Escape rooms have been receiving more attention for use in education. Escape rooms are games in which teams solve multiple puzzles and challenges using clues, hints, and strategy to determine how to escape from a locked room. The implementation of escape rooms has the potential for increasing students' mathematical understanding and engagement.…

Integrating STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) in authentic ways is often overlooked in early childhood spaces, despite young children having the ability to engage with the world around them through STEM practices. This piece showcases the work of children in a prekindergarten classroom as they explored an integrated STEM…

According to the Next Generation Science Standards, three-dimensional teaching challenges educators to adopt an inquiry approach through science and engineering practices aligned with disciplinary core ideas and crosscutting concepts. Few teachers today feel confident in their ability to orchestrate such lessons. Teaching inquiry science takes…

Science curriculum and instruction in K-12 settings in the United States is currently dominated by an emphasis on the science standards movement of the 1990s and the resulting standards-based high-stakes assessment and accountability movement of the 2000s. We argue that this focus has moved the field away from important philosophical…

We are in the STEM generation whose comprehensive purpose is to resolve (1) societal needs for new technological and scientific advances; (2) economic needs for national security; and (3) personal needs to become a fulfilled, productive, knowledgeable citizen. STEM specifically refers to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, but now…

Addressed is the current practice in educational reform of reducing time for science instruction in favor of traditional reading/language arts instruction. In contrast, presented is an evidence-based rationale for increasing instructional time for K-5 science instruction as an educational reform initiative. Overviewed are consensus…

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics calls for an increased emphasis on proof and reasoning in school mathematics curricula. Given such an emphasis, mathematics teachers must be prepared to structure curricular experiences so that students develop an appreciation for both the value of proof and for those strategies that will assist them…

Latinas/os, the largest and fastest growing minority ethnic group in the United States (impels research that focuses on the education of Latinas/os and the need to reduce the achievement gap that persists between Latinas/os and other groups. Such research has gained in popularity; however, it is still very limited. I use my teaching experience…

In spite of repeated reform efforts, there is research and data that suggest that teachers lack the needed knowledge to successfully teach elementary mathematics. Some argue that teachers lack the needed content knowledge while other argue that a lack of confidence and practice are impacting teachers' ability to successful teach mathematics. As a…

Technology integration in mathematics classrooms is important to the field of education, not only because today's society is becoming more and more advanced and reliant upon technology but also because schools are beginning to embrace technology as an essential part of their curricula. The Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (National…

Mathematics and science are important for success in school, but learning mathematics and science can be a difficult task to some students. Efforts to improve students' learning of school mathematics and science have led to reform efforts in curriculum and instruction over the past decades (e.g., National Council of Teachers of Mathematics [NCTM],…

This paper reports on the experiences of a small collaborative inquiry group consisting of a high school science teacher, Deidre, and two university researchers, the authors of this paper, as they explored an active, inquiry-based approach to teaching and learning referred to as Problem-Based Learning or PBL (Barrows, 1994; Barrows & Tamblyn,…

School curriculum and its impact on teaching and learning have received more and more research attention both in the United States and in the international context. For example, the Third International Mathematics and Science Studies (TIMSS) took curriculum and its different forms in the process of curriculum transformation as a guideline to…

The activities of a teacher who developed and piloted an eclectic model in an eighth grade mathematics classroom are described. Peer tutoring, cooperative learning, and mastery learning elements were selected and combined into a classroom program designed to increase student mathematics success. (KR)

Discusses the Technology, Science, Mathematics Integration Project's technological problem-solving method, briefly describes 15 activities and the corresponding technology, science, and mathematics content involved (including 1 detailed example), and proposes a general structure of the activities and research in support of this approach. (MKR)