Teachers everywhere are embracing the challenge of conveying differences in literacy practices across fields of study. However, whereas disciplinary literacy and inquiry approaches are expanding in popularity at the secondary level, few resources exist for teaching discipline-specific writing in the elementary grades. The authors describe three…

In this article, a low-cost and pocket-sized setup for measuring CO[subscript 2] is presented. This setup is based on Arduinos, making it economic and open to modifications or improvements that satisfy other needs. It is composed of an Arduino board, a CO[subscript 2] sensor, an SD-card module, and a control panel. The device has been tested in…

This article describes a lesson rooted in "tinkering," an approach to learning that encourages the use of authentic, hands-on experience to develop an understanding of content and physical materials. There were several desired outcomes for this lesson. First, the authors felt that tinkering was an appropriate approach to investigating…

In this article, fourth graders investigate the physical and behavioral adaptations of crayfish. Because crayfish are native to the area and many students have experience observing them in local streams, the author decided to use these organisms to explore the relationship between the structure of their various body parts and how those structures…

Students with learning disabilities (LD) in reading often struggle to succeed due to difficulties with reading comprehension. Comprehension difficulties can impact access to a variety of text types, including informational texts. Researchers suggest that students with LD in reading require explicit comprehension supports before, during, and after…

This is the third special issue of "Primary Science," and it is one that offers primary school teachers an insight into an initiative that does wonders for primary science leadership, learning and teaching -- the Primary Science Quality Mark (PSQM). In this article, Shaun Wingrove describes the transformation from dull to shiny science…

Carol Bostrom describes how she used frogs as a starting point for learning to leap forward as curiosity spread beyond the classroom. She believed that this would take the children's engagement with learning a step further, arouse their curiosity and enable them to appreciate the need to be respectful and considerate of other living things. She…

This study has been carried out with the aim of evaluating the Curriculum of Elementary School Third Grade Science Course, which has been implemented for the first time in the academic year of 2014-2015, based on the views of teachers. The general screening model has been employed in the study. This research has been conducted with the…

Studying computer science (CS) in elementary schools has gained become popular in recent years. However, students at such a young age encounter difficulties when first engaging with CS. Robotics has been proposed as a medium for teaching CS to young students, because it reifies concepts in a tangible object, and because of the excitement of…

Sports science is still one of the fastest growth areas in science across the world. There isn't a professional sports team that does not have a host of sports scientists to analyse and improve every minute detail of their performance. So how is this relevant to a primary school? Making real-life links to other areas of life is very important in…

This study explores the reflective processes by which a grade 5 science community co-constructed shared inquiry structures to focus and guide its inquiry about human body systems over a school year supported by a collaborative online environment. The co-constructed structures included a list of collective wondering areas as the shared focus of…

In this review essay I respond to issues raised in Mijung Kim and Wolff-Michael Roth's paper titled "Dialogical argumentation in elementary science classrooms", which presents a study dealing with dialogical argumentation in early elementary school classrooms. Since there is very limited research on lower primary school students'…

The Next Generation Science Standards states that "science begins with a question." (NGSS Lead States [2013] "Next generation science standards: For states, by states". Washington, DC: National Academies Press). Yet scientific inquiry among students and scientists alike often begins without a clear question. In this article, we…

As the Science Co-ordinator at St Paul's RC Primary School, the author has been involved in producing and trialling resources for the Teacher Assessment in Primary Science (TAPS) project over the last four years. This article explains how St Paul's has used the Focused Assessments (FAs). The author has always tried to promote enquiry-based…

The topic of living things is ideal for exploring the ideas of children in the early years of school. Preschool and primary school teachers are reasonably confident with the subject matter and all children will have had some life experiences that contribute to their prior knowledge. For this reason, the question 'Is it alive?' is one that…