Launching Learners in Science, Prek-5 : How to Design Standards-Based Experiences and Engage Students in Classroom Conversations

"Expertly describes how educators can plan a science curriculum that facilitates primary students′ understanding, skills, and development in science, preparing them for careers requiring any level of scientific knowledge and giving them science literacy to make decisions that benefit society and the world."
―Robert D. Sweetland, Professor, Wayne State College

Design science instruction that helps develop enthusiastic young minds while meeting national standards!

Teaching science means doing science and involves three elements: knowing content, knowing children, and teachers knowing themselves as teachers and learners. Kerry C. Williams and George E. Veomett describe principles and requirements that reflect National Science Education Standards for the active learning of science. They identify key ingredients for primary students and their development as young scientists.

This resource is linked to research on cognitive and neural development and motivational theory from the work of Piaget and Vygotsky. Teachers inexperienced in science will discover new ways to think about science while they develop lessons that are rich, fun, and authentic for themselves and their students.

All educators will find examples, questions, stories, and thought-provoking ideas to give students a strong start in science achievement, plus:

• Six key elements to build into science instruction: observing, representing, organizing, patterning and questioning, experimenting, and sharing
• How-to′s for incorporating inquiry, workshops, centers, and projects in primary and elementary classrooms
• A four-step system―choice, planning, doing, reviewing―that helps promote learning in science and across all subjects

Launching Learners in Science, PreK–5 helps educators teach science in a way that will expand their own confidence and let them make a lasting difference in children′s lives!

Kerry C. Williams and George E. Veomett describe the principles of and requirements for the active learning of science and identify key ingredients for students and their development as young scientists. Educators will find examples, questions, and stories inviting them to construct meaning from the text. Based largely on the High/Scope preschool project as adapted for primary students, the book connects to research on cognitive and neural development and motivational theory from the work of Piaget and Vygotsky, and from the teaching experiences of the authors. Based on the perspective that the teaching of science is about three things: knowing content, knowing children, and teachers knowing themselves as teachers and learners, this handbook invites educators to think about what it means to teach science in a way that will make a lasting difference in children's lives.