E-Book Overview
What types of instructional experiences help K-8 students learn science with understanding? What do science educators teachers, teacher leaders, science specialists, professional development staff, curriculum designers, school administrators need to know to create and support such experiences? ''Ready, Set, Science!'' guides the way with an account of the groundbreaking and comprehensive synthesis of research into teaching and learning science in kindergarten through eighth grade.Based on the recently released National Research Council report Taking Science to School: Learning and Teaching Science in Grades K-8, this book summarizes a rich body of findings from the learning sciences and builds detailed cases of science educators at work to make the implications of research clear, accessible, and stimulating for a broad range of science educators. ''Ready, Set, Science!'' is filled with classroom case studies that bring to life the research findings and help readers to replicate success. Most of these stories are based on real classroom experiences that illustrate the complexities that teachers grapple with every day.They show how teachers work to select and design rigorous and engaging instructional tasks, manage classrooms, orchestrate productive discussions with culturally and linguistically diverse groups of students, and help students make their thinking visible using a variety of representational tools. This book will be an essential resource for science education practitioners and contains information that will be extremely useful to everyone including parents directly or indirectly involved in the teaching of science.
E-Book Content
Ready, Set,
SCIENCE! Putting Research to Work in the K-8 Science Classroom
Putting Research to Work in K-8 Science Classrooms
Sarah Michaels, Andrew W. Shouse, and Heidi A. Schweingruber
Board on Science Education Center for Education Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS Washington, D.C. www.nap.edu
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
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Washington, DC 20001
NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance. This study was supported by the Merck Institute for Science Education. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Merck Institute for Science Education. Copyright 2008 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America Suggested citation: Michaels, S., Shouse, A.W., and Schweingruber, H.A. (2008). Ready, Set, Science! Putting Research toWork in K-8 Science Classrooms. Board on Science Education, Center for Education, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Michaels, Sarah, 1953 Ready, set, science! : putting research to work in K-8 science classrooms / Sarah Michaels, Andrew W. Shouse, and Heidi A. Schweingruber. p. cm. ISBN-13: 978-0-309-10614-6 (pbk.) ISBN-10: 0-309-10614-1 (pbk.) ISBN-13: 978-0-309-10615-3 (pdf) ISBN-10: 0-309-10615-X (pdf) 1. Science—Study and teaching (Elementary)—United States. 2. Science—Study and teaching (Secondary)—United States. 3. Research— United States. 4. Education, Secondary—Curricula—United States. I. Shouse, Andrew W. II. Schweingruber, Heidi A.