Elementary students learn best when they make observations about perplexing natural phenomena, ask questions about what they observed, and pursue answers to their own questions through engagement in science practice. However, facilitating such learning experiences can be challenging for novice instructors. In this unit, pre-service elementary…

In this paper, the education system in Bosnia and Herzegovina is presented in the light of current state-level legislation, with an emphasis on chemistry education at the primary, secondary and tertiary level. The consequences of the last war in our country still persist and are visible in many aspects of everyday life, including the education…

Large numbers of U.S. students lack proficiency in science, and students from different racial/ethnic and socioeconomic groups show disparities in science achievement. Science knowledge and skills are important for both academic and workplace success, and a variety of interventions have been developed to improve student achievement in science.…

Although incorporating engineering into science instruction seems straightforward, adding more content into an already busy school day may be overwhelming for some teachers. To address this challenge, the authors created a unit that integrates engineering and literacy instruction. This article demonstrates how young students can learn…

The author created a project aimed to develop and implement the assessment of working scientifically (WS) skills at Victoria Park Primary School. The author had previously identified a gap in the curriculum coverage and assessment of WS skills and his goal was to address the lack of provision for assessing children's WS skills and raise the…

The author has spent almost all his life working in and enthusing about primary science. From being a class teacher in the 1980s, to running Curioxity, a small hands-on science centre in Oxford, to lecturing trainee primary teachers at Oxford Brookes University and finally working with Science Oxford to help create their wonderful new Science…

As the Science Co-ordinator at St Paul's RC Primary School, the author has been involved in producing and trialling resources for the Teacher Assessment in Primary Science (TAPS) project over the last four years. This article explains how St Paul's has used the Focused Assessments (FAs). The author has always tried to promote enquiry-based…

'Wow' is a teaching tool. It is not just a way to grab attention but, correctly used, a means to enhance children's understanding and improve retention. Wow leads to why. In this why state pupils experience the 'vacuum of ignorance': they know they don't know, they know that the teacher does know (usually) and they want the teacher to fill that…

The National Curriculum in England states that science is considered a core subject, but there is a great deal of evidence that suggests it is considered differently. The Wellcome Trust (2017b) reports that many schools are spending less than the two hours per week on science recommended by the Association for Science Education (ASE), and studies…

This article describes an inquiry science lesson that was sparked by a child's question. In this school a science specialist (author 1) team teaches science with the kindergarten class teacher (author 2) for 1 hour per week. The class teacher integrates science at other times during the week. To foster the kindergarteners' interest about a science…

Using an example of a grade 3 science unit about population changes during competition for resources, we describe how we integrated computational thinking (CT) into existing curriculum identifying three levels of depth of integration: identifying connections that already exist, enhancing and strengthening connections, and extending units to…

In this article, the author describes her early fascination with the natural world, and how this directed her through school and university into a scientific career. She talks about how she combined her previous experiences into one fabulous job, running the educational outreach for a pharmaceutical company, before the teaching itch led her to…

Our goal in this article is to provide research-based strategies for embedding Nature of Science (NOS) into science instruction at the elementary level. We thus intend to aid researchers, professional developers, and teachers in noting that not only is it important and possible to teach NOS at the elementary levels, but also that elementary…

After 25 years of being a Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) Lead, Maxine Roberts was asked to be the Science Coordinator at her school. Having no science background whatsoever, she laughed at the idea. Now that she has been the coordinator for awhile, she completely understands the value of having science and why it is essential for primary teachers…

The inadequate funding of science education in many school districts, particularly in underserved areas, is preventing elementary science educators from realizing the full potential of the "Next Generation Science Standards" ("NGSS"). Yet many elementary science teachers may be unaware that millions of dollars per year are…