National science reform documents recommend several nature of science (NOS) elements to introduce to children early in the science curriculum. A researcher developed questionnaire was used to gather information from a random, national sample about early elementary teachers' perceptions of the developmental appropriateness of 12 NOS aspects for the…

Climate change instruction (CCI) is not a consistent component of the science curriculum in American primary education. When it is taught, students may experience stress during instruction as a result of learning about the historical and future harm to humanity and the earth as a result of climate change. Students may also have direct experience…

This study aims to introduce inquiry-based play activities and to examine their effectiveness on young children's conceptual understanding of the shape of the Earth and the day-night cycle. The inquiry-based play activities for preschool children were designed to support children to learn the concepts of the shape of the Earth and the day-night…

The topic 'Animals including humans' runs through the primary science National Curriculum in England (DfE, 2013). Ideally, topics such as inheritance will lead onto adaptation, natural selection and evolution across key stages 1 to 2 (ages 5-11). This article provides nine engaging activities to support the teaching of adaptation and improve…

There are many challenges associated with Inquiry-Based Practical Work (IBPW), scattered in the school and post-school natural sciences education research literature. The goal of the systematic review presented in this paper, was to gather the contextual teaching challenges in the said literature, and then to create a detailed multi-perspective…

This study deals with detecting the difficulties that prospective teachers encounter in recognising and analysing children's ideas in the domains of social studies and science. It qualitatively analyses the reports written by 94 third-year Early Childhood Education degree students, while they were taking courses on "Teaching the natural…

Matter is an essential science topic that is often challenging to teach at the early elementary levels. Learning about matter helps students develop a solid foundation for more complex concepts that are taught in later years. Make this abstract concept developmentally appropriate for children by engaging them in investigations that focus on…

How physics can be made interesting is a question that needs no answer. That's because physics is interesting! It's a field of study jam-packed with fascination and wonder. The general public has an enormous thirst for physics knowledge, as indicated by the great numbers who purchase science magazines and books and watch "NOVA" and other…

A 30-item questionnaire was designed to determine Omani science teachers' attitudes toward teaching science and whether or not these attitudes differ according to gender and teaching experiences of teachers. The questionnaire items were divided into 3 domains: classroom preparation, managing hands-on science, and development appropriateness. The…

Energy is one of the most complex yet central concepts taught in schools and is featured in the Australian Science Curriculum, as one of the six key organising ideas (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), 2015). The literature portrays a multitude of complications associated with teaching energy (see Millar, 2005 for a…

"Problem-Based Learning in the Physical Science Classroom, K-12" will help your students truly understand concepts such as motion, energy, and magnetism in true-to-life contexts. The book offers a comprehensive description of why, how, and when to implement problem-based learning (PBL) in your curriculum. Its 14 developmentally…

Using the water molecule as a metaphor, Marilyn Doerr presents a study of a Montessori high school that combines the elements of Montessori with International Baccalaureate (IB) and other institutions in the surrounding community that enrich the experience of the students. The pedagogy of the high school, she explains, must be based on an…

The current research is to give an example to the inquiry-based science teaching implementations for facilitating knowledge acquisition and retention in a short period of time. Thus, the aim of the research is to transfer of acquired knowledge into different situations using sequential inquiry activities, which have challenging questions for…

The purpose of this action research was to understand how reflective, job-embedded early childhood science professional learning and development (PLD) impacted Early Head Start (EHS) teacher learning and their perceptions toward science with toddlers. Limited content knowledge and lack of formal preparation impact teachers' understanding of…

This study explored how four elementary teachers assessed the developmental appropriateness and importance of nine nature of science (NOS) aspects after participating in a yearlong professional development program. A multiple-embedded case study design was employed. The primary data sources included (a) Views of Nature of Science Elementary School…