This article describes how one state museum's mission is to illuminate the natural world and inspire its conservation. Educational specialists from the museum achieve this mission by helping educators across the state use and enhance the natural resources available on their school grounds as a teaching tool. The article shares a lesson that…

An outdoor classroom is an exciting way to connect the learning of science to nature and the environment. Many school grounds include gardens, grassy areas, courtyards, and wooded areas. Some even have nearby streams or creeks. These are built-in laboratories for inquiry! In the authors' third-grade classroom, they align and integrate…

When learning about plants, elementary students are typically given set directions on how to plant seeds and make their plants grow. To enable their class of first-grade students to build their own knowledge and encourage constructivism, the authors decided to take this set of prescribe activities and make them more inquiry-based. In traditional…

Students are using the tools of scientists when keeping a science notebook. They are also keeping track of their thinking and the changes to their original ideas. To bring students' existing ideas out for examination, the author implemented a "quick-write," which entails asking an open-ended question and having the students write all they know in…

Describes the design and materials for an elementary school science laboratory which can be installed for approximately $3,000. (MLH)

Urges the use of the immediate environment of the school to serve as a focus and a medium to help plan activities and experiments in the different subject areas of science, and in the area of environment. (GA)

Discusses an elementary school Design Lab in which students construct musical instruments with little intervention from the instructor. Describes some problem solving situations which arose during the activities, and which provided experience in developing computational and reasoning skills. (MLH)