Elementary Science Course Research Articles

Empowerment and confidence: Pre‐service teachers learning to teach science through a program of self‐regulated learning

Abstract: This article builds on a previous pilot study (Corrigan & Taylor, 2004) that explored the implementation of a program of self‐regulated learning (SRL) with a small group of pre‐service teachers in an elementary science course. A first year cohort of pre‐service teachers was exposed to a thirteen week, two‐staged program of self‐regulated learning in science education. The program offered students a significant amount of flexibility and freedom in what they investigated and how they did so, in conjunction with ongoing support when required. Nineteen students were interviewed prior to and after completing the program. By the end of the program, the majority of students involved in the study reported a more positive attitude to science and significantly enhanced confidence in their ability to teach elementary science. Although difficult to measure, students believed that they were more competent to teach primary science. Furthermore, they were able to identify aspects of the SRL environment that ha...

Using Emerging Technologies to Help Bridge the Gap Between University Theory and Classroom Practice: Challenges and Successes

This article describes and illuminates the challenges that the authors faced as we integrated a web‐supported professional development system into elementary science methods courses housed at three different universities. Using a design experiment framework, the challenges and difficulties encountered while attempting to develop and sustain effective discussions about inquiry‐based teaching are discussed. Three main issues were identified through this analysis: (a) creating meaningful interactions for preservice teachers, (b) supporting preservice teacher reflection and articulation of their belief systems, and (c) technical, social, and institutional challenges of using a World Wide Web based professional development system. The article closes with recommendations concerning the implementation of a web‐based professional development system into elementary methods science courses and describes what appear to be successful strategies for fostering a collaborative atmosphere between teacher educators, preservice teachers, and in‐service teachers.

Preservice Elementary Teachers' Use of Mathematics in a Project‐Based Science Approach

The use of a project‐based science (PBS) approach to teaching encourages students to integrate mathematics and science in meaningful ways as they create projects. As a beginning study of how students use mathematics in such an approach, an analysis of 23 projects developed by preservice elementary teachers enrolled in an elementary science course was conducted. Findings showed that students made a number of different types of mathematical errors and underutilized data representation and summary forms. Implications included the importance of developing methods for supporting the use of mathematical tools in utilizing a project‐based approach and considering ways that such tools mediate scientific thinking.

Elementary statistics laboratory

Students in elementary statistics traditionally see experiments and data as words and numbers in a text. They receive little exposure to the important statistical activities of sample selection, data collection, experimental design, development of statistical models, the need for randomization, selection of factors, etc. They often leave the first course without a firm understanding of the role of applied statistics or of the statistician in scientific investigations. In an attempt to improve elementary statistics education, we have developed a statistics laboratory similar to those of other elementary science courses. We will discuss our experiences in teaching a laboratory component with the traditional elementary statistics course. In each lab session, students, working in teams, discuss the design of an experiment, carry out the experiment, and analyze their data using Minitab on a Macintosh or MS-DOS based computer. The students then individually either answer a series of short answer questions or write a formal scientific report. The labs are designed to be relatively inexpensive and portable. They do not require a prior background in science, statistics or computing.

Falling Stereotypes and New Cell Models in Neurobiology

Students in many elementary science courses are taught a little neurophysiology. This may be the only knowledge of working neurones and of the nervous system such students will encounter as their education progresses in social science and humanities. In teaching the spinal motoneurone as a model nerve cell and the frog myoneural junction as a model synapse we offer such students an overly simplistic and misleading view of functioning nerves. This picture leads to a stimulus-response or Pavlovian mechanistic view of behavior, even of human behavior. A better teaching method, beginning with a description of an endogenously active neurone is suggested. Such neurones are commonly encountered in all animals. In vertebrates endogenously active cells give rise to the electroencephalogram, a phenomenon clinically associated with a functioning central nervous system. Somewhat more elaborate views of synapses based on electron micrographs, patch clamping studies of channels and studies of calcium flux at endings is recommended even for elementary students. Nerve endings which contain and release more than one transmitter should be offered as a physiological example of how the brain works. Only thus can the flexible behavior of both the nerve cells and the organism they contain be understood. Development of nerve cells and their migration and possible destiny should be discussed, particularly for the student for whom this may be a last course in biological science. An appreciation of the process and timing of the development of the human nervous system may help such students in later life in making personal and political decisions about human reproduction.

The contour model as an instructional tool in elementary computer science courses

The contour model as an instructional tool in elementary computer science courses

Superpolymers, ultraweak solids and aggregates

In elementary science courses, we learn that matter can exist in the gaseous, liquid or solid states. In more advanced courses, we divide the solid state into regular periodic solids, possibly with defects, and amorphous solids such as glasses. Although these classifications are useful, they are incomplete and do not reflect the full variety of states of natural and synthetic materials.

