This article details the learning experiences emerging from a research collaboration between a university-based research team and an informal education provider (the STEM Academy). The aim was to enhance the community responsiveness of a series of science clubs for children living in low-income communities in a metropolitan area of Canada. The…

The enthusiasm for science displayed by students in early elementary grades is unparalleled. If not nurtured in elementary school, the spark for learning science diminishes. Unfortunately, the amount of time spent on science in Grades 1-4 has steadily declined since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. In 2012, the National…

Bringing Up Girls in Science (BUGS) was an afterschool program for 4th and 5th grade girls that provided authentic learning experiences in environmental science as well as valuable female mentoring opportunities in an effort to increase participants' academic achievement in science. BUGS participants demonstrated significantly greater amounts of…

In 2006, 4-H National Headquarters and National 4-H Council introduced an initiative aimed at increasing the number and quality of science, engineering, and technology programs that 4-H offers around the country, and increasing the number of youth involved in these programs. By engaging youth in informal science educational opportunities through…

This paper discusses an initiative called "Scientists in Schools" which was implemented with a group of seventy (n=70) Year 4 and Year 7 students studying in a local school in regional South Australia with the primary objective of raising awareness and interest in the study of sciences. Mezirow's critical reflection was used by the…

In 2006 4-H National Headquarters at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and National 4-H Council introduced a new initiative aimed at increasing the number and quality of science, engineering, and technology programs that 4-H offers around the country, and increasing the number of youth involved in these programs. By engaging youth in informal…

A teacher's sense of {instructional} efficacy has been considered a critical variable in student academic performance. Researchers Tschannen-Moran and Hoy Woolfolk (2001, p.783) defined teachers' {instructional} efficacy as a teacher's judgment of his or her capabilities to bring about desired outcomes of student engagement and learning, even…

Although the microscope is a basic tool in both physical and biological sciences, it is notably absent from most elementary school science programs. One reason teachers find it challenging to introduce microscopy at the elementary level is because children can have a hard time connecting the image of an object seen through a microscope with what…