Over the past 25 years, the Davidson College Physics Department has developed small computer programs called Physlets. These programs were written in Java and distributed as Java applets embedded in HTML pages. Physics teachers from around the world used Physlets to author interactive computer-based curricular materials for the teaching of…

The new National Curriculum for England requirements for primary science have created a few challenges and opportunities for primary schools. Implementation was not compulsory for year 6 (ages 10-11) until September 2015, but at the primary school in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets educators decided, as did many other primary schools, to start…

The Cams Hill Science Consortium (CHSC) is a group of teachers based in Hampshire who have been meeting regularly over a number of years to share outcomes from their classroom-based research into engaging children more productively in science. Led by Matthew Newberry, formerly of Cams Hill School in Fareham, the consortium has developed and…

When Chris Hatcher joined the Primary Evolution Project team at the University of Reading, his goal was to find effective strategies to teach evolution in a way that keeps children engaged and enthused. Hatcher has collaborated with colleagues at the University's Institute of Education to break the evolution unit down into distinct topics and…

Makerspaces provide a viable option for constructing and sharing knowledge in schools. Inherent in the designing, tinkering, and playing that learners engage in through making are competencies, such as the ability to create, problem solve, and innovate, decreed as critical by education policymakers. This paper summarizes results from a study in a…

This article is focused on the creation of a new scale for measuring preservice teachers' positive affect for science, the Preservice Elementary Teacher Affect Scale for Science (PETAS-S). This new instrument is designed specifically to measure the level of positive affect toward the subject of science in preservice elementary teachers.…

This research compared how the scientific literacy-related goals of the current Chinese and Finnish national science curricula at primary school level are actualised using a revised Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) scientific literacy framework in the content analysis of the curricula. The content of the curricula focuses…

The purpose of this outreach program was to promote elementary school students' understanding of human physiology and exercise science. I conducted this outreach event for 421 pre-kindergarten through grade 5 students attending a Spanish-immersion elementary school within a large, urban public school district in Kentucky. To meet the needs of the…

To effectively incorporate engineering into their instruction, K-12 teachers need sufficient knowledge of the engineering discipline. An important component of teachers' engineering knowledge is their understanding of the nature of engineering: what engineers do, the epistemological underpinnings of engineering, and the relationships between…

One of the guiding principles highlighted in "A Framework for K-12 Science Education" (NRC 2012) states that "children are born investigators," claiming that students construct their own understanding of the natural world even before they learn about it in formal learning settings. Even if students lack a thorough…

The aim of this study is to analyze the types of visual representations in primary and secondary science textbooks in Turkey. The sample of the research constitutes six textbooks prepared by private publishers for primary and secondary science courses (3rd -8 th Grade) in Turkey in 2018-2019 academic year. Document analysis design, which is one of…

Interdisciplinary studies foster integration of ideas across disciplines. The knowledge building pedagogy, with its 12 principles and associated technology, Knowledge Forum®, provides multifaceted support for linking ideas across disciplines and communities. This exploratory study aims to assess the extent to which elementary-school students…

Because students have often been conditioned as passive learners and receivers of knowledge, it can be difficult for them to persevere in solving authentic problems. Nevertheless, teachers must persist in preparing students as problem solvers and critical thinkers. In an urban inner-city neighborhood school in the southeast, students embarked on a…

In this study, we described a curricular module on computational thinking (CT) integrated within an undergraduate, senior level elementary science methods course, and developed insights on elementary preservice science teachers' (PSTs) thoughts, feelings, and actions about CT integration. Our research question was: "Following participation in…

The authors of this exploratory study examine the influence of the Georgia science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) model; gender; race; and other achievement on elementary students' science outcomes in Title I schools. Results of the study demonstrate that a positive relationship exists between students participating in a…