When exploring and introducing sound, students need to understand that there are multiple aspects that work together to create sound. In this single class lesson, students work through an inquiry-based challenge to discover how sound can be manipulated and altered through these elements. By investigating how to manipulate sound, students are able…

Providing opportunities for elementary students to engage with enduring social issues, such as houselessness, is essential in preparing informed, engaged, and social justice-oriented citizens. This article draws from the following standards: (1) C3 Framework for Social Studies Standards that center inquiry; (2) Learning for Justice's Social…

Energy concepts are taught in many schools, but children rarely have an opportunity to grapple with energy problems and work on their own solutions. This study explores the impacts of Connect Science, a service-learning (SL) program developed to enhance elementary students' energy literacy in the United States. Program impacts were explored within…

Evolution by natural selection is key to understanding life and of considerable practical importance in public health, medicine, biotechnology, and agriculture. "The Next Generation Science Standards" (NGSS) include natural selection among several evolutionary concepts that all third-graders should know. This article explores a novel…

This book began as a deep discussion among administrators, teachers, researchers, teacher educators, and educational consultants concerned about the critical reduction of play, engaged learning opportunities, and intellectually stimulating experiences in classrooms for toddlers through the primary grades. This group made a pact to organize and…

Inquiry-based science interventions aim to improve students' science proficiency by helping them understand scientific processes. In these interventions, students conduct hands-on investigations of science concepts and everyday phenomena, construct explanations for what they observe, consider alternative explanations, and communicate and justify…

This study was designed to understand how a school can transform its instructional practices and collaborative structures to bring about rigorous, relevant, and engaging learning for all students. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to determine how a school can create a culture of innovation in teaching practices. This case study…

The purpose of this article is to examine how a first-grade ESL teacher understands teaching and learning as she explores her agency (and that of her students) in implementing and experimenting with project-based instruction (PBI) in her economically, culturally, and linguistically diverse classroom. Utilizing video-cued ethnography and drawing on…

Inquiry-based science interventions aim to improve students' science proficiency by helping them understand scientific processes. In these interventions, students conduct hands-on investigations of science concepts and everyday phenomena, construct explanations for what they observe, consider alternative explanations, and communicate and justify…

Inquiry-based science interventions aim to improve students' science proficiency by helping them understand scientific processes. In these interventions, students conduct hands-on investigations of science concepts and everyday phenomena, construct explanations for what they observe, consider alternative explanations, and communicate and justify…

Professional development designed to integrate key features of research-based professional learning has positive and significant effects on teacher practice and student achievement in mathematics when implemented in schools that meet specified technology-readiness criteria. Key features of research-based professional learning include intensive…

Current science education reforms and the new standards (Next Generation Science Standards [NGSS], 2013) advocate that K-12 students gain proficiency in the knowledge-generating practices of scientists. These practices include argumentation, modeling, and coordinating evidence with theories and models. Practice-based instruction is very different…

The number of online courses, programs, and schools are growing exponentially in K-12 education. Given the unique nature of online courses and the distinct skills necessary to create a quality online course, it is essential that effective professional development be provided for teachers designing online courses. Online courses need to be of the…

This study evaluates the effects of an interdisciplinary standards-based school garden-based education program on student learning. The objective of the program is to help students learn to be self-directed learners, community contributors, complex thinkers, quality producers, effective communicators, and effective/ethical users of technology. For…

Digital games are widely popular and interest has increased for their use in education. Digital games are thought to be powerful instructional tools because they promote active learning and feedback, provide meaningful contexts to situate knowledge, create engagement and intrinsic motivation, and have the ability individualize instruction.…