This book provides teachers with 50 dynamic activities to teach science, through music, food, games, literature, community, environment, and everyday objects. The authors share tried and tested ideas from their collective 75 years of teaching experiences. For the busy teacher with little time to plan lessons, resources are provided that include…

Einstein's special theory of relativity includes many non-intuitive and apparently paradoxical conclusions about space and time. One of these is time dilation, the fact that a clock moving relative to an observer runs slower than an identical clock at rest in the observer's reference frame. This is clearly exhibited in the extended mean lifetime…

Kids are drawn to dolls and dump trucks, and crashing the two together might just be a child's favorite pastime. Who knew such a simple pleasure could serve as an accessible, compelling phenomenon for instigating investigations of force and motion. With a few inexpensive materials straight out of the toy box (literally, a doll, a dump truck, a…

There is a tradition in primary classes of using rich authentic activities to teach science. The idea of pupils learning science through experiment and discovery is appealing. But this is not how children are taught in other subjects. When children learn to read, there are tiny steps, mastering each one before moving onto more challenging books.…

One of the objectives in the science National Curriculum in England is to 'observe changes across the four seasons' (DfE, 2013: 9). The winter months can be a busy time for teachers, but can also cater for a wide range of science experiments based around the season. Practical investigations based on winter themes can hold a sense of magic and…

When it comes to winning the hearts of children, it is sometimes hard for plants to compete. How do teachers make plants exciting for children? The answer lies in the ancient practice of hydroponics. Hydroponics may seem like complicated, cutting-edge technology, but, in fact, it has been around for centuries. Using hydroponics in the classroom…

Preparing elementary students to think and communicate like an engineer is possible, but requires a sequence of lessons spanning multiple classroom experiences that are aligned to multiple performance expectations (PEs). This article identifies how multiple PEs can be clustered to meet the instructional goals set forth in the "Next Generation…

According to the National Survey of Science and Mathematics Education (2018), only 16% of the elementary teachers surveyed reported including hands-on activities in all or most of their lessons. Strategies that engage students in hands-on investigations help improve student achievement (Minner, Levy, and Century 2010) and provide students with a…

"Science Education Through Multiple Literacies" explores how the use of project-based learning in elementary science education fosters a lifelong scientific mindset in students. The book provides educators with the teaching practices to help students develop an overall science literacy that aligns with Next Generation Science Standards.…

Philosophy is concerned with fundamental questions about knowledge, truth, reality, experience, justice and what is right and wrong. In this article, the authors discuss how philosophy and science can be taught together in the primary classroom.

Are you interested in helping your elementary students learn the practices of science, including constructing explanations and engaging in argument from evidence? "Argument-Driven Inquiry in Fifth-Grade Science" will provide you with both the information and instructional materials you need to get started right away. The book is a…

Children often have very stereotyped views of science and scientists, far removed from their own lives. Getting children to 'become' scientists and feel that they are actually "doing" science, being involved in something pertinent to them and their environment, is a goal of modern science teaching. This article aims to illustrate how…

Teachers in Dorset and East Devon have the benefit of the Jurassic Coast on their doorstep to help them bring the 'rocks and fossils' content of the curriculum alive. Not only is the area breathtakingly beautiful, but it is also rich in educational resources. If schools are not in an area close enough to make a class visit possible, how can…

In a recent survey of over 240 primary school children between the ages of 8 and 11, NUSTEM found that 75% of children said that they liked science and 63% said that they were good at science. However, when looking at the data by gender, there is a difference in enjoyment between girls and boys, with 71% of girls and 79% of boys saying that they…

This qualitative case study examined teachers' perceptions of fourth-grade departmentalized science instruction at Title I schools. Three theoretical frameworks were used as a lens for the study: Model of School Learning (Carroll, 1963), Theory of Mastery Learning (Bloom, 1968) and Curriculum Ideologies (Schiro, 1992). The three theories were used…