A system of climate learning includes students, educators, administrators, educational leaders, community members, and others across different contexts and from diverse lived experiences. As people begin to foster climate learning within these systems, the work of drawing people together in this work can seem daunting. However, the lessons from…

The release of NGSS in 2013 brought forth uncertainty among K-12 educators on how to translate these standards into practical science lessons (Harris et al., 2017). One important instructional change that teachers still need assistance with is supporting sensemaking. To guide students in the process of sensemaking, teachers must ask questions that…

Simplified, reductionist approaches to curriculum design and delivery are pervasive in science education. In ecological curricula--particularly in, but not limited to K-12--biomes, ecosystems, habitats, and other units of study are simplified and presented as static, easily identified and described entities. Characteristics, components, and…

A goal in chemistry education research and teaching is to make chemistry education inclusive to our diverse students. Ethnography is one approach that can support this goal, because it supports researchers and educators in questioning what is considered ordinary by exploring chemistry as a culture. By exploring chemistry as a culture, we can…

The longstanding call to prioritize science education has gained momentum, particularly with the noticeable changes aligned with reform-era practices. This quantitative study explored the relationship between policy, time allocation, and teacher practices in elementary science education, guided by constructive learning theory as the theoretical…

Classrooms today are more ethnically and linguistically diverse. Unfortunately, students of color demonstrate a history of marginalized educational inequities (Williamson et al., 2007). These marginalized educational inequities impact academic achievement across all content areas especially literacy, math, and science. To improve the academic…

Despite recommendations from science educational standards which claim that science teaching should engage students in scientific investigations the same way scientists practice their profession to discover the unknown, thereby allowing students to actively construct their own knowledge, a growing body of empirical evidence suggests that this may…

Science teachers have been urged to use emerging technologies, such as robots, in ways that empower K-12 students as active participants responsible for their learning and knowledge development within the scientific domain. And yet, little is known about whether the use of robots effectively supports students' epistemic agency in science learning.…

The aim of the current paper is to investigate the traces of socio-cognitive influences in kindergarten teachers' representations about the practices they tend to follow when they develop Natural Sciences activities in kindergarten. A quantitative approach was used, with the research tool being an electronic questionnaire that was completed online…

K-12 education as an enterprise always has two main aims; to teach basic skills and knowledge and to cultivate moral citizenry. There is substantial evidence that empathy can promote morality and character development through education. To shed light on what has been done and to identify the pathways already established, a thematic review of…

Many K-16 educators agree that active learning is a key component for student success in life sciences. At the same time, some instructors are frustrated by inconsistent student participation in these activities and may revert to traditional teaching strategies. Horse caregivers face a similar frustration when they lead a horse to water and it…

Past studies have shown that kindergarten teachers find it challenging to integrate science into their instruction, but little is understood about factors that influence their science teaching in Indigenous areas. Our study aimed to investigate the associations between kindergarten teachers' experiences, attitudes, self-efficacy, outcome…

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…

This paper details a digital technology solution to a problem that arose during a science lesson in an early years class. The teacher used the opportunity to enable the children to apply their knowledge and skills of a software application developed in a recent ICT class. Using the age-appropriate app, the students could communicate their learning…

Science often takes a back burner to English Language Arts (ELA) and Math. With ELA and Math being tested from early years and school funding relying on each, many teachers are pushed by administrators to spend as much time as possible on those two subjects. During the authors' years as classroom teachers and professional development providers,…