Curriculum

Elementary Science Teacher Educators Learning Together: Catalyzing Change With Educative Curriculum Materials and Vignette Writing

In this article, we describe a professional learning community (PLC) for science teacher educators that supported changes in pedagogy through educative curriculum materials and vignette writing. The PLC was convened as part of a grant-supported project to build preservice elementary teachers’ content knowledge for matter using educative curriculum materials. PLC members collaborated with one another over an academic year to learn about and discuss implementing curricular materials in their respective science teacher education courses.

Author/Presenter

Sumreen Asim

Jeni Davis

Melanie Kinskey

Heather Lavender

Jaclyn Murray

Amanda Obery

Carrie-Anne Sherwood

Sarah Voss

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2023
Short Description

In this article, we describe a professional learning community (PLC) for science teacher educators that supported changes in pedagogy through educative curriculum materials and vignette writing.

Reasoning About Data in Elementary School: Student Strategies and Strengths when Reasoning with Multiple Variables

The need for data literacy is an increasingly pressing priority in society, but most of the work in data-centred education has focused on developing skills at the middle school, secondary, and post-secondary levels, with little attention on the potential for engaging elementary-aged students in reasoning with and about data. This paper reports findings from a foundational study to explore the natural strengths, skills, and strategies that upper elementary students bring to reasoning about data-centred problems.

Author/Presenter

Jessica Sickler

Michelle Lentzner

Lynn T. Goldsmith

Lauren Brase

Randall Kochevar

Year
2024
Short Description

The need for data literacy is an increasingly pressing priority in society, but most of the work in data-centred education has focused on developing skills at the middle school, secondary, and post-secondary levels, with little attention on the potential for engaging elementary-aged students in reasoning with and about data. This paper reports findings from a foundational study to explore the natural strengths, skills, and strategies that upper elementary students bring to reasoning about data-centred problems.

Reasoning About Data in Elementary School: Student Strategies and Strengths when Reasoning with Multiple Variables

The need for data literacy is an increasingly pressing priority in society, but most of the work in data-centred education has focused on developing skills at the middle school, secondary, and post-secondary levels, with little attention on the potential for engaging elementary-aged students in reasoning with and about data. This paper reports findings from a foundational study to explore the natural strengths, skills, and strategies that upper elementary students bring to reasoning about data-centred problems.

Author/Presenter

Jessica Sickler

Michelle Lentzner

Lynn T. Goldsmith

Lauren Brase

Randall Kochevar

Year
2024
Short Description

The need for data literacy is an increasingly pressing priority in society, but most of the work in data-centred education has focused on developing skills at the middle school, secondary, and post-secondary levels, with little attention on the potential for engaging elementary-aged students in reasoning with and about data. This paper reports findings from a foundational study to explore the natural strengths, skills, and strategies that upper elementary students bring to reasoning about data-centred problems.

Design Talks: Whole-Class Conversations During Engineering Design Units

Teacher-facilitated whole-class conversations can help elementary students apply the full power of the NGSS science and engineering practices to an engineering design process. In this article we describe and provide examples for five kinds of Design Talks. Each type of Design Talk centers on a different framing question and is facilitated by specific prompts that help students voice their ideas and make connections to others' ideas.

Author/Presenter

Kristen Wendell

Jessica Watkins

Chelsea Andrews

Natalie De Lucca

Molly Malinowski

Vera Gor

Rae Woodcock

Tyrine Pangan

Naina Sood

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2024
Short Description

Teacher-facilitated whole-class conversations can help elementary students apply the full power of the NGSS science and engineering practices to an engineering design process. In this article we describe and provide examples for five kinds of Design Talks. Each type of Design Talk centers on a different framing question and is facilitated by specific prompts that help students voice their ideas and make connections to others' ideas.

Promoting Students’ Informal Inferential Reasoning Through Arts-Integrated Data Literacy Education

Purpose

Author/Presenter

Camillia Matuk

Ralph Vacca

Anna Amato

Megan Silander

Kayla DesPortes

Peter J. Woods

Marian Tes

Year
2023
Short Description

Arts-integration is a promising approach to building students’ abilities to create and critique arguments with data, also known as informal inferential reasoning (IIR). However, differences in disciplinary practices and routines, as well as school organization and culture, can pose barriers to subject integration. The purpose of this study is to describe synergies and tensions between data science and the arts, and how these can create or constrain opportunities for learners to engage in IIR.

