This study explores the dynamic, interactive nature of digital drawings and writing in a knowledge building community in which students used a multimedia online environment--Knowledge Forum--to represent and advance ideas in the field of optics. The research employs a mixed-methods case study to collect and analyze multimedia notes created by 22…

Many children find writing to be a challenge. This exploratory case study included four students with a learning disability who had writing goals/objectives in their individual education program. The students participated in a larger project in which they learned and practiced writing with an iPad art app. Planning a text with digital art offered…

This study aimed to develop a science experiments guidebook (based on discussion method and enriched worksheet) for fourth grade mainstreamed students with learning disabilities and to investigate its effect on their conceptual understanding of the "Matter and its Nature", "Living Things and Life", "Physical Events"…

Language-oriented literacy standards offer mostly linguistic accounts of text complexity. In response, the present article demonstrates that multimodal and visual narratives offer additional ways to understand and discuss text complexity. This descriptive analysis of one fourth-grader's comic provides an account of the multimodal patterns and…

Additional research is needed on ways in which urban youth report their civic engagement. Existing research indicates that federal legislation has resulted in reduced instructional time and resources in social studies and civic education in many states, which has led to a civic education opportunity gap that resonates through many urban…

The interdisciplinary unit described in this article utilizes "Art and the Cosmic Connection," a free program conceived of by artists Monica and Tyler Aiello and developed by the artists, scientists, and educators through NASA's Discovery and New Frontiers Programs, to inspire learners to explore mysterious worlds in our solar…

This study aims to develop primary-school students' understanding of the scientific practices in the Benzene Ring Heuristic (BRH) and to determine how BRH applications would affect student perceptions about science, scientific knowledge, and scientists. An interpretative qualitative research design was used in the study. The study group consisted…

The purpose of this study is to determine the mental models of primary school students about the concept of environment. The research group consisted of 400 students, 219 girls and 181 boys, enrolling to the 3rd and 4th grade in a primary school located in Istanbul. The students were asked to draw the environment and explain the items they draw.…

In this study we introduce an infusion model to "inject" ammonites and ammonite fossils in current subjects of Greek primary curriculum. Paleontology and mainly fossils attract more and more elementary students and teachers, yet in Greece this trend is solely about dinosaurs, despite the fact that the most common Greek fossils are not…

The aim of this study is to assess the impact that the current status of the country and of the education system has on the identity and place attachment of the students attending the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th grades of the elementary school, in the context of the meanings these students attribute to the concept of homeland via the metaphors they have…

Current U.S. science education reform efforts call for engineering to be included as part of science instruction at all grade levels. As students experience engineering instruction alongside science, an important question is how students conceptualize the nature of those two fields, and especially the extent to which they differentiate science and…

With the growing adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards across the United States, elementary teachers are being called upon to incorporate engineering into their science instruction, creating a need for ways to help elementary teachers better understand what engineering is and how to accurately communicate it to students. The present…

Main purpose of the study is to determine how television is perceived by primary school students by means of metaphors and statements in figures. Being designed as a qualitative study, this study was handled in phenomenology patter and axis. The study was conducted with participation of 57 students continuing their education in 3rd and 4th grade…

How do young children portray and describe their relationships with nature? In what ways do young children's relationships with nature vary by grade level? These two research questions guided this phenomenographic study, which investigated developmental differences in children's relationships with nature. A total of 176 children, aged 6-11, from…

This paper focuses on pupils' perceptions of water issues. The instructional situations take place in a Finnish primary school and aim at introducing the Science-Technology-Society (STS) study approach. The primary aim of this study is, in the context of STS instruction, to describe issues that pupils associate with water. This paper involves…