Methods for Teaching Elementary School Science

For Elementary Science Methods courses. Streamlined to be more manageable in limited class time, the new edition of Methods for Teaching Elementary School Science has been crafted to be the text that best prepares pre-service teachers for today's science classroom. It accomplishes this by clearly modeling inquiry teaching and addressing the realities of the contemporary science classroom.

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Peters, Stout Methods for Teaching Elementary School Science preface

 

Elementary and middle school teaching is a rewarding and exciting career. Your future as a professional educator includes the responsibility to help your students meet the demands and challenges of society, and the elementary and middle school classroom is where it all begins.  It is your job to build the skills, content knowledge, and desire for inquiry that will allow your students to function in a society that will be highly scientific and technologically developed.  T his new edition of Methods for Teaching Elementary School Science has been crafted to help you do just that. 

Focusing on the methods of teaching elementary and middle school science, the text centers on why science education is basic to children’s schooling and explains the foundations that give it form and substance. Each of the eight chapters develops a broad concept or a cluster of related teaching skills through descriptions and the use of many real-life examples.

 

The chapters and special features should enable you to

• Decide what areas of science are basic, useful, and curious to children.
• Recognize and assess differences in children’s thinking.
• Use open-ended and closed-ended teaching activities in planning and implementing lessons and units.
• Improve children’s scientific skills.
• Develop technological applications.
• Locate and use a variety of resources to teach science.
• Arrange and manage learning centers, computer centers, and projects.
• Assess science teaching.

 

Each chapter focuses on an overall concept such as learning, assessment, or technology. Practical teaching tips are highlighted and sprinkled throughout each chapter, and teaching concepts are aligned to the National Research Council’s National Science Education Standards. In addition, learning objectives are linked to the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s (AAAS) Benchmarks for Science Literacy, which are cited throughout the text when applicable. To help summarize and extend the content, each chapter includes a summary, reflection, and additional readings.

 

A Closer Look at the Text’s Features

 

Modeling Inquiry Teaching

By taking you into successful inquiry-based classrooms, we contextualize the concepts being covered and help you envision your own constructivist science classroom.

 

• {ed: insert CD logo in margin} Free CD-ROM Science in Elementary Education: Visit an Inquiry Classroom, containing footage of master teacher Glenn McKnight, models constructivist teaching and successful, inquiry-based science classroom management.
• Visit an Inquiry Classroom features throughout chapters integrate the chapter content, CD footage, and the text’s Companion Website.