Student agency theorising traditionally positions individuals as sovereign and under-theorises the role non-human material elements play in enacting agency. We recognise the role of the material but to honour our research participants and context we adopt an asymmetrical view of the agency of the material non-human in relation to the human in…

In this article, the authors introduce a series of interconnected, inquiry-based activities from a fifth grade social studies curriculum, "My Place in Time and Space," which was developed in part through a Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) Regional Grant Program--Eastern Region. These activities are designed to…

Almost eighty years ago, Lucy Sprague Mitchell, founder of Bank Street College of Education in New York City, wrote about social studies in ways that sound remarkably contemporary: "In the first place, we shall say that the curriculum should continue the laboratory methods, which means it should furnish the children with as many first-hand…

Despite their experiences with a cartoon sponge, most elementary students know little about the diverse inhabitants of coral reefs. Therefore, with vivid photography and video, diverse coral reef inhabitants were brought to life for the author's fifth-grade students. Students shared their knowledge in language arts and even explored coral reefs in…