Nature Friendly Schools (NFS) is a groundbreaking project funded by the UK Department for Education and the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs with support from Natural England. It works in partnership with many organisations including the Wildlife Trusts, Young Minds and the Field Studies Council. By developing teachers'…

Climate change is a contemporary global crisis that necessitates pedagogical innovation for the middle school dance classroom. This article describes an integrated design for a dance and science unit. Building on students' kinesthetic abilities, teachers are able to create a unit comprising a series of lessons on bird migrations effected by…

This paper explores the use of comics as an integrated tool for introducing socioscientific issues (SSI) in elementary school classrooms. To illustrate this, we provide implementation examples from two teachers who facilitated introducing SSI to students using comics. These case studies depict how teachers integrated comics into their classroom…

In 2014, the latest iteration of the National Curriculum for England came into play. It provided more challenging, but slimmed down, content and concentrated on building essential knowledge and skills. A great start, but the fact remains that teaching today is as complex as ever, equipping youth for a future they do not yet know and for jobs that…

Productive struggle is a process in which students expend effort to grapple with perplexing problems and make sense of something that is not immediately apparent and beyond their current level of understanding and capacity. The experience encourages students to reflect on and restructure their existing knowledge toward a new understanding of…

In this article, the author champions the benefits for everyone of a more inclusive approach to primary science. She relates some of her experiences based on 35 years of teaching science to people with special educational needs and disabilities/additional support needs (SEND/ASN) and offers some tips to enhance inclusion.

This discussion paper focuses on the purpose of, and vision for, Irish primary science education prior to the redevelopment and publication of the primary science curriculum in 2024. Scientific literacy is broadly accepted as the goal of science education. Despite this, curricular analysis focusing on scientific literacy in Europe is scarce. There…

Primary schools have always embraced visitors and visits covering a wide range of contexts. In his 14 years of teaching the author cannot remember a year without two or three topic-linked trips and numerous visitors carrying out a wide variety of activities with classes. There were collaborations with other schools, community activities and many…

For some scientific ideas, it is obvious to pupils as to why they are studied. For others, a bit more work is needed before their significance becomes apparent. The concept of 'historical significance', which is used in history teaching, can help children to appreciate the enduring importance of scientific discoveries and events. The pedagogic…

Although the "Next Generation Science Standards" (NGSS) have three dimensions, the crosscutting concepts are often the forgotten dimension. One reason teachers may not emphasize the crosscutting concepts might be because they are broad, domain-general constructs that can be difficult to conceptualize in a meaningful way. Yet, when taught…

The Next Generation Science Standards lay out a model of energy that locates energy within objects and fields, and tracks energy as it transfers between these objects and transforms between forms of energy while always being conserved. This model of energy pervades much of modern science and represents a foundational, cross-cutting concept for…

When elementary schools integrate literacy and science instruction, they create rich learning environments that allow students to develop an understanding of science ideas while improving their reading, writing, and speaking skills at the same time. Neither subject takes a back seat. Literacy instruction supports science and science instruction…

The latest content standards in U.S. K-12 education are academically rigorous for all students, including a fast-growing population of English learners (ELs). Because these standards are different from previous standards in terms of not only their rigor but also their theoretical underpinnings, enacting instruction aligned to the standards will…

Using the practices in three-dimensional learning means that a classroom community of students working alongside the teacher identifies questions and debates how to make progress. Students should see each step of their work as addressing goals they have set. This article explores a strategy developed by researchers and teachers for supporting…

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.