Representation in science is anything that stands for something else--drawings, pictures, graphs, or other representational forms (Danish et al. 2020). Representations serve as public displays of phenomena that make aspects of those phenomena explicit (Gilbert 2008). They can serve to make the invisible visible, communicate ideas, display…

Early experiences with planning and guiding children's learning can be exciting for preservice teachers in undergraduate teacher training programs. In this article, observations of a preschool play session guide four preservice teachers to design a series of play-centered lessons addressing serious science concepts (Hall 2010). While the concepts…

Dramatic inquiry is a teaching approach where students explore science through differentiated learning experiences, so that students can engage in learning in multiple ways (e.g., through gesture, song, written and spoken language). It positions students as competent problem solvers and draws upon students' strengths through collaborative learning…

This column provides ideas and techniques to enhance your science teaching. This month's issue discusses using the 5E learning cycle to create coherent storylines. The 5E learning cycle provides an important framework to help teachers organize activities. To realize the full potential of the 5E framework for student learning, lessons must also…

WebQuests and the 5E learning cycle are titans of the science classroom. These popular inquiry-based strategies are most often used as separate entities, but the author has discovered that using a combined WebQuest and 5E learning cycle format taps into the inherent power and potential of both strategies. In the lesson, "Clash of the Titans,"…

One of the biggest challenges in the early weeks of the new school year is to keep learning interesting and the students engaged as routines and procedures are established and reinforced. How can a classroom teacher make the routines and procedures engaging and educational, while building a community of learners? The answer is simple... build a…

How can a teacher simultaneously teach science concepts through inquiry while helping students learn about the nature of science? After pondering this question in their own teaching, the authors developed a 5E learning cycle lesson (Bybee et al. 2006) that concurrently embeds opportunities for fourth-grade students to (a) learn a science concept,…

With the 2010 Winter Olympic Games prominent in the media, children were exposed to images of athletes skiing down snow-covered slopes, coasting furiously on bobsleds, and skating gracefully across the ice. Therefore, the authors capitalized on their children's natural curiosity about the world around them by exploring the concept of motion in a…

"Watch out, the stove will burn you," "Ooh, ice cream headache!" Students construct their conceptions about heat and temperature through their own intuitions about daily life experiences. As a result, misconceptions can be born from these constructed concepts. The activity described here addresses student misconceptions about thermal insulation…

Trade books can be used in all phases of the learning cycle to support effective teaching and learning. Romance and Vitale (1992) found that texts and other nonfiction science books can be effective tools for teaching reading, as the science activities give learners a purpose for their reading. In this article, the authors share ways to…

In sixth grade, students understand that Earth gets visible light from the Sun, but students may also believe the Earth gets heat from the Sun. This last part is incorrect because the Sun is too far from the Earth to heat it directly. So, how does the Sun heat the Earth? When light strikes an object, it can be reflected or absorbed. Absorbed light…

Most of teachers are familiar with the 5-E model of science instruction-engage, Explore, Explain, Expand, and Evaluate (Trowbridge and Bybee 1990). It is a valuable tool that allows teachers to structure science experiences so students use the processes of scientific inquiry to construct and connect ideas rather than simply memorize seemingly…

ScienceQuests organize the curriculum around an authentic problem or project for students to solve. They focus on developing students' content knowledge, collaborative skills, and dispositions (i.e., attitudes toward science). Each ScienceQuest is built around "big ideas," such as: (1) All living things have basic needs that must be satisfied in…

"What's good for English learning students is good for all students" is a phrase that the author often hears as a teacher educator. However, English language learners have special needs that must be met with pinpointed strategies that target language so they can understand the content being taught. To better incorporate these strategies into the…

Four fourth-grade teachers are bent over a conference table, chins in palms, concentrating on one student's assessment paper. This paper is one of many on the table, organized into several ragged piles. The teachers are discussing nuances of the student's work, trying to reach agreement on the quality of the response. The goal of this careful…