To successfully generate student excitement in science, teachers need to be flexible regarding their curriculums. Students also need to be open to novel, hands-on experiences. This article describes a student teacher (ST) who taught a science unit on "Our Environment." She had already prepared her lesson and unit thoroughly but she changed the…

Science requires active learning--it is something that children do, rather than something that is done to them. The learning process involves students' thinking and doing to develop higher-order thinking skills, strengthen their reading and mathematical skills, and attain scientific knowledge. In the elementary grades, children learn biological…

This study examines Finnish and English primary student teachers' ideas when planning to teach a physics topic during their science education studies. Many primary student teachers lack sufficient subject knowledge, which prevents them from constructing the scientific pedagogical content knowledge that enables them to concentrate on pupils'…

This ethnographic research examined two out-of-school science practica where preservice elementary teachers learned to teach science. We wondered what teachers learned about science and teaching science, how their sense of themselves as science teachers changed, and how such settings might contribute to reform in science education to promote…

The problem addressed in the study was whether 10- and 11-year-old children, collaborating within a computer-supported classroom, could engage in progressive inquiry that exhibits an essential principal feature of mature scientific inquiry: namely, engagement in increasingly deep levels of explanation. Technical infrastructure for the study was…

The Field Trip to the Moon program uses an inquiry-based learning approach that fosters team building and introduces students to careers in science and engineering. The program components include a DVD and classroom investigations. The compelling DVD (not included here) provides essential information about Earth and the Moon. The hands-on…

In this paper, the authors' investigated whether "Scott Foresman Science" program, a year-long curriculum intended for daily use that provides a sequence of structured and supportive inquiry activities and text materials to develop students' independent investigative skills, is more effective than current science programs in five diverse…

In this paper, the authors' investigated whether "Scott Foresman Science" program, a year-long curriculum intended for daily use that provides a sequence of structured and supportive inquiry activities and text materials to develop students' independent investigative skills, is more effective than current science programs in five diverse…

This is the second and final part of a review of educational research on children's ideas about gravity. The first part concerned students' understanding of how and why things fall. This article picks up the trail of research studies that address students' understanding of the more complex ideas of projectile motion and orbits and examines how the…

This document presents an overview of the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS) Teacher Development Modules for Elementary School Science. It documents the collaboration of BSCS with science educators, science supervisors, and outstanding science teachers in developing, evaluating, refining, and disseminating four teacher development modules…

This guide is one of a set of 10 science guides, each covering a separate grade in Manitoba, together covering kindergarten through grade 9. The guides have been designed to provide a framework for building scientific concepts and developing the learning of process skills. They replace an earlier set of guides dated 1979. Each guide is essentially…

This paper reports on the effects of an intervention program designed to develop cognitive and affective skills for the study of science by students undertaking a preservice elementary teacher education course. Previous research has indicated that a high proportion of students coming into this course have had negative experience in their previous…

This monograph describes the development of a scope and sequence model for science education specifically intended for use with gifted students in grades K-8. Introductory material notes the rationale and purpose of the model as well as its functions such as providing a scaffolding linking educational concepts with the technology of school…

Teacher training projects have used university research scientists to conduct workshops for teachers, but because of faculty time constraints and university reward systems, it is unlikely this type of program will be used extensively. This project utilized community college professors whose main focus is teaching science and working with the…

This study compared several facets of teacher education between Japan and North Carolina. Similarities and differences in elementary science teachers' perceptions of the academic backgrounds in Japan and North Carolina were evaluated as well as similarities and differences in elementary teachers' perceptions of classroom practices in Japan and…