Education Commons^™

Osmosis: A Different Approach, Dennis Sievers

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

Traditional experiments on osmosis usually include a study of the glucose-water experiment but lack a connection to a living system. This is a fine experiment but fails to give students a true picture of what is occurring in a living system. The following experiments describe a method of examining osmosis and some factors that can have an effect on it in a living blood cell.

Relevance In The Science Curriculum, Marlow Ediger

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

Selected educators are showing considerable concern pertaining to the lack of emphasis placed upon the science curriculum in the school/class setting. Reasons given in needing to stress increased priority in teaching science include the following.

Elementary Physics Applied To Automobile Fuel Economy, Franklin D. Trumpy

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

Science educators, especially physics teachers, are frequently confronted with stories about devices and carburetors that permit ordinary cars to get spectacular fuel economy. The claims often exceed 46 kilometers per liter (110 mpg). By applying basic physics as taught at the high school or college freshman level, one can measure the average power output of an automobile at any speed and calculate the maximum possible fuel economy that can be expected.

Middle/Jr. High Science Bulletin

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

Keep a sharp lookout for the NSTAMiddle /Jr. High Science Bulletin funded by the National Science Foundation.

Metric Poster Series Available For Testing

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

NSTA has developed a series of six posters which will be distributed as centerfolds in The Science Teacher magazine. The poster series is a product of the NSTA's International System of Units Material Development Project, which is funded by the United States Department of Education.

Cover - Front Matter - Table Of Contents

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

No abstract provided.

The Atoms Family - Or - Ionic Man, James Novotony

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

Since concepts involving invisible, intangible particles are especially difficult for junior high students to understand, how does a student know that atoms, molecules, electrons, and ions really exist? Are these particles just the figment of someone's imagination?

I decided some years ago that students needed more than an explanation of a concept involving atomic particles. Pictures are helpful to serve as an extension of a verbal teaching method.

Edison Teaching Kits

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

An Edison Teaching Kit contains seven how-to booklets based on experiments of Thomas Edison and other scientists.

National Youth Science Camp For Iowans

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

One hundred recent high school graduates representing every state in the nation arrived at Camp Pocahontas near Bartow, West Virginia on July 7 to begin a three-week visit to West Virginia as delegates to the National Youth Science Camp (NYSC).

Energy Education Begins With Teacher Education, Mike Geil, Daniel S. Sheldon

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

Since 1973 the price of imported crude oil has escalated from $3.00 a barrel (42 gallons) to an average of over $35 a barrel in 1981. Our national bill for imported oil in 1970 was $3 billion, whereas our current expenditure for imported oil exceeds $81 billion. Within this same time period U.S. crude oil imports more than doubled, while import costs increased twenty-seven fold. This astronomic increase in crude oil prices has helped to reduce the value of American dollars abroad and has served to exacerbate recession and inflation at home.

Consultation

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

The Iowa Academy of Science has set up a Panel of scientists charged with helping communities, parent groups, school boards, administrators, supervisors, and teachers deal with issues arising from science-related controversies, including creation-evolution.

Chem Gems And Joules

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

About thirty years ago it was discovered that crunching on mint Lifesavers will produce green sparks and a crackling noise. Peppermint Lifesavers will produce similar results. According to Lifesavers, Inc. of New York, the mint Lifesavers contain sugar and methyl salicylate (a component of the mint flavoring). When these two compounds are crunched together, a crystalline energy is produced which stimulates the methyl salicylate to emit light. The process is known as triboluminescence.

How Would You Prove The Earth Is Round?, Darrell D. Young

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

In this day of the Space Age, everyone knows that the earth is round. One merely has to look at a photograph taken from either the moon or an orbiting space satellite to prove the point. But suppose that you do not have a photograph handy or suppose that your viewer refuses to believe that the photo is real. Of course it is rather unlikely that the latter event would occur, but without such a visual aid how would you prove that the earth is round?

Flame Tests

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

Problems associated with flame tests include, (1) sodium contamination producing an overwhelming yellow flame, (2) the transient nature of the flame and (3) the hazard of concentrated HCl. The following techniques improve flame tests.

The Tiger Salamander, Michael J. Lannoo

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

Tiger salamanders are harmless members of the Class Amphibia which easily lend themselves to observation and experimentation. As the name amphibian implies, these salamanders have two life forms, an aquatic larval stage and a terrestrial adult stage. Both forms are common and widespread throughout Iowa, yet adults, being terrestrial and less seasonal, are encountered more frequently than the larvae.

Your Help Needed

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

The Thomas Alva Edison Foundation is undertaking a project to produce, on videotape, a number of outstanding science lectures that can be made available on a loan or purchase basis to junior and senior high school science teachers across the nation.

Position Statement On The Creation/Evolution Controversy From The Iowa Council Of Science Supervisors

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

Because of the insistence that special creation be taught in Iowa science classes as an alternative concept to evolution, we, the Iowa Council of Science Supervisors, as representatives of the science educators in Iowa, make the following statement.

A Survey Of Elementary Science In Iowa, Jan Anderson, Greg Stefanich

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

The purpose of this study was to determine the type of science education currently being taught to elementary students in Iowa. Areas investigated include the instructional materials being used, the time spent teaching science, and the extent to which environmental education is a part of science in Iowa schools.

That All Powerful Textbook In Science Teaching, Robert E. Yager

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

NSF Status Studies emphasize the domination of the textbook in K-12 science classrooms in the U.S. Many lament about the power of the text and seek ways of "getting publishers to produce better ones." Are publishers really the bad guys??

The Newest Goal For Science Education, Robert E. Yager

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

Four years ago Helgeson and his co-workers at the ERIC/SMEAC center at Ohio State reported that the goals in science education were in a period of major transition (Helgeson, et al., 1977). Three years ago NSTA published a working paper entitled, Science Education: Accomplishments and Needs, in which new goals for the discipline were identified (NSTA, 1978). Recently the NSTA Research Committee completed a research project - one facet of which determined the degree of agreement about such major changes in goals as well as an indication of the nature of new goals (Yager, 1980).

Nsta Report, Robert L. Fisher

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

I recently participated in the Board of Directors' meeting of NSTA. I did not see despair, no throwing up of hands to say we have met our match. On the contrary, I saw highly optimistic individuals intent on making lemonade. You will read about these activities in future issues of your journals, but let me take a few minutes to highlight some of the meeting for you.

Officers, Iowa Academy Of Science; Editorial Staff ; Officers & Regional Directors, Iowa Science Teachers Section; Advisory & Technical Review Boards

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

No abstract provided.

Excellence In Science Teaching Awards

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

The 1982 recipients of the Iowa Excellence in Science Teaching Awards were as follows.

Aerospace Education Council Of Iowa, Kenneth W. Sand

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

Few people know that there is an Aerospace Education Council of Iowa, though it is entering its 25th year of existence. On December 17, 1956, almost a year before Sputnik, Iowa established an Air-Age Education Council under the auspices of the State Department of Public Instruction. This organization was to sponsor appropriate research, suggest needed curriculum change, and encourage the incorporation of air-age information in all areas of the curriculum, particularly in the social, physical and natural sciences.

Something For Nothing?, H. I. Feinstein

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

Reagents sometimes assay more than 100 percent by calculation, as shown in the following example.

Science For The Hearing Impaired

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

Science for the Hearing Impaired, SFHI, is a science program designed for the needs of the middle childhood-early adolescent hearing impaired student.