Non-traditional and under-represented students in hydrogeology: Learning by discovery in an urban environment
An example of student-driven, instructor-guided field experiments on a budget. Schools that cater to under-represented students are often those with limited resources, however, student-driven discovery in the field ...

Designing and Carrying Out Your Very Own Animal Behavior Experiment
These are resources that will provide teachers with further information on the isopods used in the experiments.

Unraveling Geological History: Glaciers and Faults at Discovery Park, Seattle
This introductory geology field exercise asks students to make individual observations about parts of an outcrop, then combine their observations in larger teams to interpret the overall geological history of the exposure. Content learning includes stratigraphy, faulting, and local geologic history; process learning includes data gathering and recording, hypothesis formation, and outlining helpful evidence that could be gathered in the future.

Scientific logic: An application to meteorological observations
A sample question/problem in which students are asked to apply the logic of scientific evidence to statements about weather patterns, based on observations on a typical surface weather map.

Why Should You Be Scientifically Literate?
The article Why Should You Be Scientifically Literate? and its accompanying classroom lesson, Why?" provides both professional development ideas on best practices about how to improve science literacy in the classroom and suggestions for teaching activities about the nature of science through the spirit of inquiry.

How Much Water Do I Use?
This activity provides an opportunity for the student to collect data on their individual water use to set the stage for a unit on water resources.

Question of the Day: Making a Scientific Argument
A scientific argument must persuade the reader that the data you present, and your arguments are strong enough, to support your theory, model, or proposed action. The effective writer will make it easy for the ...

Introduction to Reading the Primary Literature
This is a reading and homework assignment to introduce students to reading, understanding, and using the primary literature.

The Hobbit: When scientists disagree about the evidence
This activity provides an excellent example of an active debate within the scientific community regarding a relatively recent human fossil find, Homo floresiensis.

Newton's 2nd law: Inquiry approach
In this lab activity, students independently test Newton's ideas on the nature of motion. Students focus on how they would design a procedure to test Newton's hypothesis and then communicate that idea to others.