This article outlines key findings of a study of STEM-rich afterschool Making programs offered by the four organizations participating in a project called the California Tinkering Afterschool Network. Over three years, the project identified key characteristics of inclusive and equity-oriented Maker activities and facilitation. It also defined the…

At High Tech Elementary Chula Vista in California, teachers are using improvement science, a method for solving a problem of practice with disciplined inquiry, to help students make their thinking visible. The teachers wanted to increase students' use of how and why language to articulate their thinking; to that end, they have been using short…

Cognitive Acceleration through Science Education (CASE) on the Sunshine Coast is growing rapidly. It has expanded from one inaugural Year 8 class in 2012 to the current state of play with the involvement of over 3,000 CASE students from eleven Sunshine Coast State High Schools. It is being taught by more than seventy CASE teachers with…

Soil science, though relevant to a variety of subjects including science, geography, mathematics, social sciences and history, is typically perceived as a subgenre of agriculture. With a global need for soil scientists, and declining numbers in university soil courses, there's a growing gap between science needs and providers. One way to promote…

This paper presents the experience of an initiative, the EXPLORE courses, designed to bring science and technology closer to secondary school. The EXPLORE courses, organised by "EXPLORATORI: Natural Resources" project, are particularly addressed to secondary school teachers and are conducted at Catalonia (North East of Spain). The main…

This article describes key facets of the Cognitive Acceleration through Science Education (CASE), a curriculum that emerged in the United Kingdom, enabling teachers to accelerate the process of cognitive development so that more students could attain the higher-order thinking skills (formal operational thinking) required (Lecky, 2012). CASE, also…

Linked research and development forms the central pillar of the 5-year Wits Maths Connect Secondary Project in South Africa. Our empirical data emphasised the need for teaching that mediates towards mathematics viewed as a network of scientific concepts, and the development of the notion of 'mathematical discourse in instruction' (MDI), as an…

Kathy Schofield explains how the Primary Science Teaching Trust (PSTT) came into being and how it continues to enhance science for primary teachers and children. The Primary Science Teaching Trust provides financial assistance to help improve the learning and teaching of science in the U.K. The Trust was established in April 1997 as an independent…

Studying Topography, Orographic Rainfall, and Ecosystems with Geospatial Information Technology (STORE), a 4.5-year National Science Foundation funded project, explored the strategies that stimulate teacher commitment to the project's driving innovation: having students use geospatial information technology (GIT) to learn about weather, climate,…

The rapid turnover of novice teachers is a stubborn challenge plaguing schools across the country. The field has come to some consensus about key elements of effective novice teacher support that have potential to ameliorate this problem, although this knowledge has been applied in an inconsistent fashion. Beginning teacher support is a complex…

This study explores the effects of a professional development teacher leadership training program on the pedagogical and content development of math and science teacher leaders at the elementary level. The study is qualitative in nature, and the authors collected data using the online survey instrument Survey Monkey. The major implications of the…

One author shares the unique opportunity to be immersed in the science of "sound at work" through participation in NOAA's (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Teacher at Sea Program. A third- through fifth-grade learning outcome within the Nature of Science section of the "Next Generation Science Standards"…

In 2012, WestEd received a "Development" grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Investing in Innovation (i3) competition to develop and implement Internet-based Reading Apprenticeship Improving Science Education ("iRAISE"). "iRAISE" was implemented in Michigan and Pennsylvania and was provided to over 100…

Engaging students in both hands-on and minds-on experiences is needed for education that is relevant and complete. Many middle school students enter science classrooms with pre-conceived ideas about their world. Some of these ideas are misconceptions that hinder students from developing accepted concepts in science, such as those related to…

The authors evaluated the effects of P-SELL, a science curricular and professional development intervention for fifth-grade students with a focus on English language learners (ELLs). Using a randomized controlled trial design with 33 treatment and 33 control schools across three school districts in one state, we found significant and meaningfully…