Animal Coloration: Activities on the Evolution of Concealment By: Robert Stebbins, David Ipsen, Gretchen L. Gillfillan, Judy Diamond (Revised New Edition), and Judy Scotchmoor (Revised New Edition) NSTA Press Book Average User Rating: A classic resource for teachers is now back in an updated edition! Using an inductive and experimental approach, Animal Coloration aims to increase students’ awareness of the ways wild organisms are adapted to their environments. Even though...  [view full summary] A classic resource for teachers is now back in an updated edition! Using an inductive and experimental approach, Animal Coloration aims to increase students’ awareness of the ways wild organisms are adapted to their environments. Even though the activities suggest a specific teaching procedure, each activity is also intended to be an investigation by the students and an opportunity for them to make and test hypotheses based on their observations. Through these activities, students will begin to appreciate how scientific knowledge and understanding are attained. Each of the activities provides an opportunity to incorporate National Science Education Content Standards, including science and inquiry, life science, and history and nature of science. Also new to this revision is a table summarizing each activity with learning outcomes and relevant content standards. Originally published in 1966 by the Regents of the University of California (UC), Animal Coloration is the result of over five years of field-testing and experimentation by the Elementary School Science Project at UC Berkeley, funded by the National Science Foundation. This book was difficult to find for far too long (worn copies are a cherished part of many teachers’ libraries), so NSTA Press is especially proud to bring the book to a new generation of teachers and to update the work for its long-time admirers. [hide full abstract] Member Price: $17.56 Nonmember Price: $21.95 Grade Level: Elementary School, Middle School

Resources for Environmental Literacy: Five Teaching Modules for Middle and High School Teachers By: Environmental Literacy Council and National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) NSTA Press Book Average User Rating: Resources for Environmental Literacy offers a fresh way to enhance your classroom productivity. The environmental context it provides can improve your students’ science learning even as learning the science improves their ability to deal with...  [view full summary] Resources for Environmental Literacy offers a fresh way to enhance your classroom productivity. The environmental context it provides can improve your students’ science learning even as learning the science improves their ability to deal with five real-world topics: • Biodiversity • Genetically modified crops • Earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis • Global climate change • Radioactive waste But this resource doesn’t encourage students to take a particular stand on these subjects. Instead, it builds skills in critical thinking and analytical reasoning about complex issues. For ease of teaching, each of the book’s modules includes such useful features as: • Student learning goals based on Benchmarks for Science Literacy and the Standards • Background content for teachers, organized into sets of “essential questions”—such as “What is a species?” and “What is the science involved in the genetic engineering of crops?”—with answers you can draw on when guiding students. • A suggested teaching approach, including misconceptions to watch out for and assessments to use. • Student activities and materials you can adapt to your classroom needs. Resources for Environmental Literacy is designed especially for teachers of middle school life science and physical science as well as high school Earth science, biology, and physics. The modules offer appropriate teaching strategies plus high-quality resources to deepen your students’ understanding of key environmental topics. [hide full abstract] Member Price: $26.36 Nonmember Price: $32.95 Grade Level:

Using Forensics: Wildlife Crime Scene! By: Laura M. Sanders Arndt NSTA Press Book Average User Rating: With Forensics: Wildlife Crime Scene!, your students investigate an actual crime, learn the science behind animal-species identification, and find out about efforts to fight real-world threats against wild animals. The book is...  [view full summary] With Forensics: Wildlife Crime Scene!, your students investigate an actual crime, learn the science behind animal-species identification, and find out about efforts to fight real-world threats against wild animals. The book is designed to be engaging for both you and your student-detectives. It’s also easy to use. The material is divided into four clear sections: 1. Background about crimes that threaten wild animal species around the world. 2. Eight forensic training lessons about antlers and horns, blood typing, DNA fingerprinting, fingerprints, hair identification, pH and pH indicators, mammal skulls, and tracks and trace fossils. 3. An investigation simulation based on a real wildlife crime: the illegal shooting and dismemberment of a bear. Students work in teams to review crime scene reports, conduct interviews of suspects and witnesses, analyze evidence, and bring charges before a “prosecuting attorney.” 4. Teacher strategies for evaluating individual students and student teams. Using Forensics: Wildlife Crime Scene! is an ideal complement to middle and high school courses in biology, environmental science, general science, and criminology. It provides a high-interest, real-life format for learning a variety of scientific concepts and skills that correlate with the Standards. It also gives students reason to genuinely care about preserving the wildlife and ecosystems they’re studying. [hide full abstract] Member Price: $23.96 Nonmember Price: $29.95 Grade Level: Middle School, High School

