Rise and Thrive
with Science
Teaching PK–5 Science and Engineering
Nancy Kober
with contributions from Heidi Carlone,
Elizabeth A. Davis, Ximena Dominguez,
Eve Manz, and Carla Zembal-Saul
Amy Stephens and Heidi Schweingruber, Editors
Board on Science Education
Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education
National Academies Press
Washington, DC
NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS 500 Fifth Street, NW Washington, DC 20001
This activity was supported by contracts between the National Academy of Sciences and the Carnegie Corporation of New York (G-19-57002 and G-21-58599). Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of any organization or agency that provided support for the project.
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-69821-4
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-69821-9
Digital Object Identifier: https://doi.org/10.17226/26853
Library of Congress Control Number: 2023949739
This publication is available from the National Academies Press, 500 Fifth Street, NW, Keck 360, Washington, DC 20001; (800) 624-6242 or (202) 334-3313; http://www.nap.edu.
Copyright 2023 by the National Academy of Sciences. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and National Academies Press and the graphical logos for each are all trademarks of the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
Suggested citation: Kober, N., Carlone, H., Davis, E.A., Dominguez, X., Manz, E., & Zembal-Saul, C. 2023. Rise and Thrive with Science: Teaching PK–5 Science and Engineering (A. Stephens & H. Schweingruber, Eds.). Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/26853.
The National Academy of Sciences was established in 1863 by an Act of Congress, signed by President Lincoln, as a private, nongovernmental institution to advise the nation on issues related to science and technology. Members are elected by their peers for outstanding contributions to research. Dr. Marcia McNutt is president.
The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964 under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences to bring the practices of engineering to advising the nation. Members are elected by their peers for extraordinary contributions to engineering. Dr. John L. Anderson is president.
The National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine) was established in 1970 under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences to advise the nation on medical and health issues. Members are elected by their peers for distinguished contributions to medicine and health. Dr. Victor J. Dzau is president.
The three Academies work together as the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation and conduct other activities to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions. The National Academies also encourage education and research, recognize outstanding contributions to knowledge, and increase public understanding in matters of science, engineering, and medicine.
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BOARD ON SCIENCE EDUCATION
SUSAN R. SINGER (Chair), President, St. Olaf College
SUE ALLEN, Principal, Allen & Associates
MEGAN E. BANG, Professor of Learning Sciences and Psychology, Northwestern University; Mellon Distinguished Scholar, Arizona State University
VICKI L. CHANDLER, Provost & Chief Academic Officer, Minerva University
KIRSTEN ELLENBOGEN, President & CEO, Great Lakes Science Center
MAYA M. GARCIA, Chief Program Officer, Beyond100K
DAVID GOLDSTON, Director, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Washington Office
G. PETER LEPAGE, Andrew H. and James S. Tisch Distinguished University Professor of Physics, Cornell University (Emeritus)
WILLIAM R. PENUEL, Professor of Learning Sciences and Human Development, University of Colorado Boulder
STEPHEN L. PRUITT, President, Southern Regional Education Board
K. RENAE PULLEN, K–6 Science Curriculum Instructional Specialist, Caddo Parish Schools, LA
K. ANN RENNINGER, Dorwin P. Cartwright Professor of Social Theory and Social Action, Swarthmore College
FRANCISCO RODRIGUEZ, Chancellor, Los Angeles Community College District
MARCY H. TOWNS, Bodner-Honig Professor of Chemistry, Purdue University
DARRYL N. WILLIAMS, Senior Vice President of Science and Education, Franklin Institute
HEIDI SCHWEINGRUBER, Director
AMY STEPHENS, Associate Director
Contents
Chapter 1: Moving to “I Can Teach Like This”
What does this new approach to science instruction look like?
READY, SET, INVESTIGATE! The mystery of the mess on the beach
Inspiration board: Learning from the case
Why is three-dimensional learning effective?
