Language is the way students and teachers communicate in the science classroom, but language of science is not always the language children and adults use in their everyday life. As Michaels, Shouse, and Schweingruber put it, "In science, words are often given specific meanings that may be different from or more precise than their everyday…

This column focuses on promoting learning through assessment. The formative assessment probe in this month's issue can be used as an initial elicitation before students are introduced to the formal concepts of weathering and erosion.