Teaching Science in Elementary and Middle School: A Project-Based Approach

The need for a scientifically literate population that can apply scientific ideas to solve real world problems in the 21^st century has never been greater. Yet a growing disconnect exists between this need and the educational capacity to prepare them. The mission of Teaching Science in Elementary and Middle School: A Project-Based Approach, 3e is to help answer this need. Like its predecessors, this new edition is organized around the guiding principles of problem-based learning: long-term, interdisciplinary, student-centered lessons that are relevant to real-world issues and activities. This teaching approach engages all young learners―regardless of culture, race, or gender―in exploring important and meaningful questions through a process of investigation and collaboration. Throughout this dynamic process, students ask questions, make predictions, design investigations, collect and analyze data, make products, and share ideas. Changes in this new edition include the following…

• Stronger, more explicit connections between PBS, inquiry teaching and the National Science Education Standards (NSES).

• The theme of establishing the relevance of science to students’ lives has been expanded. It now includes attention to discrepant events, anchoring events, and experiencing phenomena in addition to its previous focus on driving questions.

• To help children understand that science is about explaining phenomena, a new chapter, Making Sense of Data, now follows the one on Designing and Carrying Out Investigations. It contains a section on helping children create evidence-based scientific explanations.

• A new section on the challenges of special needs and gifted students.

• The discussion of technology in science teaching have been expanded to include such new devices as wireless handhelds, cameras, cell phones, wikis and ipods.

• The introductory scenarios have been reworked to insure greater relevance to elementary science teaching.

• An accompanying Web site will offer test items and strategies to support students in problem-solving and in planning and carrying-out investigations.

This text is appropriate for anyone interested in teaching elementary or middle school science using an inquiry-oriented, problem-based framework.