Access to drinking water is becoming more limited as drought persists across continents. This article highlights a particularly impacted group of students due to increasing drought conditions and upstream river pollution near their reservation. While there are related water and modeling standards across the K-12 Next Generation Science Standards…

The engineering design process (EDP) can be a wonderful tool to nurture creative problem-solving abilities, prepare students to tackle problems with intentional planning, and encourage learning from failures. Many lesson plans and instructional strategies are guided by the EDP (Hill Cunningham, Mott, and Hunt 2018). In this article, the authors…

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) has been at the center of a national conversation around the necessity to strengthen the STEM workforce starting with STEM education in K-12 schools. "The Next Generation Science Standards" (NGSS Lead States 2013) incorporate a prominent engineering component in both disciplinary…

This column presents ideas and techniques to enhance your science teaching. This month's issue shares information on how students' everyday experiences can support science learning through engineering design. In this article, the authors outline a reverse-engineering model of instruction and describe one example of how it looked in our fifth-grade…

The inclusion of engineering in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) as a key component of K-12 science learning has provided both opportunities and challenges for elementary teachers. One challenge is integrating the design thinking processes that undergird engineering with core science concepts and current issues facing scientists and…

In this article, the authors describe a fourth-grade lesson where 3-D printing technologies were not only a stimulus for engagement but also served as a modeling tool providing meaningful learning opportunities. Specifically, fourth-grade students construct an argument that animals' external structures function to support survival in a particular…

To show students how engineering design practices reduce the impacts of a natural hazard, the authors--two science educators and an elementary teacher--taught a three-day 5E lesson that focused on hurricanes. They specifically focused on hurricanes because their students are located near a coastal area and are familiar with the effects of this…

Engineering is prominently included in the "Next Generation Science Standards" (Achieve Inc. 2013), as it was in "A Framework for K-12 Science Education" (NRC 2012). The National Research Council, authors of the "Framework," write, "Engineering and technology are featured alongside the natural sciences (physical…

"On your mark, get set, go!" Elementary students love to hear these words as they participate in the annual Third Grade Better Boat Challenge. This highly motivational project started a few years ago as the author was developing the third-grade science curriculum to include a study that revolved around models, design, and problem solving. It has…

Describes a project for building a neighborhood model by a group of primary students. Integrates science, mathematics, and social studies. (KHR)