Multilingual children learning English often receive inequitable curriculum, instruction, and assessment opportunities in preK-5 schools where English is the dominant language of instruction. There is an even more prevalent gap when also considering access to high quality STEM learning opportunities. Why is STEM enrichment for multilingual…

Young children are full citizens. They have full rights to use their "hundred languages," hands, and thoughts to contribute to the field of science. The founder of the Reggio Emilia approach, Loris Malaguzzi, emphasizes in his famous poem that every child has a hundred ways of discovering the world and a hundred worlds to invent. Today's…

When it snows, children are permitted to play outside during recess, which causes them to experience a variety of problems with their mittens or gloves. To align instruction with a problem student's experience in every day life, the authors developed and administered a short survey to second graders in an after school program. The authors found…

The concepts of "culturally relevant pedagogy" and "culturally responsive teaching" have been interpreted and enacted in various ways for over two decades. Informed by this research, the author shares a critical approach to teaching and learning using "sociotransformative constructivism" (sTc). This framework merges…

Teachers have the daunting task of preparing students for a future that they cannot predict. In an age of information where students have the world quite literally at their fingertips, and with the ever-growing momentum of integrated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), it is not enough that students experience STEM subjects…

Picture this: a PhD chemist, PhD science educator, and a preservice Latina elementary educator walk into an aftercare program for primary and intermediate students from a rural school. These students are identified as low income and at risk and therefore eligible to participate in this school-provided aftercare. While across the state, these same…

Severe flooding was prevalent within the authors' region at the beginning of the school year. Many homes and fields were affected by the amount of rain that fell within a short period of time over multiple days. Their students were concerned about the impact this natural phenomena was having on their local community. Natural phenomena can provide…

To support elementary school students in finding a solution to an engineering problem, the authors developed a series of five lessons using the 5E Instructional Model (Bybee 2014). The lessons align with the "Next Generation Science Standards" and the "Common Core State Standards" and integrate the teaching and learning of…

T.A.L.E.S., Teaching And Learning with Engaging Stories, is an alternative teaching method that focuses on enhancing learning by teaching science, math, ELA, and social studies through story. A six-week research study investigating socioeconomically disadvantaged students' responses to oral stories was conducted during an afterschool tutoring…

In this article, the author describes how a partnership was established to bring science and education majors together with elementary school children in an after-school STEM program. This partnership allowed preservice teachers and science majors to have fun with science and to learn science informally, in a nonclassroom, low-stress…

An after-school enrichment activity offered to sixth-grade students gave a group of 10 students an opportunity to explore the effects of the California drought in their community using an engaging scientific device: the UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle). Although this activity was specifically designed for a small after-school enrichment group, it…

It was a hot summer day. Naomi and her cousin walked into the community center. She said, "Miss Jones, our moms need to work. They told us to come here and stay for couple hours." This is a common occurrence in communities with low socioeconomic status during the summertime; parents need to go to work, but children are on summer break.…

Teachers created an after-school club called The Green Team and implemented an instructional strategy know as service-learning to teach environmental science. This article describes the transformation that occurred over a three-year period and illustrates how service-learning can provide a framework for environmental education. (Contains 1 figure,…

With the number of popular medical and forensics programs on television and many references in the media today, even elementary students can comfortably throw around terms such as "cells," "DNA," and "artificial products." However, their questions on these topics often go unanswered, or they are left with misinformation regarding these concepts.…

What happens when university curriculum developers are mixed with motivated elementary teachers? ? An awesome learning collaboration that benefits researchers, teachers, and students! That's what the authors discovered when they--university researchers involved in the Physics for Elementary Teachers (PET) project--teamed up with local elementary…