Several studies found that direct instruction and task structuring can effectively promote children's ability to design unconfounded experiments. The present study examined whether the impact of these interventions extends to other scientific reasoning skills by comparing the inquiry activities of 55 fifth-graders randomly assigned to one of…

Much research has been conducted in educational robotics, a new instructional technology, for K-12 education. However, there are arguments on the effect of robotics and limited empirical evidence to investigate the impact of robotics in science learning. Also most robotics studies were carried in an informal educational setting. This study…

This study is a four-week section of ongoing attempts that aim to improve 6th grade students' understandings of the nature of science. The study was carried out in a sixth grade science and technology class at a rural middle school with 15 students on the basis of action research methodology. During the study, four different stories based on the…

This study examines student reading engagement with children's science books in elementary classrooms. "Reading engagement" in science is conceived in terms of a Transmission-Transaction continuum. When centered on transmission, science reading entails passive reception of a textually encoded scientific message. By contrast, when science…

Research has demonstrated that many students and some teachers do not consistently apply the conservation of energy principle when analyzing mechanical scenarios. In observing elementary and secondary teachers engaged in learning activities that require tracking and conserving energy, we find that challenges to energy conservation often arise in…

Computer and information technology can be used so that students can individually, in groups, or by electronic demonstration experiment and draw conclusion for the required activities in an electronic form in what is now called "e-lab". It enables students to conduct experiments more flexibly and in an interactive way using multimedia.…

This article reports a case of incorporating a field-based ecological project as a resource into an undergraduate research and scholarship (RS) intensive course. Student research projects were conducted in an outdoor experimental compound with wetland mesocosms as well as in local created wetlands to study soil organic matter content as part of an…

This study investigates the relationship, if any, between teacher participation in a targeted professional development programme and changes in participants' instructional practice and their pupils' attitudes to learning primary science. The programme took place over a 2-year period in 15 small rural schools in the West of Ireland. Data sources…

Learning environment research provides a well-established approach for describing and understanding what goes on in classrooms and has attracted considerable interest in Singapore. This article reports the first study of science classroom environments in Singapore primary schools. Ten scales from the What Is Happening In this Class?,…

This qualitative study examined the connections between elementary teachers' conceptions of how scientists use writing and how the teachers used writing during science lessons. Data collected included lesson observations, interviews, handouts to students, and curriculum resources. The findings revealed that teachers in this study thought…

Given the recent media attention on the public's shift in opinion toward being more skeptical about climate change, 154 preservice teachers' participated in an intervention in an elementary science methods course. Findings indicated that students developed a deeper level of concern about climate change. Their perceptions on the evidence…

Technology can be both a blessing and a curse in the classroom. Although technology can provide greater access to information and increase student engagement, if screen time replaces time spent outside, then students stand to lose awareness and connectivity to the surrounding natural environment. This article describes how Google Earth can foster…

Engaging children in authentic investigation opens the doors for them to gain deep conceptual understanding in science. As students engage in investigation, they experience the practices employed by scientists and engineers, as highlighted in the Next Generation Science Standards (Achieve Inc. 2013). They also begin to understand the nature of…

Demonstrating is a traditional method in teaching science that can raise interest and encourage pupils to think about a topic. While demonstrating, the teacher can focus the pupils' attention on the relevant facts and introduce scientific principles and concepts. Through discussion and actively making observations and inferences, rather than…

It is all too common, given the considerable day-to-day challenges facing those involved in education, to focus on the here and now rather than look further afield. The authors of this article have been fortunate enough to see "primary science" in a wide range of international settings, from Nigeria to Chile, North America and Canada,…