The use of historical materials in elementary science classrooms

Abstract

AbstractScience educators have stressed in recent years the importance of providing students with an historical understanding of the development of scientific knowledge. Although many approaches have been suggested for building historical understanding of science, historical source materials have often been deemed too difficult to use with elementary school students. This article reports on a case study that used archival and contemporary source materials in project activities, such as photographs and field notes, to engage students in the processes of data generation, selection, annotation, and evaluation. The curricular science activities of one elementary classroom with 29 fourth and fifth grade students are decribed and analyzed as they build and use archives of historical and contemporary naturalist materials. The article concludes with a discussion of the feasibility and benefits of using historical source materials within elementary science education, as well as the implications for selecting and preparing historical source materials in digital format for use in elementary education. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Sci Ed 85:349–367, 2001.