The K-8 Early Implementers Initiative has found that careful planning is critical. With thin planning, unexpected detours or dead ends are likely. However, with solid planning, districts are more likely to achieve their implementation goals and may discover some express lanes for their implementation journey. This evaluation report documents…

Aaron Sebens and his fourth grade students received this congratulatory tweet from the White House as a response to the solar-powered classroom that they created in 10 weeks. The process--defining the goals, raising funds, construction, and implementation--involved many subject areas: reading, writing, math, science, and social studies. This…

One plausible method for ensuring students are truly understanding science fundamentals beyond being actively and intellectually engaged is to consider how informal learning environments can provide meaningful relevancy by connecting to real-world instances. Transforming traditional science centers into informal learning centers will ensure that…

The Quality Elementary Science Teaching (QuEST) program is designed to deliver high-quality professional development (PD) in science content to elementary school teachers. QuEST includes both content and pedagogical instruction combined with a controlled teaching experience situated within a larger professional development context. The design of…

Implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards requires developing elementary teacher content and pedagogical content knowledge of science and engineering concepts. Teacher preparation for this undertaking appears inadequate with little known about how in-service Mid-Atlantic urban elementary science teachers approach this task. The…

The purpose of this research was to study primary science students' conceptual development as it related to their understanding of materials and their properties: in particular, to determine how and why some students changed their concepts while others did not. The participants were thirty-two Grade 5 (10-11 year old) students. An instructional…

The introduction of standards into the education system poses numerous challenges and difficulties. As with any change, plans should be made for teachers to understand and implement the standards. This study examined science teachers' perceptions of the effectiveness of the standards for teaching and learning, and the extent and ease/difficulty of…

This article discusses the role of imagination in science education. It provides a justification for imaginative thinking in the context of school science, as well as some strategies that can be implemented by science teachers in their classrooms.

The purpose of this study is to research the effect of the application of "reproduction, growth and development in living things" unit which takes place in the science and technology lesson programme of 6th grade students in the primary school to the success of the student by applying the laboratory method. Also another purpose is to…

Suggests the use of full-time science specialists to combat the ever decreasing emphasis and time spent on science in the elementary schools. Includes a discussion of the current status of science teaching and provides suggestions for organization and implementation of an elementary science specialist program. (DS)

This book presents the National Science Resources Center's (NSRC's) strategic planning model for bringing about district-wide elementary science reform in accordance with the National Science Education Standards. The NSRC model views the elementary science program as a cohesive system that includes: a research-based, inquiry-centered science…

Relationships between an inquiry-oriented science inservice education program and teacher implementation of workshop-developed materials were investigated. Workshop topics included Piagetian learning theory, creating classrooms conducive to implementing inquiry-oriented science programs, use of the learning cycle, and matching learning activities…

Various collaborative efforts involved in implementing a district-developed science curriculum are described in four papers. "The Design and Utilization of a Concerns-Based Staff Development Program for Implementing a Revised Science Curriculum in Eighty Elementary Schools" (Harold Pratt, Marge Melle, Jim Metzdorf, Susan Loucks) reports…

The "Implementation Proneness Typology" was developed to facilitate examination of a teacher's implementation to new innovations in a quantitative manner. Dimensions considered include assertiveness, surgency, conscientiousness, venturesomeness, imaginativeness, shrewdness, experimentiveness, self-sufficiency, humanistic classroom…

Summarizes impressions of primary science activities in the United Kingdom, including student assessment, curriculum materials development, teacher development and support, and school implementation of science at the primary level. (DS)