This highly practical resource book presents ways in which teachers can help to develop children's problem-solving and thinking skills through a range of exciting science topics. The book contains classroom-based activities which have been trialled and evaluated by teachers and children, and helpfully shows how the skills developed through rigorous scientific investigations can be used across all areas of the curriculum. The scientific curriculum requirements are extended with exciting and inspiring problem-solving activities that use scientific skills, for example: fair-testing pattern-seeking surveying classifying and identifying investigations over time designing testing and adapting an artefact open-ended exploration The book contains learning objectives for each activity, step by step guidelines for carrying out each problem-solving activity, basic equipment that's needed, examples of learner's work and guidelines for assessment. This book is a must-buy for all early years and primary school teachers keen to encourage an inclusive but differentiated approach to the development of problem-solving and thinking skills in their pupils.

Includes two short stories and a science component to help students develop critical thinking and creative problem-solving skills.

Provides easy steps for encouraging children ages 3 to 5 to begin problem solving on their own.

In recent years national and international reports have been issued that speak of the sad state of the educational system in the United States and the desperate need for reform in teaching science and mathematics. Cognitive psychologists and mathematics and science educators have responded to this need by designing instructional programs that are more compatible with our knowledge of how people acquire, use, and retain knowledge. Many of the guiding principles that underlie these programs are presented in this volume such as teaching comprehension of scientific text through a problem-solving approach: problem planning and representation, selection of relevant information, and simultaneous monitoring of both the specifics of the problem and the mental processes being used to solve it.

"This title provides instruction on how to teach problem solving and critical thinking to young children (birth to 5) using engineering, science, and routines as a framework. The engineering process is an ideal framework for designing learning experiences that support science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning and cognitive development for young children. Young children problem-solve in their daily play, and teachers and caregivers can promote the development of problem solving and critical thinking skills through intentional activities that support young children's brain development and prepare them for kindergarten. Key activities are outlined for each age group, with information on how each activity teaches young children to be curious, persistent, flexible, reflective, and collaborative. This title also provides specific guidance for supporting problem solving and science learning in inclusive classrooms using the universal design for learning (UDL) model, and it helps teachers to prepare children to work towards the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for kindergarten math and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) for kindergarten science. This title can serve as a supplemental text for early childhood curriculum or instructional methods courses"--

This document addresses some of the factors involved in teaching critical thinking skills in the science classroom. It contains sections that deal with: (1) pair problem solving--creating a Socratic learning environment (emphasizes the role of the teacher); (2) writing to learn science (the thought-process protocol); (3) integrating science process skills into the regular curriculum; (4) thinking skills in content area instruction; (5) activity-based elementary science instruction; (6) improving students visual-spatial abilities; (7) using heuristics (including concept mapping and the Vee diagram); (8) the role of student misconceptions in teaching critical thinking; (9) multiple representations as an important instrucational tool; (10) the laboratory as a place where students can make discoveries; (11) the learning cycle of the Science Curriculum Improvement Study (SCIS) which includes exploration, innovation, and discovery; and (12) classroom management issues. A bibliography is also included. (TW)

The National Science Foundation funded a synthesis study on the status, contributions, and future direction of discipline-based education research (DBER) in physics, biological sciences, geosciences, and chemistry. DBER combines knowledge of teaching and learning with deep knowledge of discipline-specific science content. It describes the discipline-specific difficulties learners face and the specialized intellectual and instructional resources that can facilitate student understanding. Discipline-Based Education Research is based on a 30-month study built on two workshops held in 2008 to explore evidence on promising practices in undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. This book asks questions that are essential to advancing DBER and broadening its impact on undergraduate science teaching and learning. The book provides empirical research on undergraduate teaching and learning in the sciences, explores the extent to which this research currently influences undergraduate instruction, and identifies the intellectual and material resources required to further develop DBER. Discipline-Based Education Research provides guidance for future DBER research. In addition, the findings and recommendations of this report may invite, if not assist, post-secondary institutions to increase interest and research activity in DBER and improve its quality and usefulness across all natural science disciples, as well as guide instruction and assessment across natural science courses to improve student learning. The book brings greater focus to issues of student attrition in the natural sciences that are related to the quality of instruction. Discipline-Based Education Research will be of interest to educators, policy makers, researchers, scholars, decision makers in universities, government agencies, curriculum developers, research sponsors, and education advocacy groups.

Problem solving is a topical teaching method employed in science education. This book looks at individual and group learning in science education. Teaching strategies are fully illustrated with descriptions of projects, role play and coursework. The book stresses the importance of classroom tasks.