In the sciences, energy is an important idea to get insight into phenomena, as energy can help to reveal hidden systems and processes. However, students commonly struggle to use energy ideas to interpret and explain phenomena. To support students in using energy ideas to interpret and explain phenomena, a range of different graphical…

Decades of research support integrating play in kindergarten to benefit young students' social, emotional, and cognitive development. As academic readiness becomes a focus, time for play has decreased. As a result, there has been a demand for integration of play with content. This study modifies a project-based science curriculum about how living…

In "A Framework for K-12 Science Education," researchers call for teachers to make dramatic shifts in practice -- and sustain in these changes in practice -- so students can engage in rigorous and equitable three-dimensional science learning. Project-Based Learning (PBL) motivates students from diverse backgrounds to persist in learning.…

Modern science standards emphasize knowledge-in-use, i.e., connecting scientific practices with content. For knowledge to become usable in knowledge-in-use performances, students need well organized knowledge networks that allow them to activate and connect sets of relevant ideas across contexts, i.e. students need integrated knowledge. We…

Knowledge-in-Use, i.e., the ability to apply what one has learned, is a major goal of education and involves the ability to transfer one's knowledge. While some general principles of knowledge transfer have been revealed, the literature is full of inconclusive results and it remains hard to predict successful transfer. However, research into…

Scientific modelling plays a crucial role in students' science learning. Modelling proficiency and literacy development reinforce each other. This study investigates the relationship between teacher support of student literacy development and their modelling proficiency in the context of elementary project-based learning science environments. To…

Explanation studies underlined the importance of using evidence in support of claims. However, few studies have focused on students' use of others' data (second-hand data) in this process. In this study, students collected data from a local water source and then took all the data back to the classroom to create scientific explanations by using…

Project-based learning (PBL) is a long-standing curricular model that has been argued to support equity-based goals in science learning. Yet, little is known about how PBL can be implemented effectively and equitably in the context of virtual instruction. This comparative case study follows two elementary science teachers as they transition to…

Prior research has demonstrated that neither children nor adults hold a scientific understanding of the big ideas of astronomy, as described in standards documents for science education [National Research Council [1996]. National science education standards. Washington, DC: National Academy Press; American Association for the Advancement of…

The purpose of this article is to suggest ways of using research on children's reasoning and learning to elaborate on existing national standards and to improve large-scale and classroom assessments. The authors suggest that "learning progressions"--descriptions of successively more sophisticated ways of reasoning within a content domain based on…