Science

This proof of concept study investigated a secondary science teacher preparation intervention in six university programs across Arizona, California, and Texas. Researchers and science method instructors (SMIs) collaboratively restructured respective science method courses to hold fidelity to an interrelated set of instructional practices that attend to science learning as envisioned in a Framework for K–12 Science Education, while also creating contextualized spaces for language and literacy development targeted to English learners (ELs), but also supportive of “mainstream” students.

This column provides how-to strategies and practical advice for the science teacher. A resource for integrating argumentation into your science classroom.

González-Howard, M., Marco-Bujosa, L., McNeill, K. L., Goss, M., & Loper, S. (2018). Teacher’s Toolkit: The Argumentation Toolkit. Science Scope.

This column describes creating a classroom culture for engineering. Noting the importance of infiltration in the water cycle and in the supply of essential groundwater led the authors to develop an engineering activity in which students are challenged to build a stackable filter using the Earth process of infiltration as a model.

Kilpatrick, J., Marcum-Dietrich, N., Wallace, J., & Staudt, C. (2018). Engineering Encounters: Engineering a Model of the Earth as a Water Filter. Science and Children.

This column describes creating a classroom culture for engineering. Noting the importance of infiltration in the water cycle and in the supply of essential groundwater led the authors to develop an engineering activity in which students are challenged to build a stackable filter using the Earth process of infiltration as a model.

Kilpatrick, J., Marcum-Dietrich, N., Wallace, J., & Staudt, C. (2018). Engineering Encounters: Engineering a Model of the Earth as a Water Filter. Science and Children.

Science is increasingly characterized by participation in knowledge communities. To meaningfully engage in science inquiry, students must be able to evaluate diverse sources of information, articulate informed ideas, and share ideas with peers. This study explores how technology can support idea exchanges in ways that value individuals’ prior ideas, and allow students to use these ideas to benefit their own and their peers’ learning. We used the Idea Manager, a curriculum-integrated tool that enables students to collect and exchange ideas during science inquiry projects.