Elementary Science Education Articles for Teachers - Page 3

Fifty years ago, science fiction enthusiasts dreamed of a world in which people would travel in flying cars, eat rehydrated meals, and sit back to relax while robots cleaned the house.  While this “Life of the Future” didn’t exactly come to pass, our present-day lives have definitely become more ...

Ecosystem, photosynthesis, carnivore, metamorphosis – these are all scientific terms that many elementary and middle school students are expected to know after completing a unit in life science class. For some students, understanding scientific vocabulary is akin to learning another language – an...

As high-stakes testing becomes more and more prominent throughout the nation, the pressure falls on teachers to integrate reading and math strategies into other subjects. Science class provides the perfect opportunity to encourage developing skills in reading and understanding expository text – a...

During a recent unit on the human body, one of my students announced that his grandmother had fallen in her kitchen and fractured her hip the previous week.  Since we had just learned that the pelvis is one of the strongest bones in the human body, he wanted to know why her hip had broken from su...

Differentiation is an essential teaching strategy for students of all ability levels. Regular education teachers are often overburdened with crowded classes, high numbers of disadvantaged learners, and vast ranges in ability. Oftentimes, differentiation for the highest-ability student is placed a...

As teachers, we all know that students are more likely to retain information they find interesting.  When I first started teaching, I always looked forward to my space unit the most, as it was easy to motivate kids to learn about stars, planets, and spaceflight. Something about the mysteries of s...

When most students hear the word “engineer,” they think of a person who operates a train.  However, engineers who utilize scientific and mathematical principals to design products, structures, and systems improve our quality of life on a daily basis. From the alarm clocks that wake us up in the m...

Most students experience scientific phenomena each day, although they rarely consider the science behind these experiences as they occur. As teachers, we can take advantage of everyday experience in order to introduce and explain science concepts. Something with which all students have familiarit...

Summer is a time for fun, relaxation, and spending time with friends and family. However, just because kids aren’t in school doesn’t mean they can’t be learning. Whether you’re a homeschooling parent or a teacher looking for some academic enrichment for your students during the summer, the follow...

One of my students’ favorite books is "James and the Giant Peach," a story about an orphaned boy who mistakenly drops some magic crystals near a peach tree and ends up embarking on the adventure of a lifetime in the resulting giant fruit. While stories like this one are obviously fiction, the exi...

If your students are anything like mine, they find many physical science concepts challenging to comprehend. Ideas such as potential and kinetic energy, friction, inertia, momentum, and simple machines can all be highly confusing for elementary and middle school students – especially if they are ...

Children love to collect things, and over the years, my students have shared collections ranging from coins and bottle caps, to objects as unique as eggshells and glass frogs.  However, the most popular collections among elementary students often consist of rocks and minerals.  Rocks and minerals...

When we go out to eat for a quick meal at a fast-food restaurant, most of us don’t think about what happens to our uneaten food, wrappers, drink cups, napkins, and plastic utensils once we throw them in the trash bin on our way out. Likewise, in the midst of our busy lives, we rarely consider wha...

With constant pressure on elementary teachers to ensure that their students are proficient readers and writers, it only makes sense to incorporate reading and writing into other subjects. Science provides the perfect avenue for subject integration, as children often get excited when writing about...

Although it’s the end of the school year for most teachers, many of us spend a large part of the summer planning for next year, and it’s not too early to starting thinking about how to turn your next class of individuals into a close-knit team. It is important for your students to learn to work t...