This book is based on a series of Pathways articles that illustrate effective instructional methods to help students gain conceptual understanding in ecology. It presents a philosophy of scientific teaching based on pedagogical principles designed to improve learning.

2018 Outstanding Academic Title, Choice Ambitious Science Teaching outlines a powerful framework for science teaching to ensure that instruction is rigorous and equitable for students from all backgrounds. The practices presented in the book are being used in schools and districts that seek to improve science teaching at scale, and a wide range of science subjects and grade levels are represented. The book is organized around four sets of core teaching practices: planning for engagement with big ideas; eliciting student thinking; supporting changes in students’ thinking; and drawing together evidence-based explanations. Discussion of each practice includes tools and routines that teachers can use to support students’ participation, transcripts of actual student-teacher dialogue and descriptions of teachers’ thinking as it unfolds, and examples of student work. The book also provides explicit guidance for “opportunity to learn” strategies that can help scaffold the participation of diverse students. Since the success of these practices depends so heavily on discourse among students, Ambitious Science Teaching includes chapters on productive classroom talk. Science-specific skills such as modeling and scientific argument are also covered. Drawing on the emerging research on core teaching practices and their extensive work with preservice and in-service teachers, Ambitious Science Teaching presents a coherent and aligned set of resources for educators striving to meet the considerable challenges that have been set for them.

This book targets students who are going to be K-12 teachers and points out the responsibilities that both science and education faculty members face. These responsibilities not only include providing fundamental information and skills related to teaching, but also mentoring teachers to reflect their understanding. The National Science Education Standards specifically address grades K-12; however, these standards have a great significance for higher education in that they also address systematic issues of teacher preparation and professional development. This document discusses ways in which the Standards are meaningful to higher education. Chapters 1 and 3 focus on the teaching and assessment standards. Chapter 2 concerns professional development standards. Chapter 4 addresses content standards. Chapter 5 discusses science education program standards. Chapter 6 describes the science education system standards. (YDS)

Packed with specific teaching suggestions--great for both seasoned educators and novice teachers. All three books show you how to convert administrators, school boards, and other decision-makers into strong allies for science education reform.

To ensure they're meeting early learning guidelines for science, preschool educators need fun, age-appropriate, and research-based ways to teach young children about scientific concepts. That's just what they'll get with this hands-on guidebook. The basis for the PBS KIDS show Sid the Science Kid, this innovative teaching resource helps children ages 3 - 5 investigate their everyday world and develop the basics of scienfific thinking, skills they'll apply across subject areas when they enter school. A fun and engaging way to introduce science to young children, PrePS is a must-have because it: is based on the domain-specific approach to cognitive development; provides age-appropriate introduction to key science practices; makes the most of children's natural curiosity; encourages collaboration between teachers and children; enhances any curriculum; and taps teachers' creativity. This reader-friendly guide gives educators the guidance they need to work PrePS into their existing program; sample schedules designed for the preschool classroom; and detailed sample activites they can do right away or use as templates for their own creative lessons. And with the book's assessment guidelines, teachers will know PrePS is having a measurable effect on the classroom environment and student learning.

As a distinctive voice in science education writing, Douglas Larkin provides a fresh perspective for science teachers who work to make real science accessible to all K-12 students. Through compelling anecdotes and vignettes, this book draws deeply on research to present a vision of successful and inspiring science teaching that builds upon the prior knowledge, experiences, and interests of students. With empathy for the challenges faced by contemporary science teachers, Teaching Science in Diverse Classrooms encourages teachers to embrace the intellectual task of engaging their students in learning science, and offers an abundance of examples of what high-quality science teaching for all students looks like. Divided into three sections, this book is a connected set of chapters around the central idea that the decisions made by good science teachers help light the way for their students along both familiar and unfamiliar pathways to understanding. The book addresses topics and issues that occur in the daily lives and career arcs of science teachers such as: • Aiming for culturally relevant science teaching • Eliciting and working with students’ ideas • Introducing discussion and debate • Reshaping school science with scientific practices • Viewing science teachers as science learners Grounded in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), this is a perfect supplementary resource for both preservice and inservice teachers and teacher educators that addresses the intellectual challenges of teaching science in contemporary classrooms and models how to enact effective, reform

Seasoned classroom veterans, pre-tenured faculty, and neophyte teaching assistants alike will find this book invaluable. HHMI Professor Jo Handelsman and her colleagues at the Wisconsin Program for Scientific Teaching (WPST) have distilled key findings from education, learning, and cognitive psychology and translated them into six chapters of digestible research points and practical classroom examples. The recommendations have been tried and tested in the National Academies Summer Institute on Undergraduate Education in Biology and through the WPST. Scientific Teaching is not a prescription for better teaching. Rather, it encourages the reader to approach teaching in a way that captures the spirit and rigor of scientific research and to contribute to transforming how students learn science.