This article describes how using a variety of differentiation strategies, such as listening to stories, visualizing scenarios, and performing tactile activities, can help fourth-grade students to conceive of and express examples of energy transfer.

"Next Generation Science Standards" ("NGSS") three-dimensional learning is valuable for all students regardless of age. The "NGSS" integrate disciplinary core ideas, science and engineering practices, and crosscutting concepts, adding rigor to science teaching and learning. Though "NGSS" performance…

In this article, the authors discuss finding teaching the standard on the apparent brightness of the Sun (5-ESS1-1) to be a challenging and frustrating experience due to the abstract nature of the standard and generally low interest of their fifth-grade students. They had previously used hands-on learning activities involving flashlights to model…

Although the "Next Generation Science Standards" (NGSS) have three dimensions, the crosscutting concepts are often the forgotten dimension. One reason teachers may not emphasize the crosscutting concepts might be because they are broad, domain-general constructs that can be difficult to conceptualize in a meaningful way. Yet, when taught…

This article describes one participating teacher's reflections on the generalizable strategies and structures from the professional development (PD) sessions that enabled her sensemaking, and how she translated these generalizations into her own second-grade classroom. Readers will be able to make their own useful generalizations from these…

According to the National Survey of Science and Mathematics Education (2018), only 16% of the elementary teachers surveyed reported including hands-on activities in all or most of their lessons. Strategies that engage students in hands-on investigations help improve student achievement (Minner, Levy, and Century 2010) and provide students with a…

In this essay from a teacher in Argentina, Valeria Vincent describes how she employed Multiple Literacies in Project-based Learning (MLPBL) (Krajcik, Palincsar, and Miller 2015). ML-PBL, an open education free resource, has three design principles that support teacher and student learning and satisfaction. ML-PBL builds on teacher ingenuity and…

This lesson focuses specifically on teaching concepts of speed and its impact on energy, as well as providing a basic introduction to potential and kinetic energy to fourth-grade students. "Next Generation Science Standards" ("NGSS") 4-PS3-1 states that students should be able "to use evidence to construct an explanation…

In this article, the author describes an activity using physical models -- each a clear plastic box enclosing a miniature coastal town, complete with real water in the "ocean." This activity shows students a natural cause-and-effect relationship that is scientifically simple, yet even many adults don't grasp the worldwide implications:…

Science and engineering practices (SEPs) and crosscutting concepts (CCs) constitute a significant part of "A Framework for K-12 Science Education" (NRC 2012). As teachers, the role of the authors is to highlight the pivotal role that both scientific knowledge and the practices used to generate knowledge play in learning. This article…

Electricity is an integral part of daily life. Children, like adults, infer the effects of electrical conductivity. They see the illumination of a lightbulb or feel the emission of warmth from an electric stovetop but may not understand the role electrical circuits play. Focusing on the concrete aspects of electrical energy transfer helps improve…

Global connections are an important part of the elementary classroom as they help students develop empathy through interactions while allowing them to apply classroom learning to the outside world (Suvansri 2016). Through Partnering with a classroom in another country the author hoped to create curiosity while helping students build a global…

Representation in science is anything that stands for something else--drawings, pictures, graphs, or other representational forms (Danish et al. 2020). Representations serve as public displays of phenomena that make aspects of those phenomena explicit (Gilbert 2008). They can serve to make the invisible visible, communicate ideas, display…

Preparing students for their future is a clear and concise goal of education. STEM education is no different and is often considered a key way to increase students' 21st century skills or prepare students for a future career (Bybee 2010). We also believe that education should engage students as empathetic problem solvers (as described in Bush and…

Both children and adults struggle to explain the cause of the day/night cycle and the seasons (Schoon 1995). Early elementary students may not be developmentally ready to explain that patterns of day and night are caused by Earth's rotation on its axis, or that the seasons are caused by Earth's tilted axis as the planet revolves around the Sun.…