while the person on the end touched a metal ...

Teaching abstract concepts in science is never easy, and helping elementary and middle school students understand the concepts of atoms, molecules, and elements can be especially difficult. However, if you are able to utilize activities that make these ideas more hands on, students will have a mu...

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), childhood obesity has more than tripled in the past 30 years, increasing from 6.5% to 19.6% among children ages 6-11. Obese youth are more likely to have risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as high cholesterol or high blo...

Although we don’t often consider it, oil is a part of everyone’s daily life. It is used in the gasoline we need to fuel our cars, airplanes, and boats, and its derivatives make the plastic in food containers, picnic ware, pop bottles, toys, and many other items.  Our society is truly dependent on...

In order for students to work as scientists in the classroom, they must be able to utilize science process skills. Being able to observe, infer, measure, predict, classify, and communicate is vital to doing science well, and teachers often neglect to spend enough time on these important skills.  ...

“Can anyone tell me the three states of matter?” “Kansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri!” shouts a young boy in the small group third graders with whom I’m working.  “They’re the ones that matter most!” Solids, liquids, and gases are common concepts found in today’s state science standards for element...

Ask nearly any young child about dinosaurs, and he or she will almost certainly have some facts to share about these ancient reptiles. Most elementary school students are fascinated with dinosaurs and other prehistoric life. How do we know about the appearance, behavior, and habitats of these cre...

Few activities elicit as many comments on either end of the enthusiasm spectrum as a frog dissection. The comments include things like  “Ew, gross!  Is it slimy?” and “Cool!  Do we get to cut that open?” However, even though many students initially shy away from the idea, dissections are one of t...