Robert Collins offers congratulations to Katie Wylie, the recipient of 2022's ASE Alexander Award, which is awarded annually to a woman or group of women who have made a significant contribution to the scientific, technological, engineering or mathematical (STEM) education of girls or women, in situations of scarce resources. He offers a personal…

Preparing elementary students to think and communicate like an engineer is possible, but requires a sequence of lessons spanning multiple classroom experiences that are aligned to multiple performance expectations (PEs). This article identifies how multiple PEs can be clustered to meet the instructional goals set forth in the "Next Generation…

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the Context-Based Approach (CBA) enriched by Prediction-Observation-Explanation (POE) on 5th grade students' conceptual understanding of the States of Matter, Heat and Temperature. In this study, quantitative and qualitative data collection methods were employed. The quantitative…

Developing students' creative problem solving skills should be one of the top goals in general education. One teaching model that was developed to increase students' creative problem solving abilities is the Real Engagement in Active Problem Solving (REAPS) model. This model was used as an intervention in classrooms in many studies. However, the…

Effective teachers understand the importance of asking the right kind of questions to facilitate the learning of all their students. By learning what questions to ask and when, teachers can engage their students in instruction that aligns to the vision of the "Next Generation Science Standards" (Benedict-Chambers et al. 2017; NGSS Lead…

In a previous article (2014), this author outlined the practical use of visualisation as a way of starting lessons. The purpose of this is to create interest, hold attention, and provide some mental experience of the conceptual learning to follow. In this way, links can be created between the teaching activity in the first few minutes of the…

Many teachers have developed "tried and true" lessons that they look forward to teaching-- mystery powders is one that these authors like. Originally part of the Elementary Science Study curricula in the 1960s, there are now many different versions of this well-known activity in which students examine physical and chemical properties of…

Inquiry- and context-based teaching strategies have been proven to stimulate and motivate students' interests in learning science. In this study, 12 teachers reflected on these strategies after using them in primary schools. The teachers participated in a continuous professional development (CPD) programme. During the programme, they were also…

In this qualitative study the researchers explored children's perceptions of their participation in a science class in which an elementary science curriculum, the Full Option Science System (FOSS), was combined with an innovative teaching model, Real Engagement in Active Problem Solving (REAPS). The children were capable of articulating views…

Although the currently employed STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) acronym is of recent origin, dating to the early 2000s (Chute, 2009), the United States has long emphasized the importance of teaching STEM in its public schools. Early efforts, such as "Science, the Endless Frontier" (Bush, 1945) and the…

A class activity has been designed to help fourth grade students to identify basic insect features as a means of promoting student creativity while making an imaginary insect model. The 5Es (Engage, Explore, Explain, Extend [or Elaborate], and Evaluate) learning cycle teaching model is used. The 5Es approach allows students to work in small…

Background: Many researchers agree that students, especially primary students, have learning difficulties on the "Particulate Nature of Matter" unit. One reason for this difficulty is not considering individual differences for teaching science. In 4MAT model learning, environment is arranged according to individual differences. Purpose:…

The present study should be thought as a socioconstructivist teaching approach (a teaching model) for the concept of energy in primary education. It contains important and crucial aspects of the History and Philosophy of Natural Sciences, introduces the concept of energy using the macroscopic framework of thermodynamics, takes into consideration…

The teaching of science is important, both to meet the need for future workers in fields requiring scientific capability and to equip students for full participation in modern societies where many decisions depend upon knowledge of science. However, many teachers in Australian primary schools do not allocate science education sufficient amounts of…

This action learning study in a year three classroom explored the implementation of five formative assessment principles to assist students' understandings of the scientific topic of liquids and solids. These principles were employed to give students a greater opportunity to express their understanding of the concepts. The study found that the…