Promoting Students’ Informal Inferential Reasoning Through Arts-Integrated Data Literacy Education

Purpose

Author/Presenter

Camillia Matuk

Ralph Vacca

Anna Amato

Megan Silander

Kayla DesPortes

Peter J. Woods

Marian Tes

Year
2023
Short Description

Arts-integration is a promising approach to building students’ abilities to create and critique arguments with data, also known as informal inferential reasoning (IIR). However, differences in disciplinary practices and routines, as well as school organization and culture, can pose barriers to subject integration. The purpose of this study is to describe synergies and tensions between data science and the arts, and how these can create or constrain opportunities for learners to engage in IIR.

Promoting Students’ Informal Inferential Reasoning Through Arts-Integrated Data Literacy Education

Purpose

Author/Presenter

Camillia Matuk

Ralph Vacca

Anna Amato

Megan Silander

Kayla DesPortes

Peter J. Woods

Marian Tes

Year
2023
Short Description

Arts-integration is a promising approach to building students’ abilities to create and critique arguments with data, also known as informal inferential reasoning (IIR). However, differences in disciplinary practices and routines, as well as school organization and culture, can pose barriers to subject integration. The purpose of this study is to describe synergies and tensions between data science and the arts, and how these can create or constrain opportunities for learners to engage in IIR.

Teachers’ Use and Adaptation of a Model-based Climate Curriculum: A Three-Year Longitudinal Study

Foregrounding climate education in formal science learning environments provides students with opportunities to develop critical climate-related knowledge and skills. However, research has shown many challenges to teaching and learning about Earth’s climate and global climate change (GCC). This longitudinal study aims to establish how secondary science teachers, over time, implement model-based climate curricula in support of students’ climate and GCC education by utilizing EzGCM. The model (EzGCM) is a data-driven, computer-based climate modeling tool use to explore global climate data.

Author/Presenter

Kimberly Carroll Steward

David Gosselin

Devarati Bhattacharya

Mark Chandler

Cory T. Forbes

Year
2024
Short Description

Foregrounding climate education in formal science learning environments provides students with opportunities to develop critical climate-related knowledge and skills. However, research has shown many challenges to teaching and learning about Earth’s climate and global climate change (GCC). This longitudinal study aims to establish how secondary science teachers, over time, implement model-based climate curricula in support of students’ climate and GCC education by utilizing EzGCM. The model (EzGCM) is a data-driven, computer-based climate modeling tool use to explore global climate data.

Teachers’ Use and Adaptation of a Model-based Climate Curriculum: A Three-Year Longitudinal Study

Foregrounding climate education in formal science learning environments provides students with opportunities to develop critical climate-related knowledge and skills. However, research has shown many challenges to teaching and learning about Earth’s climate and global climate change (GCC). This longitudinal study aims to establish how secondary science teachers, over time, implement model-based climate curricula in support of students’ climate and GCC education by utilizing EzGCM. The model (EzGCM) is a data-driven, computer-based climate modeling tool use to explore global climate data.

Author/Presenter

Kimberly Carroll Steward

David Gosselin

Devarati Bhattacharya

Mark Chandler

Cory T. Forbes

Year
2024
Short Description

Foregrounding climate education in formal science learning environments provides students with opportunities to develop critical climate-related knowledge and skills. However, research has shown many challenges to teaching and learning about Earth’s climate and global climate change (GCC). This longitudinal study aims to establish how secondary science teachers, over time, implement model-based climate curricula in support of students’ climate and GCC education by utilizing EzGCM. The model (EzGCM) is a data-driven, computer-based climate modeling tool use to explore global climate data.

Supporting Secondary Students’ Understanding of Earth’s Climate System and Global Climate Change Using EzGCM: A Cross-Sectional Study

Global climate change (GCC) is one of the greatest challenges of our age and a highly significant socio-scientific issue (SSI). Developing secondary students’ understanding about the Earth’s climate and GCC is critical for empowering future citizens and a key focus of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013).

Author/Presenter

Silvia-Jessica Mostacedo-Marasovic

Amanda A. Olsen

Cory T. Forbes

Year
2023
Short Description

Global climate change (GCC) is one of the greatest challenges of our age and a highly significant socio-scientific issue (SSI). Developing secondary students’ understanding about the Earth’s climate and GCC is critical for empowering future citizens and a key focus of the Next Generation Science Standards. In this cross-sectional study, we investigated secondary students’ evidence-based reasoning about GCC grounded in a curricular intervention involving the use of a data-driven, computer-based global climate model—EzGCM—over 3 years with four teachers who adapted the module in their own courses.