Access to drinking water is becoming more limited as drought persists across continents. This article highlights a particularly impacted group of students due to increasing drought conditions and upstream river pollution near their reservation. While there are related water and modeling standards across the K-12 Next Generation Science Standards…

This column presents ideas and techniques to enhance science teaching. In today's classrooms, teachers face numerous challenges. They are preparing students for jobs and careers that are not even conceived of yet. Assessments are being used to address students' college and career readiness and to promote critical thinking and problem solving.…

To support elementary school students in finding a solution to an engineering problem, the authors developed a series of five lessons using the 5E Instructional Model (Bybee 2014). The lessons align with the "Next Generation Science Standards" and the "Common Core State Standards" and integrate the teaching and learning of…

Engineering is not a subject that has historically been taught in elementary schools, but with the emphasis on engineering in the "Next Generation Science Standards," curricula are being developed to explicitly teach engineering content and design. However, many of the scientific investigations already conducted with students have…

This article describes a two-day lesson in which fifth-grade students took on the role of marine biology scientists, using their critical-thinking and problem-solving skills to explore human impact on the blue crab ecosystem. The purpose of "Crabby Interactions" was to help students understand the impact of human activities on the local…

Of the eight scientific practices highlighted in "A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas," the first is for students to develop abilities to ask questions and define problems (NRC 2012). Constructing a range of questions about an object or phenomenon validates not only what students have…