The use of kits in elementary science classes is a growing trend in some countries. Kits provide materials and inquiry lessons in a ready-to-teach format for teachers to use in their science instruction. This study examined elementary teachers' instructional strategies, classroom practices, and assessment types in relation to the frequency of…

This study examined educational factors that positively influenced the confidence of students training to be elementary science educators (self efficacy). Specifically, it compared the impacts of a science method course and a practicum teaching course on Kuwait University students. Using a pre/post design, The Science Teaching Efficacy Belief…

Multimedia technologies such as Slowmation can be used to enhance curriculum resources and support innovative teaching methods. This case study research of a rural multi-aged class of primary science students included analyses of classroom captured video and interview data from a term long module on Astronomy. The study explored how students'…

This study examines attitudes to school science classes amongst primary school children, based on the assumption that these will influence their attitudes and choices later in life. 1298 primary school students in grades 4-6 were given a Likert-type questionnaire and asked to provide verbal explanations for their agreement/disagreement with each…

Recent studies and frequent news reports have expressed concerns about African children's decreasing reading habits and dwindling achievement in language and primary science examinations. African children are not reading because they have reading difficulties or because they have no interest in books. This article focuses on the elementary…

Throughout this action research project report, the teacher-researchers explored the problem of test anxiety among students. The purpose of this project was to alleviate test anxiety among students with various interventions in grades five through seven in the subject areas of social studies, science, and language arts. There were 66 student…

It is a recurring debate many people have probably been engaged in: why do pupils appear to under-perform in the lower years of secondary school? In the latest in their "Perspectives on education" series, "Primary-secondary transfer in science" (Wellcome Trust, 2009), the Wellcome Trust addresses this problematic area with…

The status of primary science as a core subject has been gradually corroded in recent years, with the abolition of targets for science and the focus of the primary national strategy on literacy and numeracy. The NAIGS Committee were very well positioned within local authorities to pilot APP, but first had to write the criteria. Towards the end of…

To most people in the author's profession of Special Education, the "D" means "disabilities." At The Lab School of Washington, the "D" means "different"--learning "differently" and teaching "differently." Sally Smith, the founder of the school, had this uncanny ability to see things in her staff that they could not. The year the author graduated…

Digital photography energizes students and focuses their attention on their environment. The personal connection to science helps students develop a habit of mind in which everything they see inside or outside of school can prompt them to wonder and investigate. This article describes how first graders explore their school grounds with cameras in…

Geology is not something that people tend to think about in their day-to-day lives; at least, not until it is time to dig out the dusty old rock collection from the back of the science cupboard and teach the rocks and soils unit again! Geology is very much part of people's lives. Geology is about so much more than just looking at rocks and…

How can a teacher simultaneously teach science concepts through inquiry while helping students learn about the nature of science? After pondering this question in their own teaching, the authors developed a 5E learning cycle lesson (Bybee et al. 2006) that concurrently embeds opportunities for fourth-grade students to (a) learn a science concept,…

In this article, a science teacher from the Midwest reflects on her summer vacation to the Gulf of Mexico. She felt that this vacation would help improve her teaching about the environmental problems in the gulf and elsewhere. After all, anyone can show photos of oil-laden birds and dead sea turtles and read news clips of a distant place, but to…

There is a large body of research that has explored students' misconceptions about science phenomena. Less research, however, has been devoted to identifying teachers' misconceptions, but the results of the few existing studies demonstrate that teachers and students possess similar misconceptions. This study explored the physical science…

Three plain mirrors, perpendicular to each other, reflect a beam of light back into the direction it came from. An activity is suggested where pupils can employ this feature of perpendicular mirrors and make their own corner cube retroreflector--a kind of cat's eye. (Contains 7 figures and 1 footnote.)