Every week, thousands of "makers" worldwide indulge their passion for creating, inventing, and meddling as they visit "Tinkering studios," "Tinkerlabs," and "Tinkergarden." Such "makers" are inherently engineers; exhibiting many of the Engineering Habits of Minds described in this Special Issue as…

This article describes an informal program in one school where grade K-1 students learn a variety of new science vocabulary words relating to animal characteristics. The students are introduced to a new group of animals and their characteristics through storytelling, games, discussion, and crafts (see Table 1, p. 34). The new vocabulary words are…

The Teacher Assessment in Primary Science project is funded by the Primary Science Teaching Trust and based at Bath Spa University. The study aims to develop a whole-school model of valid, reliable and manageable teacher assessment to inform practice and make a positive impact on primary-aged children's learning in science. The model is based on a…

In this paper, we present a study of second graders' learning about the nature of matter in the context of content-rich, model-based inquiry instruction. The goal of instruction was to help students learn to use simple particle models to explain states of matter and phase changes. We examined changes in students' ideas about matter, the coherence…

This column discusses resources and science topics related to students in grades preK to 2. In this month's issue students study landscape surfaces to recognize changes due to human impacts or natural phenomena.

Integrated curricula have become a major educational focus in Korea. Policy changes began in 2009 when the Korea Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology announced a new curriculum incorporating Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM). Various stages of educational reform have occurred since that time. This study…

The challenge of science achievement gaps is one that scholars have struggled to solve. Teacher leadership holds great promise in closing those gaps. Therefore, the purpose of the research reported here was to explore the responsibilities and supports of formally designated science teacher leaders (STLs) in urban elementary schools that have been…

Empirical evidence from the National Education Inspectorate suggested that teachers at the primary school in this study in an island country in the Caribbean have inadequate science content knowledge. Students' average performance on the science Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) has been below 40% for the last 5 years. The purpose of this bounded…

Outdoor education programs have been shown to have a positive effect on the educational, physical and emotional development of youth. They are increasingly being used to foster a sense of community in schools and to provide students with learning opportunities related to the environment. This article describes an integrated outdoor education…

Young children need opportunities to engage in the practice of constructing scientific explanations in order to develop their own understanding of science content. To engage in this scientific practice, teachers need to provide young children with explicit instruction and scaffolding. However, many classroom teachers' knowledge and beliefs for how…

Background: With the increased attention on the implementation of inquiry activities in primary science classrooms, a growing interest has emerged in assessing students' science skills. Research has thus far been concerned with the limitations and advantages of different test formats to assess students' science skills. Purpose: This study explores…

4-H is the youth development program of the Cooperative Extension and has identified Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) as a national priority. Conducting STEM education during summer months for hard to reach youth can be a challenge. However, it is during summer when vulnerable students most often experience learning loss. During…

Education researchers want to influence classroom practice, but in-service primary teachers are hard to reach. Thus, many researchers disseminate their innovations online. Dissemination by event may be a more effective means, but little is known about its relative value in a dissemination strategy, nor potential influence upon research innovation…

Qualitative research conducted with 237 pupils from Canada, France, and Morocco, between 10 and 12 years of age, on the setting and functioning of simple electric circuits, demonstrates that similar explanatory systems of the students. For this, we had given them a paper and pencil questionnaire of a sixty minutes duration. The first question was…

Researchers examined how an inquiry-based instructional treatment emphasizing interrelated plant processes influenced 210 elementary pre-service teachers' (PTs) conceptions of three plant processes, photosynthesis, cellular respiration, and transpiration, and the interrelated nature of these processes. The instructional treatment required PTs to…