How do teachers identify the potential for greater depth writing and encourage children to meet their full potential? This book was created by people who are not only passionate about primary education, but who are also leading experts in their own particular areas. They have made use of their wide experience to offer practical guidance on greater…

This article describes how two teachers implemented a 5E lesson in a third-grade classroom where the students had been working with forces/motion and investigating things that move like pendulums, swing sets, and various toys. The lesson was included as part of a larger unit on motion. The desired outcome for this lesson was for students to…

Any teacher of elementary physics can attest to the waning interest of students when all they are exposed to are boxes sliding down planes. In an effort to motivate interest, it is often useful to borrow examples from the real world. This way the students find it easy to identify the relevance of the subject matter. In addition, high-tech…

As every elementary science teacher knows, children sometimes ask questions that can not easily be answered by science. The "messiness" of these questions may stem from the fact that scientific understanding is often incomplete and ever changing, a situation that can lead students (and the public) to be confused about the information…

Assessment is not something that stands alone and teachers need support to develop their understanding of both assessment practices and the subject being assessed. Teachers at Shaw Primary School were fortunate to take part in the Teacher Assessment in Primary Science (TAPS) project and, in this article, the outlines how science and assessment can…

In this practical article, a kindergarten teacher shares a lesson designed to teach students about the power of wind. To address the Next Generation Science Standards engineering standards, students discussed the negative and positive aspects of wind and made daily weather observations (K-ESS2-1). Students constructed bird-shaped windsocks, called…

Founded in 1998, the Giverny Award is annually presented to the best children's science picture book. The award-winning books, targeting readers ages 4-8, harmoniously integrate illustrations and the story's text, while addressing at least one important scientific principle. Therefore, the Giverny books have characters and plots and are stories…

From the earliest days of their lives, children are exposed to all kinds of sound, from soft, comforting voices to the frightening rumble of thunder. Consequently, children develop their own naïve explanations largely based upon their experiences with phenomena encountered every day. When new information does not support existing conceptions,…

Matter is an essential science topic that is often challenging to teach at the early elementary levels. Learning about matter helps students develop a solid foundation for more complex concepts that are taught in later years. Make this abstract concept developmentally appropriate for children by engaging them in investigations that focus on…

In this article, first Toby Tyler describes how using Twitter to engage the community and to pursue the ICE principle (Introduce, Consolidate, and Extend) to enhance learning has brought his school community closer together. Then, Emma Vanstone highlights how schools can draw on support for engaging children with science at home by using social…

The authors describe how grade 4 students carried out an investigation about growing cucumbers (members of the curcurbit or gourd family) where they read information sources about seed variety; germinated seeds under different conditions; measured and partitioned growing spaces; collected and analyzed data on germination, true leaf growth, and…

Citizen science projects have been found to increase scientific knowledge and awareness among the participants who engage in these collaborative efforts. Providing elementary students the opportunity to collect, share, and analyze data is an effective way to help them develop a deeper understanding of scientific concepts and gain competency in…

Citizen science provides an opportunity for students to capture data both locally and globally while supporting the real-time work of scientists seeking to understand natural events. In this article, the authors present a project-based approach that explores climate at home and abroad to help develop elementary students' local-to-global…

The "Next Generation Science Standards" ("NGSS") challenge prevalent beliefs that young children are "not ready" to understand natural selection, introducing core aspects in grades 1, 2, and 3 (NGSS Lead States 2013). The authors' research and teaching team engaged in a multiyear project to understand how early grades…

For the last several years, the authors have implemented an integrated Mars Colony project for their third-grade classes. Students explored several considerations related to colonizing and inhabiting a new world, including food sources, types of citizens, transportation, and housing design. Nearly everything about the project was open-ended, full…