Science

Since the release of A Framework for K-12 Science Education and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), there has been an urgent need for teacher professional development (PD) programs that support the implementation of NGSS-aligned curriculum materials and address the unique strengths and needs of diverse student groups, including multilingual learners (MLs). The purpose of this study is to describe how teacher feedback guided the design and refinement of our curriculum-based PD program integrating science and language with MLs through a 2-year field trial.

Teacher preparation programs need to consider how to support elementary science teachers in developing their knowledge related to environmental and climate justice. Working with children to determine steps they can take together with their community to address and mitigate local environmental justice issues can seem daunting, especially if teachers have not had opportunities to plan and adapt lessons with these goals in mind. We describe a series of lessons for preservice teachers on environmental justice, including climate justice, and climate change.

Over the last decade, reform in science education has placed an emphasis on the science practices as a way to engage students in the process of science and improve scientific literacy. A critical component of developing scientific literacy is learning to apply quantitative reasoning to authentic scientific phenomena and problems. Students need practice moving fluidly (or fluently) between math and science to develop a habit of mind that encourages the application of quantitative reasoning to real-world scenarios. Here we present a student-facing model that challenges students to think across these two fields.

This paper argues for addressing histories of scientific institutions and their entanglements with Euro-American imperialism, racial capitalism, and environmental injustice in secondary science education. Our argument is grounded in the history of a multinational chemical corporation that operates a chemical plant in a neighborhood where one author lives and the other teaches. We illustrate how analysis of the plant inspired youth participatory science projects by describing how considerations about the plant were connected to chemistry curricula.

This article describes a middle school energy literacy unit that uses green building science to uncover the important ways in which energy flows between natural and built environments. The place-based unit employs the student’s own school building as a learning tool to examine how light energy and thermal energy relate to the use of electrical energy—and ultimately impact global carbon emissions that result from using buildings every day.

Enacting reform-oriented, phenomenon-based instruction provides us an opportunity to more equitably teach science. Particularly, our teaching can be stronger when we elicit, notice and then use all students’ ideas and questions to inform how students collaborate to figure out phenomena. However, this is only possible if we learn to expansively notice the many language resources multilingual students have available for sharing their thinking, which requires teachers to see and hear beyond what has been traditionally privileged in school spaces. In this piece, we describe how we draw upon translanguaging theory and pedagogy to prepare prospective teachers to teach science with multilingual students.

Students benefit from having opportunities to explore extensive, complex datasets using technology tools that are intuitive and accessible. Likewise, middle school teachers require convenient access to captivating datasets, supportive resources, and classroom-appropriate software. We developed two CODAP (Common Online Data Analysis Platform) plugins that allow students to engage with data about their daily lives, build their data fluency, and answer questions about Earth’s systems. These plugins support the three-dimensional learning approach central to the NGSS.

In STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields, people with disabilities are underrepresented. This study aimed to determine what barriers might prevent students with and without disabilities from pursuing STEM careers.

Now more than ever, the world needs citizens comfortable with interdisciplinary problem- solving in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) to address global environmental and health challenges, including extreme weather, habitat destruction, and air pollution, among others. However, many countries report an insufficient number of individuals with experience in STEM problem solving. In addition, recent research indicates low interest and knowledge in STEM fields. In this mixed-methods study, we explored a potential relationship between interest and three-dimensional (3D) science and engineering knowledge.

For the promotion of youth voice to be successful, out-of-school-time (OST) program facilitators and classroom teachers need a common understanding of what quality looks and sounds like and support for implementing higher-quality instructional strategies. For well over a decade, the Dimensions of Success (DoS) observation system has provided such support in OST settings and, more recently, in middle-grade classrooms. In this article, we first demonstrate how DoS defines quality Youth Voice in OST and classroom settings through four vignettes based on observations of grade 5–8 classrooms and OST program observations, then provide strategies for educators to promote higher-quality Youth Voice by building on youth ideas and encouraging decision-making that drives their STEM learning forward.