Citizen science is a research collaboration between scientists and volunteers who provide data for education, conservation, and environmental protection. Volunteers, often the locals in the area, provide data on species occurrence while researchers perform distribution mapping or other data analysis. Social networking sites including Facebook,…

This paper examines the use of social media as a collaborative and engagement tool for participants in a middle school science research project conducted over a three-year period. Sky Stories is a learning initiative that employs a blend of Indigenous and Western knowledge of astronomy to engage Year 5-8 middle school students in investigative…

Physics students have traditionally prepared many kinds of reports-- laboratory, activity, project, and even book or article reports. Smartphones and YouTube videos are familiar cultural objects to current students, and our students use smartphone cameras to include photographs of apparatus, phenomena, hand-sketched figures, graphs, and…

Citizen science projects have been found to increase scientific knowledge and awareness among the participants who engage in these collaborative efforts. Providing elementary students the opportunity to collect, share, and analyze data is an effective way to help them develop a deeper understanding of scientific concepts and gain competency in…

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…

Thousands of students around the country have participated in activities using the Data Jam model, creating poetry, songs, videos, or sculpture to improve their data literacy, gain knowledge of local science research, and creatively express their findings. This article introduces the Data Jam model and describes how teachers can use it in…

As well as providing a valuable and enjoyable experience for pupils, outdoor learning also enhances and contextualises learning in science by helping pupils understand science concepts. Teachers' lack of confidence in which aspects of the science curriculum they can actually teach outdoors deters them from venturing outside the classroom for…

With rapidly evolving technology, the world is more connected than ever, and citizens around the globe can contribute to science like never before (Dickinson and Bonney 2012). Reflecting the growing capacity of citizen science, this article presents a science education continuum that moves from global awareness to global contribution. At each…

In this activity, students learned scientific practices and evidence-based reasoning by formulating and testing hypotheses about factors affecting human reaction time and examining those hypotheses with data from ruler-drop tests. The project aligns with all eight of the science and engineering practices (SEP) embodied in the "Next Generation…

There is an increasing focus across all educational sectors to ensure that learning objectives are aligned with learning activities and assessments. An attractive approach previously published is that of curriculum alignment projects. This paper discusses the use of the fun and famous "Elephant's Toothpaste" experiment as a customizable…

The average American produces around 1,600 pounds of garbage every year, and it is estimated that 50 percent of that waste is material that could be composted (Clean Air Council, 2012). Instead, most is sent to landfills and incinerators. In technology and engineering education, a great deal of time is spent in talking, teaching, and thinking…

Problem solving is a valuable skill in the science classroom. Students often use a variety of inquiry strategies to identify problems and their implications; develop action plans; locate relevant sources, information, and data; and formulate solutions. Problem solving is a logical, analytical, and sometimes creative process. The less tangible,…

One tool for enhancing students' work with data in the science classroom is the measure line. As a coteacher and curriculum developer for The Inquiry Project, the author has seen how measure lines--a number line in which the numbers refer to units of measure--help students not only represent data but also analyze it in ways that generate…

Nothing brings out the best in eighth-grade physical science students quite like an engineering challenge. The wind turbine design challenge described in this article has proved to be a favorite among students with its focus on teamwork and creativity and its (almost) sneaky reinforcement of numerous physics concepts. For this activity, pairs of…

As a science teacher educator and former science teacher, the author has long known that the science fair should be part of his professional experience, but he had not given it much thought until recently. As he worked with his daughter's project, he became convinced that it is time to reconsider the range of activities one calls "science fairs."…