Agriculture can play a key role in fostering scientific literacy because it brings important plant and ecosystem concepts into the classroom. Plus, agriculture, like science, is not static and includes much trial and error, investigation, and innovation. With help from community experts at the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research…

Processing speed plays an important role in numerous facets of life functioning. Language, academic achievement, and behavior are all associated with processing speed; however, researchers have yet to investigate the effect of interventions, particularly language-based interventions, on the processing speed and the behavioral functioning of…

This study investigated the students' learning process of the concept of concentration at the elementary school level in Taiwan. The influence of different representational types on the process of proportional reasoning was also explored. The participants included nineteen third-grade and eighteen fifth-grade students. Eye-tracking technology was…

One tool for enhancing students' work with data in the science classroom is the measure line. As a coteacher and curriculum developer for The Inquiry Project, the author has seen how measure lines--a number line in which the numbers refer to units of measure--help students not only represent data but also analyze it in ways that generate…

In our research, we investigated whether students will develop inquiry skills, such as hypothesis exploration and formulation and interpretation, and metacognitive skills, such as comprehension of new knowledge, as a result of a storytelling strategy employed during teaching. We also investigated whether students will utilize the skills and…

This study investigates attitudes toward disability held by children with disabilities and average- and high-achieving children, and the latter two groups' experiences in inclusive elementary classrooms. Attitudes Toward Disabled Persons Form-Scale (ATDP; Yuker, Block, & Young, 1966) responses did not differ. Females were more accepting. Children…

Habits of inquiry should be nurtured as early as possible. Elementary students must be challenged to ask good questions and develop inquiring attitudes. As a science teacher, educator, professional developer, and science program reviewer, the author has often observed that the default is to use "good" science investigations from…

This paper draws on a study of the BHP Billiton Science Awards to explore the ways in which open investigation work occurs in schools. The research used interviews with teachers and students and state organisers to develop a picture of what happens on the ground in running student open investigations, and to trace how schools have built a culture…

This article provides an overview of recent interest research, focusing on the conceptualization, measurement, and generation of interest. It includes work that reflects differing theoretical backgrounds, research traditions, domains, and participants. Research on interest needs to be theoretically grounded if it is to be generally applicable and…

The way children evaluate the reporting of peers' transgressions to authority figures was investigated. Participants, ages 6-11 years (N = 60), were presented with a series of vignettes, each of which depicted a child who committed either a minor transgression (such as not finishing the vegetables at lunch) or a more serious transgression (such as…

This study was an investigation of the effectiveness of mathematics instruction using the interactive whiteboard (IWB) for 1, 2, and 3 years. Guided by Gagne's conditions of learning theory, this program evaluation study investigated the impact of receiving 1, 2, or 3 years of mathematics instruction using the IWB on mathematics scores on the…

Weather, with its built-in atmospheric laboratory, is a natural source of inquiry. The ever-changing nature of weather provides a constant source of questions to investigate and connects to a multitude of physical science concepts. The question, "How accurate are homemade weather instruments in measuring air pressure, rainfall, wind speed and…

While learning about the types of weather events that occur in the local area, students in grades 4-6 were asked to consider how structures can be built to withstand extreme weather conditions. Teams of students designed, constructed, and tested buildings to withstand hurricanes and designed the tests they would use to evaluate their structures.…

This study involved the investigation of the effects of the Total Cluster Grouping Model on the achievement and identification of urban, elementary students and to learn about the classroom practices of and perceptions classroom teachers had of their students' ability levels over the course of the study. Proportionality of representation in…

Scope and Method of Study: The study investigated the relationship between performance on the Oklahoma State Testing Program (OSTP) for grades 3-7 and the EXPLORE in math and reading for 586 students. The EXPLORE test, a part of the ACT, is given in the eighth grade and provides college readiness benchmarks and a national percentile ranking (NPR)…