In science classrooms, students usually see and work with data that's intended to tell them right away about the natural world. Students then often treat the data we provide to them as factual, rather than as a source of evidence (Duschl 2008; Sandoval and Millwood 2005; Berland and Reiser 2009; McNeill and Berland 2017; Hancock, Kaput, and…

Graphic novels are everywhere! The popularity of graphic novels is not surprising. They are colorful and engaging, marrying text to images, with diverse characters doing everything from struggling with their tennis game to solving engineering problems to battling villains from the Multiverse. Graphic novels promote both language and scientific…

Modeling is an important tool in science teaching and learning. Constructing a model instead of replicating one is more meaningful and better supports student learning than analyzing premade models (Firooznia 2015; Gouvea and Passmore 2017; Takemura and Kurabayashi 2014). Models include physical replications of a scientific phenomenon or analyzing…

Cultivating students' scientific knowledge and developing their capability in scientific inquiry depends on a teacher's ability to use existing resources to design rich learning opportunities. Designing such experiences is not easy, and is particularly challenging for new teachers who have little experience making decisions about the best way to…

Many students possess their own unique potential and "genius," but seem to base their worth on the status of grades instead of their connection to education itself. Antonio Salieri, for instance, created wonderful, emotionally binding music throughout his lifetime. Salieri however, never saw the beauty in his work because Mozart, a child…

Model-based inquiry (MBI) is an instructional framework designed around the construction, revision, and testing of models by students to make sense of and explain a phenomenon (Windschitl et al. 2008). Focusing on explaining natural phenomena provides a specific context for students to learn and apply scientific understandings to and can help…

Secondary school biology teachers constantly face the challenge of finding ways to connect students with topics that are engaging and relevant to them. In-vitro fertilization and other assisted reproductive technologies are increasingly common medical practices that students may hear about in their lives outside of school, whether from hearing…

Teacher talk moves are useful for supporting students' learning, but they are not enough to create a science learning community in the classroom. Talk moves focus on functional engagement with individual students' ideas and sensemaking. Norms must be established by having a nuanced understanding of how those individual talk moves create patterns…

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) provides a framework, based in brain research, to design instruction around the needs of all learners. By considering the UDL principles as educators design science instruction, they can proactively address how to engage students, how to make content accessible, and how to provide options for students to…

The push for project-based learning (PBL) has been at the forefront of education for the last decade. Exposure to projects even in the lower grade levels helps students learn foundational skills that will strengthen the collaborative and leadership skills that will assist them as they get older. The result of a typical PBL project requires…

Analyzing and interpreting data is essential to the practice of scientists and is also an essential science and engineering practice for science teaching and learning. Although working with data has benefits for student learning, it is also challenging, particularly with respect to aspects of work with data that are not yet very common in schools,…

Part 1 of the series looked at teaching speed and velocity. Part 2 considers the teaching of acceleration in physics. Teachers may find it okay to hurry through the concepts of speed and velocity because they are intuitive. But teachers cannot hurry through acceleration quite so quickly because it is not intuitive. Whereas velocity is a rate of…

Through teaching science, teachers have the pleasure of developing and implementing learning experiences that allow students to discover how the world works. Interweaving the laws, principles, and theories of the universe with scientific practices that have allowed scientists to discover these ideas is the focus of teaching and learning in the…

An economy that grows is good. Growth in income is certainly good. In general, growth is seen as a good thing. A global pandemic challenges this notion. Let's be careful of what we wish for- especially if growth is "exponential." This article describes exponential growth and doubling time, and shows how these concepts can be related to…

Helping students understand the Nature of Science (NOS) is a long-standing goal of science education. One method is to provide students examples of science history in the form of short stories. This article modifies that approach, using historical case studies to address both the history of science and the history of technology, as well as the…