Background: Creativity is an important skill for the future society and developing students' creativity is an important part of science education. Working on a creative science project may help developing students' creative abilities, and the interaction between teacher and students during the work on defining a problem and solving the problem, is…

The need for scientifically literate citizens is an urgent priority, exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020. Despite the importance of scientific literacy, elementary schools across the nation have not made science instruction a priority in their school day. On average, elementary students spend 40% less instructional time in science…

STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education is a national instructional priority. As part of Southeastern Louisiana University's STEM Outreach Initiative, funded by a Shell Oil Company Foundation grant to raise interest in STEM-related activities, teacher candidates were given the opportunity to leave their classroom to…

Most accounts of affect and motivation in the science education literature have discussed them as relevant to, but distinct from, disciplinary pursuits. These include Pintrich's seminal work on affective and motivational factors in learning science (P. R. Pintrich, 1999, 2003; P. R. Pintrich & E. De Groot, 1990; P. R. Pintrich, R. W. Marx,…

This study examined 6th graders' use of the VoiceThread app as part of a science inquiry project on photosynthesis and carbon dioxide emissions in terms of their ability to engage in causal reasoning and their use of the affordances of multimodality, collaboration, interactivity, and connectivity. Students employed multimodal production using…

Pedagogical competence and teaching efficacy significantly influence the quality of classroom science learning. Without applying pedagogical learning in realistic classroom environments, there is slight possibility that prospective teachers will increase their teaching confidence or develop understanding of how learners acquire and construct…

Donnelly, Idaho, is a small town surrounded by private ranches and Forest Service property. Through the center of Donnelly runs Boulder Creek, a small tributary feeding into Cascade Lake Reservoir. Boulder Creek originates from a mountain lake north of Donnelly. Since 1994 it has been listed as "impaired" by the Environmental Protection…

The STEM Achievement in Baltimore Elementary Schools (SABES) program is a community partnership initiative that includes both in-school and afterschool STEM education for grades 3-5. It was designed to broaden participation and achievement in STEM education by bringing science and engineering to the lives of low-income urban elementary school…

This book provides information to help create a themed science fair for childen in grades 4-6. Illustrated instructions and checklists for each of the 100 plus experiments are provided, plus ideas for teachers and students to vary experiments for additional scientific discovery. The experiments are written in age-appropriate language so that…

Children are natural scientists full of curiosity. This curiosity allows them to ask questions about and to investigate their surroundings. Since science is not just a collection of facts to be learned, but rather investigations that need to be made, teachers should encourage that natural curiosity in the classroom. Luckily, the "Next…

To capture students' excitement and engage their interest in rocketships and visiting planets in the solar system, the author designed lessons that give students the opportunity to experience the joys and challenges of developing straw rockets, and then observing which design can travel the longest distance. The lessons are appropriate for…

The authors evaluated the effects of P-SELL, a science curricular and professional development intervention for fifth-grade students with a focus on English language learners (ELLs). Using a randomized controlled trial design with 33 treatment and 33 control schools across three school districts in one state, we found significant and meaningfully…

Oranges, flying disks, pool noodles, and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe may seem like items discarded after a Rube Goldberg experiment, but in fact, these objects were used in teaching science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). This article describes a project in which The Center of Ocean Sciences Education Excellence SouthEast (COSEE SE)…

This paper addresses the use of e-materials in learning. Under pressure from the public, which is becoming increasingly conversant with IT, schools and also other non-formal types of learning are changing into e-classrooms and e-learning. Among parents and teachers, too, there is a widespread opinion that e-learning is more motivating and is more…