Preservice elementary teachers face many challenges in learning how to teach science effectively, such as engaging students in science, organizing instruction, and developing a productive learning community. This paper reports on several iterative cycles of design-based research aimed at fostering preservice teachers' principled reasoning around…

In the project presented in this article, high school students create and observe miniecosystems in an ecology unit designed around a 5E (engagement, exploration, explanation, elaboration, and evaluation) instructional model. Students choose a wide variety of organisms and use creativity to design miniecosystems. (Contains 1 table and 3 figures.)

The purpose of this study was to integrate technology and team-teaching techniques into science teacher education method courses in order to explore the effects of such integration on preservice teachers. The participants included one instructor and a total of 42 preservice teachers. A technology team-teaching model (TTT) was designed in this…

This paper describes Project SMART (Science and Math Access: Resources & Technology), a multi-year professional development effort that includes components for all adults who regularly have contact with children with disabilities. The common goal of each of the components is the development of both efficacy and capacity to inspire children with…

This study examined the effects of a Web site design project on students' motivation and achievement. Tenth-grade biology students worked together in teams on an ecology project that required them to locate relevant information on the Internet, decide which information should be included on their Web site, organize the information into Web pages,…