The pandemic outbreak of COVID-19 has highlighted an urgent need for infectious disease education for K-12 students. To gather a better understanding of what educational interventions have been conducted and to what effect, we performed a scoping review. We identified and examined 23 empirical researcher- and teacher-designed studies conducted in…

Collaborative-metacognitive use of science literature teaching approach (CMSLTA) refers to a researcher-made teaching approach from the Philippines that comprises four components, namely (a) formation of groups with three to four members who have varied reading comprehension ability and assigned rotating roles; (b) use of Scientific Method…

Background: Children's interactions are inherently multimodal. Accordingly, when children engage in science in classroom communities, their interactions are grounded in material and embodied aspects of interactions with teachers and their peers. Purpose: This study explores the nature of children's science interactions in a classroom community…

The authors conducted a qualitative content analysis of the 400 National Science Teachers Association Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12 from 2010-2017 selected for their instructional usefulness in science classrooms. The authors examined these expert-recommended science trade books to better understand their design and to identify…

Authentic, "messy data" contain variability that comes from many sources, such as natural variation in nature, chance occurrences during research, and human error. It is this messiness that both deters potential users of authentic data and gives data the power to create unique learning opportunities that reveal the nature of science…

Hands-on learning is a highly effective teaching method for topics in STEM disciplines. Unfortunately, environmental science teachers sometimes lack the tools to engage their students in hands-on experimentation in real-world research outside of the classroom. Partnerships between science professionals and teachers can help address this disparity,…

To achieve widespread, well-received knowledge dissemination, scientific writing must be precise, persuasive, and presentable. Thus, by definition, haiku writing is a logical choice by which to introduce young learners to effective scientific writing. In its traditional form, "haiku" is a Japanese poem intended for comparing imagery in…

This article focuses on the impact of a professional play that we developed in order to introduce elementary learners of an urban school to the research of a scientist working at a local university. The play was written in a way that might increase student understandings of the nature of science, scientific inquiry, the identity of scientists, and…

With the emergence of the "Next Generation Science Standards" ("NGSS"; NGSS Lead States 2013), it is apparent that teaching and learning about nature of science (NOS) continues to be an important goal of science education for all K-12 students. With this emphasis on NOS, early childhood teachers are asking how to design…

Science teaching in elementary schools, or the lack thereof, continues to be an area of concern and criticism. Preservice elementary teachers' lack of confidence in teaching science is a major part of this problem. In this mixed-methods study, we report the impacts of an inquiry-based science course on preservice elementary teachers' self-efficacy…

Learning progressions (LPs)--descriptive continuums of how students develop and demonstrate more sophisticated understanding over time--have become an increasingly important tool in today's science classrooms. Here the author discusses some of the research behind learning progressions and presents The Science Inquiry Profile for PreK-4. This is a…