The NGSS Early Implementers Initiative was created to help eight California school districts and two charter management organizations, supported by WestEd's K-12 Alliance, implement the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Many educational initiatives are funded for only a couple of years. This unique initiative spanned an extraordinary six…

NGSS Early Implementers is a six-year initiative created to help eight California school districts and two charter management organizations, supported by WestEd's K-12 Alliance, implement the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Administrators need learning opportunities if they are to adequately understand the substantial shifts of the Next…

Bill and Karen are special education teachers who have entirely different knowledge and skill profiles. Bill is a special educator with 20 years of experience. He teaches reading to third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade students in a high-poverty elementary school resource classroom. His school is currently engaging in a schoolwide Reading First effort…

Summarizes research on inquiry and investigative strategies for teaching laboratory science. Concludes that meaningful laboratory instruction is distinguished by: student engagement in science inquiry processes, student manipulation of experimental materials, and the experiential teaching of specific scientific concepts. (RT)

The Learning in Science Project (Primary)--LISP(P)--investigated the questions and explanations primary children have about rocks. Data were collected during teaching sessions from New Zealand students (ages 8-11) and Australian students (ages 10-11). The teaching sessions required the teacher to create a situation in which children generated some…

The topic of metals is frequently taught in primary schools. However, when metals are suggested as one of a series of topics for study, students often initially show little enthusiasm for the topic. To determine the ideas that children have about metals the Learning in Science Project (Primary)--LISP(P)--interviewed thirty-eight 9- to 10-year-old…

An alternative approach for teaching primary school science has been proposed by the Learning in Science Project (Primary--LISP(P). This study investigated the use of the approach during three series of lessons on the topic "metals." Each series followed the same general pattern: (1) an introductory session to stimulate children to ask…

The Learning in Science Project (Primary)--LISP(P)--investigated the questions and explanations primary children have about spiders. The data comprise 112 questions and 104 explanations (included in appendices) offered by children after being shown a picture of a spider. Additional data were collected during individual interviews with 18 students.…

The Learning in Science Project (Primary)--LISP(P)--investigated the ideas and interests about spiders held by 8- to 10-year-old children. Data included 303 questions--and answers to some of the questions--about spiders obtained from children in four classes and from responses obtained during individual interviews with 10 children from each age…

Reports on findings from an interpretive team study of the teaching/learning environments in the science program at an innovative Australian high school, in which 778 students perform laboratory and classroom activities within a self-paced, independent framework. Suggests that the knowledge that teachers require to undertake effective science…

The Learning in Science Project (Primary--LISP(P)--designed to investigate the teaching and learning of science in New Zealand primary schools, arises from the work of the original Learning in Science Project (LISP). This paper is an attempt to clarify the direction of LISP(P) as it moves toward the central phase of the research. The ideas…

The stand taken in the Learning in Science Project (Primary)--LISP(P)--is that primary school science should be centrally concerned with children's present interaction with their world rather than their future science education. Further, it has been decided that one of the LISP(P) foci should be on questions that children ask and how these…

One area explored in the Learning in Science Project (Primary--LISP(P)--was children's questions about and explanations of phenomena. Data were obtained from work with classes of children, interviews with children, informal discussions with teachers, and observations of two teachers using an alternative teaching model (outlined in an appendix)…

The Learning in Science Project (Primary)--LISP(P)--was designed to investigate the teaching and learning of science in the primary school. This paper summarizes the work undertaken and the findings obtained during the first 9 months of the project. During the first 6 months, an exploratory phase, similar to the original Learning in Science…

This paper, designed to be used in conjunction with a video-tape developed by the Learning in Science Project (Primary)--LISP(P)--shows excerpts from some of the interview schedules used to examine children's ideas about floating and sinking. These interviews involved the use of "interview-about-instances" (IAI) cards (included in an…