"This book is a field guide to the science classroom with authentic examples presented in written and video form. The authors offer six in-depth case studies of class discussion from grades 1 through 8, each keyed to clips of minimally edited in-the-classroom footage on the companion DVD-ROM."--BOOK JACKET.

Karen Gallas provides us with a window into children’s thinking about the world, enabling us to see how students build complex theories, identify important questions, and begin to enter the world of science, all within the naturalistic setting of the classroom. As the title suggests, this book treats classroom science as a particular type of discourse, with its own set of language and thinking practices. Gallas describes the content, structure, and practice of her child-centered approach, explains how the teacher’s role in Science Talks develops and changes over time, and discusses how the use of Science Talks could transform science instruction as a whole. The full transcripts of two such talks included in the appendix, in addition to many smaller quoted interchanges throughout the text, will fascinate readers.

What is science for a child? How do children learn about science and how to do science? Drawing on a vast array of work from neuroscience to classroom observation, Taking Science to School provides a comprehensive picture of what we know about teaching and learning science from kindergarten through eighth grade. By looking at a broad range of questions, this book provides a basic foundation for guiding science teaching and supporting students in their learning. Taking Science to School answers such questions as: When do children begin to learn about science? Are there critical stages in a child's development of such scientific concepts as mass or animate objects? What role does nonschool learning play in children's knowledge of science? How can science education capitalize on children's natural curiosity? What are the best tasks for books, lectures, and hands-on learning? How can teachers be taught to teach science? The book also provides a detailed examination of how we know what we know about children's learning of scienceâ€"about the role of research and evidence. This book will be an essential resource for everyone involved in K-8 science educationâ€"teachers, principals, boards of education, teacher education providers and accreditors, education researchers, federal education agencies, and state and federal policy makers. It will also be a useful guide for parents and others interested in how children learn.

Learn how to connect your curriculum planning to children's interests and thinking. With this book, educators will discover a systematic way for using documentation to design curriculum that emerges from children's inquiries, what they wonder, and what they want to understand. Get strategies for designing a classroom environment at the start of the year to facilitate emergent inquiry curriculum. Each chapter guides teachers to document and reflect on their thinking through each of the five phases of a cycle of inquiry process, including observing, interpreting the meaning of the play they see, and developing questions to engage children.

This book is about learning and ethnography in the context of technologies. Simultaneously, it portrays young people's "thinking attitudes" in computer-based learning environments, and it describes how the practice of ethnography is changing in a digital world. The author likens this form of interaction to "the double helix," where learning and ethnography are intertwined to tell an emergent story about partnerships with technology. Two school computer cultures were videotaped for this study. Separated not only by geography -- one school is on the east coast of New England and the other on the west coast of British Columbia on Vancouver Island -- they are also separated in other ways: ethnic make-up and inner-city vs. rural settings to name only two. Yet these two schools are joined by a strong thread: a change in their respective cultures with the advent of intensive computer-use on the part of the students. Both school communities have watched their young people gain literacy and competence, and their tools have changed from pen to computer, video camera, multimedia and the Internet. Perhaps most striking is that the way they think of themselves as learners has also changed: they see themselves as an active participant, in the pilot's seat or director's chair, as they chart new connections between diverse and often unpredictable worlds of knowledge.

How Students Learn: Science in the Classroom builds on the discoveries detailed in the best-selling How People Learn. Now these findings are presented in a way that teachers can use immediately, to revitalize their work in the classroom for even greater effectiveness. Organized for utility, the book explores how the principles of learning can be applied in science at three levels: elementary, middle, and high school. Leading educators explain in detail how they developed successful curricula and teaching approaches, presenting strategies that serve as models for curriculum development and classroom instruction. Their recounting of personal teaching experiences lends strength and warmth to this volume. This book discusses how to build straightforward science experiments into true understanding of scientific principles. It also features illustrated suggestions for classroom activities.

A scientific twist on a beloved children's classic that's sure to delight both parent and child! Scientist, Scientist, Who do you see? I see Marie Curie in her laboratory! The adored children's classic Brown Bear, Brown Bear gets a nerdy makeover in this science picture book by the #1 bestselling science author for kids. Chris Ferrie! Young readers will delight at taking a familiar text and poking fun at it all while learning about scientists and how they changed the world. Back matter includes brief biographical information of the featured scientists. This sweet baby scientist book parody is the perfect inspiration for scientists of all ages! One of the best books about scientists for kids of the year! Full of scientific rhyming fun, Scientist, Scientist, Who Do You See? features appearances by some of the world's greatest scientists! From Albert Einstein to Marie Curie and Ahmed Zewail, from Charles Darwin to Chien-Shiung Wu and Grace Hopper... and more!