The widespread occurrence of flooding and the fact that both precipitation data and river flow data are readily available for many locations provides an excellent opportunity for educators to bring relevant professionally collected data into their teaching. By connecting those data to the use of models, students can collect, interpret, and…

Mary Colson is an eighth-grade Earth science teacher at Horizon Middle School, and Russ Colson is a professor of geology and Earth science education in the Department of Anthropology and Earth Science at Minnesota State University Moorhead, both in Moorhead, Minnesota. Since her first year in teaching eighth grade Earth science, in 1986,…

Field trips have long been a part of the elementary student experience, and through the years a great deal of research and work has been done around how field trips best support and facilitate learning. When new earth science unit was being rolled out across the Burlington (MA) Public Schools' second grades, the opportunity to shake up the…

This article describes a project that integrates English Language Arts (ELA) and coding into environmental science. For this project, students researched science content about human impact on the environment, communicated their findings through a traditionally formatted narrative story, and then used a coding program called Scratch to create an…

Although the "Next Generation Science Standards" (NGSS) have three dimensions, the crosscutting concepts are often the forgotten dimension. One reason teachers may not emphasize the crosscutting concepts might be because they are broad, domain-general constructs that can be difficult to conceptualize in a meaningful way. Yet, when taught…

Making and recording scientific observations is a fundamental activity of the scientific community. Scientists use their senses and tools (e.g., magnifying glasses, rulers, colored pencils) to make records of the phenomena (e.g., light energy, ecosystems) they are investigating. These observations often serve as evidence in the scientific…

For some elementary science teachers, a unit on land and water brings nightmares of dirt and water all over the room. Several Earth science "kits" contain hands-on exercises that allow the students to "get messy" as they manipulate materials; however, these lessons may lack the necessary opportunities for students to ask unique…

In this article, the author describes an activity using physical models -- each a clear plastic box enclosing a miniature coastal town, complete with real water in the "ocean." This activity shows students a natural cause-and-effect relationship that is scientifically simple, yet even many adults don't grasp the worldwide implications:…

Investigating stars can be difficult. The five-day unit presented in this article is designed for fifth graders to work toward Next Generation Science Standard (NGSS) performance expectation 5-ESS1-1, with each lesson lasting about 30 minutes. Students investigate the relationship between the brightness of light and distance, apply their…

What does a scientist do? What is an engineer? What is technology? What do mathematicians do? Questions about the nature of STEM are fundamental to help elementary students gain a deep understanding of the STEM disciplines. Yet, starting a lesson with such abstract questions can be difficult for any learner. Instead, teachers can use concrete STEM…

Supporting elementary student understandings of ideas related to Earth's Place in the Universe (ESS1) can be challenging, especially given the large time and distance scales involved with many of the concepts. However, with effective use of crosscutting concepts and science and engineering practices, important concepts within this content domain…

Recently, many students experienced a sudden shift to virtual learning. During this abrupt transition, Jennifer Hoffman helped her students adapt to online learning by employing user-friendly tools to best support students' digital literacy and science learning. In this article, she explains an instructional module that she created for fifth-grade…

The lack of time available to adequately teach everything expected throughout the days and weeks in a school year is a major concern for many elementary teachers. The heavy focus on reading, writing, and mathematics leaves little time for science and social studies instruction. However, science is an integral part of preparation for college and…

Water is critical to our health and well-being, yet one in three people do not have access to safe drinking water. Earth's water is threatened by pollution, deforestation, urban growth, and climate changes. This article describes a unit for kindergarten children called The Water We Drink.

This article is a presentation of a three-day sequence of lessons that engaged fifth-grade students in an exploration following the activities of scientists. From asking questions and analyzing data, to engaging in scientific modeling, to defending their theories to the scientific (classroom) community, these fifth graders were mirroring how…