What does instruction anchored in science investigation and engineering design look like?
GET SET, DESIGN! Kindergartners progress faster and farther by investigating and designing
Inspiration board: Learning from the case
How does this approach to instruction benefit preschool and elementary children?
How can I move toward teaching for three-dimensional learning?
Chapter 2: Bringing Out the Brilliance of All Children
What competencies do children have for learning science and engineering?
READY, SET, INVESTIGATE! Should we let the leaves be? Field-based learning
Inspiration board: Learning from the case
How is learning a social and cultural process?
How can a commitment to equity and justice bring out the brilliance of all children?
Chapter 3: Starting Strong with Investigation and Design
What do investigation and design look like?
What does meaningful investigation look like in preschool and elementary settings?
READY, SET, INVESTIGATE! Learning about sound in the “too loud” class
Inspiration board: Learning from the case
What is sensemaking in science and engineering?
What defines a suitable phenomenon for learning and sensemaking?
How can a phenomenon propel an investigation?
What makes an effective design task?
What does engineering design look like in preschool and elementary classrooms?
GET SET, DESIGN! I like my nightlight but he likes it darker! A design task for young learners
Inspiration board: Learning from the case
How can I address equity and justice in investigation and design?
How can I center instruction on investigation and design?
Chapter 4: Letting Children Lead During Investigation and Design
How can I support children in planning investigations and collecting data?
READY, SET, INVESTIGATE! Where the wild things grow—and why
Inspiration board: Learning from the case
How can I support children in analyzing and interpreting data?
How can I support children in developing and using models?
READY, SET, INVESTIGATE! Invisible waves can shatter glass? Modeling the physics of sound
Inspiration board: Learning from the case
What are the roles of explanation and argument in science and engineering instruction?
How can I support children in constructing explanations?
How can I support children in developing arguments?
Elevating equity and justice through sensemaking
Chapter 5: All Together Now: Supporting Communication and Collaboration
How can I create a positive environment for student interactions?
What does discourse look like in preschool and elementary classrooms?
GET SET, DESIGN! “Good thinking” in an engineering design unit
Inspiration board: Learning from the case
What is discourse and how does it further learning?
How can I support children’s discourse and guide discussion?
What other forms of communication can promote science learning?
How can I support peer-to-peer conversation and interactions?
How can I structure activities and group students to promote collaboration?
How can I ensure that communication and collaborative work are inclusive and equitable?
Chapter 6: Revealing Learning through Assessments
What does assessment look like in a science classroom?
READY, SET, INVESTIGATE! Models and other tools reveal children’s ideas about how some floods happen
Inspiration board: Learning from the case
What purposes can assessment serve for three-dimensional learning?
How can I provide supports for children to show their understanding and skills?
How can I interpret information from assessments?
How can I assess in ways that are fair and unbiased?
What does effective integration look like?
GET SET, DESIGN! Pairing tasks and texts to learn how toys move
Inspiration board: Learning from the case
How does integration of multiple subjects benefit teachers and students?
What are some general principles for effective integration?
How can I integrate ELA with science and engineering?
How can I integrate mathematics with science and engineering instruction?
Don’t feel compelled to do this all at once!
Epilogue: Finding Your Own Sources of Support
Biographical Sketches of Consultants
About This Guide
Science and engineering education for children has undergone a transformation since the 2012 publication of the Framework for K–12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.1 At the center of this transformation is a vision, grounded in research and laid out in the Framework for K–12 Science Education, that children learn these subjects best by engaging from an early age in the kinds of practices used by real scientists and engineers. By “doing” science and engineering, children not only develop and refine their understanding of the disciplinary core ideas and crosscutting concepts (that is, concepts that connect across disciplines and the natural world) of these disciplines, but can also be empowered to use their growing understanding to make sense of questions and problems relevant to them. This approach can make learning more meaningful, equitable, and lasting.
