Throughout the country, there are many bodies of fresh water affected by algal blooms. By focusing on a water source near their school, students can become scientists, too. Situating science content in real and meaningful learning experiences encourages students to be invested in their own learning, construct deeper understandings, and apply those…

What does a scientist do? What is an engineer? What is technology? What do mathematicians do? Questions about the nature of STEM are fundamental to help elementary students gain a deep understanding of the STEM disciplines. Yet, starting a lesson with such abstract questions can be difficult for any learner. Instead, teachers can use concrete STEM…

Educators and researchers often suggest that participation in "real" science may help students "think like" or "see themselves as" scientists because students participate in and contribute to the broader scientific community. However, bringing citizen science (CS) activities into the classroom does not necessarily…

Will spring be early next year? This is a question the authors ponder each fall as they prepare for a yearlong citizen science project with kindergartners. Citizen science projects naturally promote the development of science and engineering practices. These projects can be integrated at any grade level and aligned to meet other content areas as…

"Science and Children" routinely addresses the challenges teachers face in integrating the "Common Core State Standards" ("CCSS") alongside the "Next Generation Science Standards" ("NGSS") (e.g., Forsythe, Jackson, and Contreras 2018; Sweetman and Sabella 2018). This article aims to extend this…

This article is a presentation of a three-day sequence of lessons that engaged fifth-grade students in an exploration following the activities of scientists. From asking questions and analyzing data, to engaging in scientific modeling, to defending their theories to the scientific (classroom) community, these fifth graders were mirroring how…

Citizen science provides an opportunity for students to capture data both locally and globally while supporting the real-time work of scientists seeking to understand natural events. In this article, the authors present a project-based approach that explores climate at home and abroad to help develop elementary students' local-to-global…

In this article, the author describes how a partnership was established to bring science and education majors together with elementary school children in an after-school STEM program. This partnership allowed preservice teachers and science majors to have fun with science and to learn science informally, in a nonclassroom, low-stress…

Science teaching and learning in the United States are at a pivotal point. "A Framework for K-12 Science Education" (NRC 2012b) and the "Next Generation Science Standards" ("NGSS"; NGSS Lead States 2013) shift science educators' focus from simply teaching science ideas to helping students figure out phenomena and…

Making and recording scientific observations is a fundamental activity of the scientific community. Scientists use their senses and tools (e.g., magnifying glasses, rulers, colored pencils) to make records of the phenomena (e.g., light energy, ecosystems) they are investigating. These observations often serve as evidence in the scientific…

The language of science, which emphasizes reasoning about the causes and conditions of scientific phenomenon and use of visuals to convey information, can be difficult for young readers and writers without a lot of teacher scaffolding (Pappas and Varelas 2009). It is important that teachers understand these linguistic requirements to support…

Scientists' writing includes organized data, calculations, sketches and models, inventories and lists, timelines, detailed descriptions, locations, conditions, actions, schedules, information about variables, goals, hypotheses, research, notes, summaries of experiments, and reports to others (Fulton and Campbell 2014). By using scaffolded science…

Elementary science experiences help develop students' views of science and scientific interests. As a result, teachers have been charged with the task of inspiring, cultivating, recruiting, and training the scientists needed to create tomorrow's innovations and solve future problems (Business Roundtable 2005). Who will these future…

In this article, Sandra Wentworth invites science teachers to ask a group of students to write the names of three famous scientists on a piece of paper within one minute. Chances are that most students will mention Einstein and be unable to name another scientist, specifically a woman, except for an occasional Marie Curie response. This article…

The nature of science (NOS) describes what science is and how knowledge in science is developed (NSTA 2013). To develop elementary students' understandings of how scientists explore the world, the authors--an education professor and a third-grade teacher--endeavored to integrate NOS into a third-grade life science unit. Throughout the lesson,…