The essays in this book are about values that are being used to drive science instruction in remarkable ways. The essays are divided into three sections. The first section contains two essays about science kits and determines the problem that the rest of the book addresses. The essays in the second section offer a glimpse of what five teachers see as the place they began, the solid matter upon which they were able to build a dynamic and thoughtful science program. The essays are designed to help talk about the values upon which inquiry-based science has been built. The third section offers readers a day-to-day sense of what it looks like when teachers successfully help students forge connections between science and their daily lives. Essays include: (1) "Teacher Bones: An Introduction" (Wendy Saul); (2) "It Takes More than a Kit" (Jeanne Reardon); (3) "The Building Blocks of Science" (Carole Roberts); (4) "There's a Squid in Mrs. Bunn's Classroom!" (Debra Bunn); (5) "The Reason for Reasoning" (Linda Davis); (6) "Connections" (Barbara Caplan); (7) "Working in Community" (Stephanie Terry); (8) "How I Really Plan" (Donna Dieckman); (9) "A Year in the Life of a First-Grade Class" (Carol Flicker); (10) "Consumer Testing: Children Working on Authentic Science Problems" (Jeanne Reardon); (11) "Looking for Hope in All the Wrong Places" (Mary Beth Johnson); (12) "Writing Eco-Mysteries" (Twig George); and (13) "The Kids' Inquiry Conference: Not Just Another Science Fair" (Barbara Bourne). (JRH)