Due to its constructivist nature, interdisciplinary teaching appears ideal for increasing students' interests in subjects (Brassler, 2020; Kramer & Wegner, 2021). Although many argue in favor of a more comprehensive implementation of interdisciplinary teaching in schools, many practical barriers arise during the realization that need to be…

The Framework for K-12 Science Education and the Next Generation Science Standards propose that students learn concepts and practices related to engineering as well as science. Currently the research surrounding how engineering practices through engineering design are implemented in the life sciences such as high school biology is limited. To…

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…

The current US science education reforms call for integrating engineering design in science instruction requires teachers to develop and teach engineering design-integrated science (EDIS) lessons. However, very few teachers have received training in engineering and how to integrate engineering design into science lessons. In response to this…

Using transformative experience theory as a framework, we investigate the potential of utilizing mobile technology and social media to foster deep-level engagement in the form of connections between in-school and out-of-school experience. A ninth-grade Earth science teacher instructed students to take pictures with their mobile devices when they…

Energy concepts are taught in many schools, but children rarely have an opportunity to grapple with energy problems and work on their own solutions. This study explores the impacts of Connect Science, a service-learning (SL) program developed to enhance elementary students' energy literacy in the United States. Program impacts were explored within…

Teachers' practices and interactions with curriculum materials are influenced by a host of factors, which include their values. The mechanisms of this influence may benefit from elucidation. Here, we describe a case of a teacher enacting an inquiry-based learning unit (LU) as part of a school science enrichment programme. The teacher's…

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…

This exploratory case study examines how various instructional strategies can influence elementary-aged student discourse patterns during an engineering design challenge. With engineering design increasingly entering the elementary science classroom both within the United States and internationally, students must now engage in discipline-specific…

This study used a design research framework to teach secondary high school science students about environmental sustainability. A high school teacher and researcher collaborated to design a two week environmental science unit to help students make sense of complex environmental sustainability issues. This dissertation study sought to answer the…

We report on one teachers' efforts to re-design an entire instructional unit as a coherent storyline about forces and motion as a part of a multiyear professional development (PD) project around the NGSS. Designing coherent storylines demands that teachers create opportunities for students to meaningfully engage in science practices in order to…

Creating learning environments that integrate arts, sciences, and computing in education can improve learning in these disciplines. In particular, transdisciplinary integrations of these disciplines can lead to expansive alterations or dissolutions of epistemological, ideological, and methodological boundaries. We wish to support teachers in the…

Progression and continuity are cornerstones of the National Curriculum for England and yet it seems these slip after pupils transfer to secondary school, causing pupils to regress in science. Part of the solution is to provide continuity with challenge without repeating what has already been experienced and achieved. This article describes…

Important science phenomena--such as atomic structure, evolution, and climate change--are often hard to observe directly. That's why an important scientific practice is to use scientific models to represent one's current understanding of a system. Using models has been included as an essential science and engineering practice in the "Next…

Children's literature provides elementary teachers and students the opportunity to critically engage in the world around them. However, too often teachers choose not to engage students in discussions of complex social issues out of a sense of fear or discomfort. In this paper, we explore the reflections of 11 teachers who chose to engage their…