In many schools following the National Curriculum for England the teaching of science has been overshadowed by the demands of literacy and numeracy, with the focus on statutory testing (SATs) and emphasis on national targets. This has often led to increasing concerns around teachers' subject knowledge, the sapping of teacher confidence and…

Action research was conducted in two sections of a scientific inquiry class in a Midwestern U.S. university to identify the types of questions that students ask for their investigations, identify emerging patterns regarding students' questioning, and determine students' ability to transfer their nature of science (NOS) understanding to a new…

Too often, students are merely consumers of mathematics, without many opportunities to engage in authentic processes of doing mathematics. As a mathematics teacher educator, I decided to provide more opportunities for my prospective teachers (PSTs) to do so. In my mathematics class for elementary education majors, the PSTs worked on two…

The present study explored pre-primary students' investigative activity during a longitudinal, integrative technology education project: the Power Creatures project. Investigative activity refers to the way young children act in a learning context that combines inquiry-based activities with creative hands-on activities, such as designing and…

Rachel Linfield describes a favorite annual school visit to Wimpole Hall where her year 4 and 5 students (ages 8-10) took part in a living history project. Each summer, dressed as servants from the Georgian era, students would spend the day as apprentice housemaids and butlers. Although the trips to Wimpole Hall were invaluable for developing a…

Through the science curriculum, teachers can use students' passion for screen content to motivate them to explore innovative new ways to bring their science learning to life through video making. Communicating science concepts using multimodal literacies can be a particularly powerful way for students to learn about science, especially when they…

New reforms in science education emphasize facilitating all students' sense making of the big ideas and crosscutting concepts in science along with engagement in science practices. Supporting this learning requires complex, ambitious teaching that is uncommon in U.S. classrooms. Thus, novice teachers will need considerable support in learning how…

Having written columns dealing with science fairs before, Bill Robertson notes that it's been a long time since he has tackled the subject of what passes for a "science fair" in schools these days. Because science fairs have changed over the years, Robertson revisits the topic and explains the scientific method. The main focus of the…

Children enjoy water play, and kindergarten children can learn about the water cycle. Teachers are already introducing elements of the water cycle when discussing weather and bodies of water. The water cycle also can be a springboard for teaching children about plants and animals and the importance of water for sustaining life and shaping our…

At first glance, science and art seem as likely companions as oil and water. Is there more to mixing them up than mere metaphor and a messy floor? In this article, Tom Pringle shares some ideas for powering up the classroom by turning STEM into STEAM by dipping the paintbrush of art into the pot of science. In both art and science pupils can…

Mobile learning is an incredible way to engage students in activities that encourage exploration and critical thinking. This type of learning is defined by the use of portable technology, such as laptops, tablets, and smart phones, to support learning in various environments and in various ways. Depending on the technologies and resources already…

To date, little is known about the high-level language skills and cognitive processes underlying reading comprehension in children. The present study aimed to investigate whether children with high, compared with low, reading comprehension differ in their sequencing skill, which was defined as the ability to identify and recall the temporal order…

Despite nearly three decades of the use of new technologies in education, schools seem to have remained impervious to significant change. Heritage curriculum and traditional pedagogies persist and, indeed, are dominant in school contexts, which seem to be embedded in the past, rather than preparing children for their future lives. Pockets of…

The aim of the study was investigation of the effect of twice application of the Group Investigation method at different intervals on improvement of the students' academic achievement and science process skills in teaching the science lesson. Method of the study was a quasi-experimental design. The study used Solomon Four-group Experimental Design…

This report presents information provided by New Jersey public schools on disciplinary infractions and their consequences for the 2018-19 school year to the Student Safety Data System (SSDS). The SSDS collects incidents of violence, vandalism, weapons, substance use, and harassment, intimidation and bullying (HIB), as well as HIB trainings and…