"Making" has been used to describe an internally motivated iterative design process that embodies notions of playful building and tinkering. Recently, interest in applying making to PK-12 education has increased. As schools add facilities dedicated to making, there is a need to support teachers in effectively utilizing these makerspaces.…

Are makerspaces--where children can create gas-powered Roman chariots, singing greeting cards, or playdough circuit boards--just the site for a slightly wacky explosion of inventiveness? Or can these maker activities be channeled to support deep STEM learning? Bronwyn Bevan, director of the Exploratorium Institute for Research and Learning in San…

In this Reflection on Practice we propose a triple nexus of research, public engagement and teaching that could provide a new pathway for academic developers to enable greater engagement in learning and teaching issues from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) academics. We argue that the public engagement activities demanded…

Interconnectedness changes lives. It can even save lives. Recently the author got to witness and be part of something in his role as a teacher of primary science that has changed lives: it may even have saved lives. It involved primary science teaching--and the climate. Robert Collins describes how it is all interconnected. The "Toilet…

Describes the organizational framework, didactic and methodological considerations, and the content of a four-day astronomy project in a secondary West German school. Presents information on the media used and related literature. Appended are the instruments of observation. (DB)

The relationship between students' use of PeerWise, an online tool that facilitates peer learning through student-generated content in the form of multiple-choice questions (MCQs), and achievement, as measured by their performance in the end-of-module examinations, was investigated in 5 large early-years science modules (in physics, chemistry and…

The acronym STEM--the teaching of science, technology, engineering, and math--now a familiar term in education, is evolving into STEAM--STEM plus "A" for art. Educational researcher Martin Storksdieck's studies have shown that infusing art into STEM allows for "a different way of perceiving and knowing and dealing with the world, as a means to…

This article offers quick, inexpensive activities for teaching concepts in three basic areas of the elementary science curriculum (air, sound, and light) with instructions for assembling more sophisticated laboratory tools (e.g., an electroscope and a balance scale). Hands-on science activities that use household items are described. (SM)

Students should have some experience with science carried out over time periods of several months or an entire school year. Presents suggestions to help teachers start their own bank of ideas for long-term science activities. (PR)

Presents detailed descriptions and diagrams for having students build their own hot air balloons. Describes the educational benefits of the balloon building. (PR)

Presents detailed descriptions and diagrams for having students build their own miniature box kites. Describes the educational benefits of the kite building. (PR)

Describes how a teacher can give their students the challenge of designing and building model balloons or blimps. The project helps students learn the basics of balloon flight and what it really means to be "lighter than air." (PR)

Describes a Lexington, Kentucky, kindergarten science project that employed the Reggio Emilia approach of long-term open-ended projects steered by children's interests and group discussions. The children's investigation of how caterpillars make cocoons included direct observation of the metamorphosis process, construction of child-sized cocoons,…

Describes a student project to build a car powered by the energy in a mousetrap as part of a unit on simple machines. (PR)

Presents detailed descriptions and diagrams for having students build their own syringe-powered rockets. Describes how the students can learn about variables that influence the stability of the rockets flight. (PR)