"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.

A collection in which the contributors draw on diverse areas of cognitive science to examine the difference between actual and presumed visual cognition.

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.

BIG activities engage little learners with this complete curriculum for science, math, literacy and language. BIG is powerful. Children want to be BIG. They want to do BIG. They love enormous numbers like a hundred million billion and long words like "tyrannosaurus rex." They love to spread their arms wide and run as fast as they can. Thinking BIG, Learning BIG is filled with BIG activities to engage the imaginations of young children. Children learn best by seeing, feeling, and doing. Making things on a grand scale enhances their understanding. When children build a giant spider with eight legs and eight eyes, and a giant fly with six legs and two eyes and two wings, children can experience the difference between spiders and flies, that they are not just "bugs." BIG creations are more fun, more memorable, and therefore, more educational. The chapters are organized by topic, with activities that build science, math, literacy and language skills, which form a solid foundation for future learning. The information and activities align with the standards set by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, the International Reading Association, and the National Council of Teachers of English. The BIG Connections section presents ways to integrate the topic throughout the curriculum--in sensory experiences, art, music, dramatic play, and gross motor skills.

Contains standards-based activities for the physical sciences that help students learn the scientific method and develop analysis skills that can be applied to science and other subjects.