Air, Water, and Weather: Stop Faking It! Finally Understanding Science So You Can Teach It By: William C. Robertson, Ph.D. NSTA Press Book Average User Rating: Thunderstruck by storm fronts? Perplexed about air pressure? Hazy on how weather works? If you’ve always been shaky on the science behind such phenomena, Air, Water, and Weather is designed to help you develop a deep understanding of the basics so you...  [view full summary] Thunderstruck by storm fronts? Perplexed about air pressure? Hazy on how weather works? If you’ve always been shaky on the science behind such phenomena, Air, Water, and Weather is designed to help you develop a deep understanding of the basics so you can teach without fear. Best-selling author Bill Robertson acts as your friendly guide, bringing both wisdom and wit to the study of weather. He starts with basic properties of air and water. You’ll learn about pressure, the Coriolis force, the Bernoulli Effect, density, and explanations of why hot air doesn’t rise all by itself and why heating air doesn’t necessarily cause it to expand. These concepts form a foundation for explanations of weather patterns, including the jet stream, storm fronts, and the formation of tornadoes and hurricanes. Air, Water, and Weather is the sixth book in the award-winning Stop Faking It! series published by NSTA Press. It offers all the features readers have come to love: accurate explanations, irreverent drawings, and activities that use easy-to-find materials. As usual, Robertson avoids memorization for its own sake—no need to commit cloud types to memory!—and makes learning a mostly sunny experience. [hide full abstract] Member Price: $17.56 Nonmember Price: $21.95 Grade Level: Elementary School, Middle School

Science Curriculum Topic Study By: Page Keeley NSTA Press Book Average User Rating: Need help making the connection between science standards, teacher practice, and improved student achievement? Science Curriculum Topic Study is your missing link. The book offers a systematic professional development strategy that brings together...  [view full summary] Need help making the connection between science standards, teacher practice, and improved student achievement? Science Curriculum Topic Study is your missing link. The book offers a systematic professional development strategy that brings together science standards and research with curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Writing in the book’s foreword, Harold Pratt, former NSTA President, calls Science Curriculum Topic Study “by far the best thing I have seen on how to effectively use the standards.” The CTS process will help you: • Improve your understanding of science content • Clarify a hierarchy of content and skills in a learning goal from state or local standards • Define formative and summative assessment goals and strategies • Learn to recognize and address learning difficulties • Design or use instructional materials effectively • Increase opportunities for students of all backgrounds to achieve science literacy Science Curriculum Topic Study is rich with features that make it both easy to use and illuminating. It contains 147 separate curriculum topic study guides arranged in 11 categories representing the major domains of science. You get worksheets to help you apply the CTS process to curriculum, instruction, and assessment, plus a quick-reference guide to the major standards and research documents. In addition, teacher vignettes show how to use the CTS process to enrich your own teaching immediately. [hide full abstract] Member Price: $31.96 Nonmember Price: $39.95 Grade Level: Elementary School, Middle School, High School

Exemplary Science in Grades 5-8: Standards-Based Success Stories Edited by: Robert E. Yager NSTA Press Book Average User Rating: Do the Standards really matter in middle school? Nine years after the National Science Education Standards’ release, just how well do science teachers in grades 5 to 8 actually use them to plan content, define improved teaching, and assess real learning?...  [view full summary] Do the Standards really matter in middle school? Nine years after the National Science Education Standards’ release, just how well do science teachers in grades 5 to 8 actually use them to plan content, define improved teaching, and assess real learning? Find out the answers to these key questions in this groundbreaking collection of 15 essays by teachers, researchers, and professors whose specialty is middle school. Nine years after the release of the Standards, these educators describe what they’re doing to achieve the visions for the reform of teaching, assessment, professional development, and content. All the visions correspond to the Less Emphasis and More Emphasis conditions that conclude each section of the Standards, characterizing what most teachers and programs should do less of as well as describing the changes needed if real reform is to occur. Among this collection’s wide-ranging essay topics: “Teaching Science With Student Thinking in Mind,” “The Relationship Between a Professional Development Model and Student Achievement,” “Creating a Classroom Culture of Scientific Practices,” “Traveling the Inquiry Continuum: Learning Through Teacher Action Research,” “What Do We Get to Do Today? The Middle School Full Option Science System Program,” and “Teach Them to Fish.” This volume is the third in NSTA Press’s Exemplary Science monograph series, which provides the results of an unprecedented national search to assess how well the Standards’ vision has been realized. [hide full abstract] Member Price: $19.96 Nonmember Price: $24.95 Grade Level: Elementary School, Middle School