The introduction of microtechniques in elementary science courses: II. Serum cholesterol and cholesterol ester determination

The introduction of microtechniques in elementary science courses: II. Serum cholesterol and cholesterol ester determination

The introduction of microtechniques in elementary science courses: I. Blood glucose determination

The introduction of microtechniques in elementary science courses: I. Blood glucose determination

Reservoir Engineering in the 70's and 80's

Most of the significant contributions to reservoir engineering were made by a handful of prodigious giants in the 1930's and 1940's. The most significant contribution we can make in the next 20 years will be to fully understand -- perhaps with the help of that latest prodigy, the computer - what those giants were driving at. Introduction Reservoir Engineering is a branch of engineering that derives its name from the phrase "petroleum reservoir". The derivation of the term "petroleum engineering" might be considered in somewhat the same fashion. In either case, it is the petroleum reservoir that is all-important because the authority of a petroleum engineer usually ends somewhere between petroleum engineer usually ends somewhere between the oil field and the refinery. Unfortunately, neither the term "petroleum engineering" nor the term "reservoir engineering" is adequately descriptive. These terms mean nothing to a layman, and only little more to other engineers. This problem has worried many members of the Society of Petroleum Engineers for some time. Although it is possible to coin names more descriptive of our function - Energy and Natural Resources Engineering, Geohydraulics Engineering - such names still miss the mark in many respects. So do definitions of either petroleum engineering or reservoir engineering. A frequently cited definition of reservoir engineering is "the application of scientific principles to the drainage problems arising during the principles to the drainage problems arising during the development and production of oil and gas reservoirs". This definition misses the mark, also, in that the essence of reservoir engineering is only hinted at in the word "problems". The reservoir engineer tries to optimize the drainage of a valuable fluid from a subterranean reservoir of generally unknown size and character. This is the problem; he is working with something he never sees. problem; he is working with something he never sees. As F. H. Allen has said, "Petroleum Engineering, certainly as it will be practiced even more so in the future, is a very indirect science. We cannot even get in direct contact with the oil and gas in their native reservoirs. We can only deal with indirect readings and conduct operations from the surface of the ground which we hope will have certain effects at depth". Indirect determination of some characteristic of an object is a well established method usually introduced in elementary general science courses. The mass of an object may be determined directly with a beam balance, or indirectly from the measured volume and density of the object. In reservoir engineering it appears that there is no hope of ever physically examining the object directly. It is not physically examining the object directly. It is not likely that we shall mine or exhume many reservoirs. Thus the responsibility of the reservoir engineer usually involves a two-step process: to make and interpret indirect measurements of the quantitative characteristics of the reservoir, and to employ this information and basic physical principles to forecast the behavior of the reservoir under any potentially useful production scheme. potentially useful production scheme. Although significant publications concerning reservoir engineering problems began to appear in the 1920's, this field of study began essentially only 35 years ago. Major subjects such as multiphase flow through porous media and the material balance for an oil reservoir have appeared during this period. JPT P. 33

Chaos in science teaching

Much publicity has been given to announcements that full-time first-year graduate student 'enrollments in chemistry are decreasing. To those familiar with the changes in science education during the past decade, both undergraduate and secondary school, this isn't surprising. Although William F. Kieffer, editor of the Journal of Chemical Education , observed in 1966 that we might expect that one of the consequences of the widespread use of CBA and CHEMS would be to arouse even more interest in chemistry as a career, these courses and other curricular attempts to improve elementary science courses in effect have actually alienated many students from Dr. Paul Saltman notes that It is actually appalling to see the textbooks that are widely used in this country and abroad to communicate to young minds thirsting to know and understand. Far too often, authors of textbooks fail to grasp the meaning of science. Dael Wolfle, executive officer of American Association for the ...

Elementary science course of study for intermediate grades

Elementary science course of study for intermediate grades

A Critical Survey of Public School Courses of Study Published 1929 to 1931

Too many courses of study are introduced abruptly without planned preparation and without experimentation. Too many of the so-called tentative courses of study are tentative only in name. We know of one course of study hastily adopted in St. Louis which was later adopted without experimentation in a second city after it was scrapped by the St. Louis schools. Of all the courses of study investigated only 30 or about 10 percent were installed after experimentation. In a certain sense the seventeen activity curricula discussed in the next section are experimental in character. The testing of new units of a course of study may be conducted in a laboratory or experimental center ; in sev eral representative districts; or on a city-wide basis. For example, in the Long Beach schools the first draft of a course of study is the work of one person and goes into effect simultaneously in all parts of the city. The second draft is the result of experimentation and is the work of a committee. The new Baltimore course of study in history incorporated suggestions based upon the experiences of teachers during a preliminary experimental period. The revision of courses of study cannot be achieved without a certain amount of study and research. However, its value depends upon its thoroughness and objectivity. From the point of view of intensive re search, 14 or 20 percent of the school systems report some projects in the building of courses of study. Research is reported in 21 or 7 percent of the total courses of study and the total number of projects is 31. The most common research enterprise is that of determining the objectives of a subject. For example, the Kansas City public schools constructed an elementary science course of study partially on the basis of a ques

The new jersey nature study and elementary science course of study

The new jersey nature study and elementary science course of study

Constructing the Elementary-Science Course in Cleveland

Previous articleNext article No AccessConstructing the Elementary-Science Course in ClevelandEllis C. PersingEllis C. Persing Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Elementary School Journal Volume 29, Number 8Apr., 1929 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/456300 Copyright 1929 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Physiography:—An Elementary Science Course in the High School

Physiography:—An Elementary Science Course in the High School