We use a 10-year program of research centered on iterations of one elementary science methods course as a vehicle for exploring three important and interrelated goals for the learning of beginning elementary teachers. These include learning about inquiry-oriented science teaching, using science curriculum materials effectively, and anticipating…

Nearly 79,000 questions sent to an Internet-based Ask-A-Scientist site during the last decade were analyzed according to the surfer's age, gender, country of origin, and the year the question was sent. The sample demonstrated a surprising dominance of female contributions among K-12 students (although this dominance did not carry over to the full…

Findings from a quasi-experimental study of children's ideas about the solar system and how these ideas changed in response to a 10-week intervention period of formal astronomy teaching at a single primary school in England are presented in detail. Initial interviews with all of the 9- to 11-year-olds involved revealed a relatively poorly…

New views of proficiency in K-8 science that highlight the importance of engaging children in the discourses and practices of science have raised the stakes for elementary teachers and the teacher educators who prepare them. In this paper, a framework for teaching science as argument is presented. The framework is advanced as a means of addressing…

Although reading is a critical part of science and science learning, it is no longer a part of many children's elementary science instruction. This is of concern because girls often develop strong identities as readers, but do not develop scientific identities with ease. In this study, we investigate girls' science reading to know (1) if science…

This paper describes a comprehensive set of studies designed to assess the potential for commercial reading programs to teach reading in science. Specific questions focus on the proportion of selections in the programs that contain science and the amount of science that is in those selections, on the genres in which the science is portrayed, on…

This paper examines the use of students' lived experiences in an urban elementary science classroom. Students bring different funds of knowledge that are accumulated through their lived experiences into the classroom, and I examine what those funds of knowledge mean to an elementary science teacher working in an urban school. I describe how a…

This paper presents results from a study aimed at helping preservice elementary and middle school teachers incorporate model-centered scientific inquiry into their science teaching practices. Specifically, the authors studied the effect of using a guided inquiry and modeling instructional framework (EIMA) and accompanying science methods…

Classrooms across the United States increasingly find White teachers paired with ethnic minority students, but few of these teachers are prepared for the disparities such cultural integration presents. This is particularly true vis-a-vis science education. While classrooms have diversified, science instruction has not necessarily followed suit.…

In this paper, we synthesize two bodies of work related to students' representational activities: the notions of meta-representational competence and representation as a form of practice. We report on video analyses of kindergarten and first-grade students as they create representations of pollination in a science classroom, as well as summarize…

Evaluates a method for teaching hypothesis formation to sixth-grade children. Results showed that hypothesis formation can be taught under the described conditions, and that the ability to hypothesize correlates with intelligence, sex, reading ability, and grade point average. (MLH)

Compared the effect of a film-mediated model to the effect of a self rating, written model in developing trainees' ability to ask appropriate classroom questions. Showed no significant difference between the two methods. (PR)

Evaluates conservation and categorization abilities among grade

Assesses elementary school teachers' needs through use of the Moore Assessment Profile. One hundred and seven K-6 teachers responded to the survey. Factor analysis revealed that the sample perceived four need areas: (1) providing realistic science experiences; (2) developing basic science skills; (3) developing an understanding of the relationship…