Through the construction of arguments, students are invited to make sense of the concept of a species and its connection to both extinction and local biomes. Scientific argumentation is the process by which scientists engage in discourse aimed at developing common knowledge about the natural world (Driver et al. 1994). This article describes a 5E…

Curiosity is vital quality of the creative work. However, in the classroom, educators seem to view curiosity as alternately amoral, virtuous, or dangerous. Education's stance towards curiosity is, in a word, curious. Conversely, the author says, curiosity is inherently amoral--neither good nor bad--and the subject is ripe for an exploration of the…

In a decade when brain research has helped people understand learning difficulties in children, and people have seen increased media attention on the use of medications to treat attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children and adults, Dr. Edward (Ned) Hallowell has worked tirelessly to educate the medical profession, parents,…

The seasons are often modeled for students using two spherical objects, one representing the Sun and one representing the Earth. Solely using this model, however, neglects a critical aspect of learning--how students actually see the world. This lesson challenges students to explore seasonal variations as they create and analyze sunrise/sunset…

Although curiosity is an undeniably important aspect of children's cognitive development, a universally accepted operational definition of children's curiosity does not exist. Almost all of the research on measuring curiosity has focused on adults, and has used predominately questionnaire-type measures that are not appropriate for young children.…

We present an approach to operationalizing discovery in literacy research by describing a diagnostic, abductive methodology. This methodology treats products of videotaped interviews and participant-authored footage as narrative data produced in scenes of literacy sponsorship. In describing the operations of our diagnostic approach, we foreground…

The narrative in this discussion article portrays the quest by two researchers to find their scholarly identity in their craft. The central issue in this narrative piece as design type of this inquiry is the "space" of knowledge crafting--distinguishing between adopted knowledge from the theories that sustain our thinking and the realities that…

The authors collaborated on hosting a "Spring Inspire Day." planned and delivered by preservice elementary teachers as a social studies/science methods project. Projects that have authentic application opportunities can make learning meaningful for prospective teachers as well as elementary students. With the impetus for an integrated…

This article describes how a teacher integrates science observations into the writing center. At the observation station, students explore new items with a science theme and use their notes and questions for class writings every day. Students are exposed to a variety of different topics and motivated to write in different styles all while…

Carefully crafted experiences in the early childhood classroom can create learning opportunities for children that allow one curiosity to lead to another. Learning how to find out answers to fascinating questions is what science is all about. In fact, it can be as simple as learning how an ordinary egg can be changed. For the past year, the…

Two articles are presented in this column. "Life in an Auto Factory: Simulating how Labor and Management Interact" by Eric B. Freedman describes a classroom simulation of management and labor relations in an auto factory. Classroom handouts are included. The next article, "Women of Action and County Names: Mary Musgrove County--Why…

One way to integrate indigenous perspectives in junior science is through links between indigenous stories of the local area and science concepts. Using local indigenous stories about landforms, a teacher of Year 8 students designed a unit on geology that catered for the diverse student population in his class. This paper reports on the…

Two collaborative writing partners sought to deepen their understanding of transformative learning by conducting several spirals of grounded theory research on their own collaborative relationship. Drawing from adult education, business, and social science literature and including descriptive analysis of their records of activity and interaction…

Research has shown that honors programs often provide active networks of students that contribute to the development of the students' talents (De Boer & van Eijl; van Eijl, Pilot & Wolfensberger). These contact networks are also described as "learning communities" (Wilson et al.) and "honors communities" (van Eijl,…

Invention and Productive Failure activities ask students to generate methods that capture the important properties of some given data (e.g., uncertainty) before being taught the expert solution. Invention and Productive Failure activities are a class of scientific inquiry activities in that students create, implement, and evaluate mathematical…