Math: Stop Faking It! Finally Understanding Science So You Can Teach It By: William C. Robertson, Ph.D. NSTA Press Book Average User Rating: Flummoxed by formulas? Queasy about equations? Perturbed by π? Now you can stop cursing over calculus and start cackling over Math, another volume in Bill Robertson's accurate but amusing Stop Faking It! bestsellers. As Robertson...  [view full summary] Flummoxed by formulas? Queasy about equations? Perturbed by π? Now you can stop cursing over calculus and start cackling over Math, another volume in Bill Robertson's accurate but amusing Stop Faking It! bestsellers. As Robertson sees it, too many people view mathematics as a set of rules to be followed, procedures to memorize, and theorems to apply. This book focuses on the reasoning behind the rules, from math basics all the way up to a brief introduction to calculus. Among the questions it covers: Why do you "carry" numbers when adding? Why do you need a common denominator when adding fractions? (Robertson says you don't, by the way!) Where does the number π come from? And who in the heck invented those strange formulas for area and volume, such as πr2 and (4/3)πr3? Like the other six titles in this award-winning NSTA Press series, Math provides clear explanations, irreverent illustrations, and easy-to-follow activities. But Robertson spares you problem sets to do or tests to take. That's because Math is not so much a book that helps you do math as it is a guide to understanding it conceptually. [hide full abstract] Member Price: $17.56 Nonmember Price: $21.95 Grade Level: Elementary School, Middle School

The Nature of Science and the Study of Biological Evolution By: BSCS NSTA Press Book Average User Rating: This inspired (and inspiring) two-part set weaves an examination of the nature of scientific inquiry into a compelling study of evolution. The package consists of a teacher guide on CD-ROM with a text designed specifically for high school students. The...  [view full summary] This inspired (and inspiring) two-part set weaves an examination of the nature of scientific inquiry into a compelling study of evolution. The package consists of a teacher guide on CD-ROM with a text designed specifically for high school students. The text’s stage-setting first chapter provides a broad introduction to the nature and methods of science. The remaining five chapters cover the events that led to Charles Darwin to develop his ideas on the unity and diversity of life on Earth; seven lines of evidence that support the theory of evolution; population genetics; natural selection; and primate and human evolution. To help students monitor their own learning, the book’s special features include statements of key concepts, strategies to reinforce learning, and memorable quotes about evolution. The teacher CD ties in with major points in each chapter, where activity icons serve as invitations to explore major concepts in more depth through the CD’s related activities and Zoom Ins. [hide full abstract] Member Price: $27.96 Nonmember Price: $34.95 Grade Level: High School, Informal Education

Project Earth Science: Meteorology By: P. Sean Smith and Brent A. Ford NSTA Press Book Average User Rating: The forecast for learning meteorology is bright! With nineteen hands-on activities, ten readings, and a thorough resource guide, Project Earth Science: Meteorology brings the atmosphere right into the classroom. Designed for small budgets,...  [view full summary] The forecast for learning meteorology is bright! With nineteen hands-on activities, ten readings, and a thorough resource guide, Project Earth Science: Meteorology brings the atmosphere right into the classroom. Designed for small budgets, Meteorology is teacher-written and classroom-tested, with ready-to-use, self-directed activities. These activities require students to make clouds and hail; build weather maps; and understand the causes of smog, ozone depletion, and acid rain. Whether it’s exploring basic principles or following real-world examples, your students will agree—discovering how weather works was never this much fun! [hide full abstract] Member Price: $23.16 Nonmember Price: $28.95 Grade Level: Middle School, High School

Force & Motion: Stop Faking It! Finally Understanding Science So You Can Teach It By: William C. Robertson, Ph.D. NSTA Press Book Average User Rating: Intimidated by inertia? Frightened by forces? Mystified by Newton’s law of motion? You’re not alone—and help is at hand. The stop Faking It! Series is perfect for science teachers, home-schoolers, parents wanting to help with homework—all of you who need...  [view full summary] Intimidated by inertia? Frightened by forces? Mystified by Newton’s law of motion? You’re not alone—and help is at hand. The stop Faking It! Series is perfect for science teachers, home-schoolers, parents wanting to help with homework—all of you who need a jargon-free way to learn the background for teaching middle school physical science with confidence. With Bill Roberton as your friendly, able—but somewhat irreverent—guide, you will discover you CAN come to grips with the basics of force and motion. Combining easy-to-understand explanations with activities using commonly found equipment, this book will lead you through Newton’s laws to the physics of space travel. The book is as entertaining as it is informative. Best of all, the author understands the needs of adults who want concrete examples, hands-on activities, clear language, diagrams—and yes, a certain amount of empathy. [hide full abstract] Member Price: $17.56 Nonmember Price: $21.95 Grade Level: Elementary School, Middle School