The diet of many students consists of on-the-go processed food. As part of a larger school garden project, the authors wanted students to consider the relevance of plants in their own lives, both as food sources for us and for the animals that we eat. In this article, they present a mini-unit they taught in a third-grade classroom that helped…

On any given sunny day, Courtney Vanover's third graders were like alarm clocks, making sure everyone in the room knew when 9:30 was approaching. Why? Because they were participating in a yearlong science project to answer the question, "Where is the tip of the shadow of the school flagpole each morning at 9:30?" Although they did not…

Water is a crucial topic that spans the K-12 science curriculum, including the elementary grades. Students should engage in the articulation, negotiation, and revision of model-based explanations about hydrologic phenomena. However, past research has shown that students, particularly early learners, often struggle to understand hydrologic…

This article [explores] the learning of girls who were in a co-ed after school engineering club related to the project: Designing Vital Engineering and Literacy Practices for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math for Elementary Teachers and Children (DeVELOP STEM ETC). While few girls grow up to become engineers in the US, recently more…

Background: Even infants can recognize whether patterns of motion are or are not natural, yet an acknowledged challenge for science education is to promote adequate reasoning about such patterns. Since research indicates linkage between the conceptual bases of recognition and reasoning, it seems possible that recognition can be engaged to support…

This quantitative study was designed to investigate if relationships existed between elementary science teachers' self-efficacy toward science teaching, schedule structure (self-contained or departmentalized), experience level of teachers, amount of time dedicated to science instruction, and student achievement on a standardized science…

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…

Providing students with inquiry-oriented learning environments is a major concern in science education. Argumentation discourse can enhance the effectiveness of inquiry-oriented learning environments. This study seeks the trace of argumentation in Turkish Elementary and Secondary Science Curriculum developed by the Turkish Ministry of Education…

Students love learning about animals: how animals behave, what animals eat, why some animals are more dangerous than others are, and why animals look the way they do. In this 5E lesson, students investigate why some animals look the way they do--specifically, the advantages of camouflage and mimicry. What are an animal's advantages of being…

Although written expression is a valuable tool for both teacher and student to assess learning, teachers must be mindful that writing skills are often delayed for many youth. Through brain research, educators have not only learned that reading and writing skills must be acquired, but even some advanced students have deficiencies in processing…

Science lessons using inquiry only or history of science with inquiry were used for explicit reflective nature of science (NOS) instruction for second-, third-, and fourth-grade students randomly assigned to receive one of the treatments. Students in both groups improved in their understanding of creative NOS, tentative NOS, empirical NOS, and…

Stream investigation and restoration projects offer unique experiential opportunities to engage students in outdoor learning experiences that are relevant to the communities in which they live. These experiences promote an understanding of watershed issues and establish positive attitudes and behaviors that benefit local watersheds and help to…

This study explores American and Greek primary pupils' visual images of scientists by means of two nonverbal data collection tasks to identify possible convergences and divergences. Specifically, it aims to investigate whether their images of scientists vary according to the data collection instrument used and to gender. To this end, 91…

The purpose of this study was to characterize and compare 64 elementary science teachers' computer simulation use prior to and following professional development (PD) aligned with Innovation Adoption Theory. The PD highlighted computer simulation affordances that elementary teachers might find particularly useful. Qualitative and quantitative…

During a two-week inquiry-based 5E learning cycle unit, children made observations and inferences to guide their explorations of animal traits and habitats (Bybee 2014). The children became "animal detectives" by studying a live-feed webcam and digital images of wolves in their natural habitat, reading books and online sources about…