In supporting students toward literacy, teachers must provide experiences that support the formation of informed understandings of the nature of science (NOS), as well as a structure for developing evidence-based explanations. In this article the authors describe how they guided their students through this learning cycle to answer the essential question, "How do scientists work?" The learning cycle presented herein aims to teach the NOS in explicit, reflective ways that support students' abilities to resolve questions and solve problems across disciplines. It also has the potential to transition from the application of NOS into other disciplinary core ideas.