"The pleasure of finding things out" is a collection of short works by the Nobel Prize winning scientist Richard Feynman. The book provides insights into his infectious enthusiasm for science and his love of sharing ideas about the subject with anyone who wanted to listen. Feynman has been widely acknowledged as one of the greatest physicists of…

Children in South Africa learned to do fascinating activities when they were introduced to the "Spider's Place" materials and, in the process, learned valuable science skills and knowledge. "Spider's Place" was initially a series of 13 science programmes for primary-age children from the South African Broadcasting Corporation…

The Primary National Strategy for England argues that teachers need use the QCA units of work (or whichever scheme their school follows) only as a baseline or fallback: drawing on their "own" expertise as storytellers, creative thinkers, problem-solvers and as experts on their own pupils, to design activities that are engaging, motivating and…

At home, children often have pets that they take care of and play with; even in the classroom it is not uncommon to find a wormery, an aquarium or an ant farm. However, children rarely have the opportunity to own and care for a plant over a lengthy period of time, let alone a tree. The authors describe a project in Portugal aimed at improving…

The AstraZeneca Science Teaching Trust (AZSTT) was created as a registered charity in 1997 with a mission to support the teaching of science in primary schools in the UK. Since 1997, the Trust has commissioned, and is continuing to commission, a broad spectrum of large-scale innovative projects and smaller scale cluster projects designed to…

As a Teaching Awards Regional Winner in 2002, the author was recently awarded funding by Planet Science (NESTA) for projects to disseminate best practice. One of the things he had in mind was to organise a "creative science event." So last July year 4 children from Chiltern Primary School, Hull, joined a class of year 5 children from…

An important aim of primary science programmes should be to continue to encourage and nurture children in creating their own explanations. As Osborne and Freyberg (1985) contended, the aims of primary science in the early years should start with the children developing explanations for their experiences. The first two of their six developing aims…

Teaching how to implement an authentic inquiry is one of the most enduring claims for better teaching method in science classrooms, and for teachers it remains as a practical matter of classroom lessons. The practical matter is that teachers might want students to get involved in their own inquiry on the one hand, and one the other hand teachers…

This paper describes how a second grade science unit on penguins became the ideal content to integrate with the physical education curriculum. The movement experiences reinforced the information students learned about penguins and helped students to gain a deeper understanding of penguin behaviors. Together, the physical education teacher and the…

This research exercise, employing an action research model for curriculum improvement, explored the factors influencing science program delivery at an elementary school in New Zealand. Using a validated science program delivery evaluation tool, the "Science Curriculum Implementation Questionnaire" (SCIQ), as a foundation for data…

Research suggests potential problems when group work is used in school science to support the integrated acquisition of conceptual understanding and testing procedures. Yet integrated acquisition is promoted by current policy, and is a popular classroom strategy. Work by Howe et al. (Learning and Instruction 10 (2000) 361) indicates that the…

It is not unusual for an instructional model or approach to be misinterpreted in practice. Madeline Hunter bemoaned the way her Mastery Teaching approach was reduced to a seven step lesson plan. Although the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) Model of sheltered instruction for English language learners (ELLs) was developed fairly…

The purpose of this article is to suggest a research-based systemic plan for educational researchers, practitioners, and policymakers involved in the change process to implement successful technology integration in the context of teacher education. This article provides a background about reform efforts in science education in the United States in…

An alternative conception for the observed differences in light bulb brightness was revealed during an unguided inquiry investigation in which prospective elementary teachers placed identical bulbs in series, parallel, and combination direct current circuits. Classroom observations, document analyses, and video and audio transcriptions led to the…

Sixty-five preservice elementary teachers' math anxiety levels and confidence levels to teach elementary mathematics and science were measured. The confidence scores of subjects in different math anxiety groups were compared and the relationships between their math anxiety levels and confidence levels to teach mathematics and science were…