Many states have embraced this vision of learning by adopting the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) or similar state standards based on the Framework for K–12 Science Education. Across the country, districts and schools have been implementing their standards and transforming science and engineering instruction. To translate this vision into changes in instructional practices, educators, district and state leaders, researchers, and companies have worked intensively on curriculum development, instructional design, and classroom-focused research. These efforts have yielded a robust base of knowledge about how children learn science and engineering and an array of strategies for teaching these subjects well.
What do teachers of preschool and elementary children need?
Much of the present research, curricula, and instructional work in science and engineering education has focused on middle and high schools. Fewer resources are
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1 National Research Council. (2012). A framework for K–12 science education: Practices, crosscutting concepts, and core ideas. The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/13165
available for educators of children in preschool through grade 5. Yet, practitioners at these levels have an immediate need for examples of classroom practice, professional development, and other supports to help them implement high-quality strategies for teaching and learning in science and engineering. Although there are thousands of instructional activities and lessons online that purport to be aligned with particular sets of standards, teachers may wonder how effective these activities are and how well they fit together to meet the needs of their students.
Many preschool and elementary educators are aware of and want to try new approaches but have questions like these: How can I make these great ideas work in my classroom? How can I organize instruction to enable young children to carry out their own science investigations and engineering design projects? What are the children in my classroom capable of? What kinds of instruction lead to meaningful learning? How can I engage each one of my students?
What’s the purpose of this guide?
This guide is intended to help answer these and other questions. Through longer, detailed examples—called cases—and shorter examples, it shows what high-quality teaching and learning in science and engineering can look like for preschool and elementary school children. Through analyses of these examples and summaries of research findings, the guide points out the key elements of a coherent, research-grounded approach to teaching and learning in science and engineering.
The goal is to inspire practitioners at the preschool and elementary levels to try new strategies for science and engineering education, whatever their level of experience.
What is the research base for this guide?
This guide is based primarily on a 2022 report of the National Academies called Science and Engineering in Preschool through Elementary Grades: The Brilliance of Children and the Strengths of Educators.2 To produce that report, a committee assembled by the National Academies reviewed and synthesized research on effective science and engineering instruction for children in preschool through grade 5.
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2 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2022). Science and engineering in preschool through elementary grades: The brilliance of children and the strengths of educators. The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/26215
The Brilliance and Strengths report covers fundamental insights about children’s learning and describes how to design, implement, and support instruction and curricula that bring out the inherent brilliance of every child. It discusses the implications of this research for classroom practice at the preschool and elementary levels. The report emphasizes that children as young as age four can “do” science and engineering as a pathway to learning the core ideas and concepts of these fields. To make this happen, instruction should build on children’s natural curiosity, ideas, interests, and experiences in the world around them. It should engage them in investigating phenomena and designing solutions, as scientists and engineers do.
This practitioners’ guide is intended to bring to life the findings of the Brilliance and Strengths report and to present practical issues touched on in that report from a teacher’s perspective. This guide also draws from other sources, including articles and books suggested by the National Academies’ committee members and staff; interviews with educators and researchers; conferences, webinars, and other events organized as follow-ups to the study; published curricula; and websites of research organizations and educator associations.
The instructional strategies described in this guide are supported by evidence presented in the Brilliance and Strengths report. For that report, the National Academies reviewed many types of research studies on preschool and elementary science and engineering. The members of the study committee applied standards of evidence to determine whether to include specific strategies in their report. They carefully considered the strength of the evidence and other factors. In some cases where the evidence for a strategy was sparse but the strategy addressed an important area of focus or filled a gap, the committee decided to include the strategy but noted the quality of the evidence in their report. The Brilliance and Strengths report also looked at evidence that indicated which strategies were most appropriate for various grade bands (preschool, K–2, and 3–5).
What are the sources of the cases and examples?
The cases and examples in this guide illustrate real experiences from classrooms and other learning environments, although in some instances, revealing details have been changed. These examples come from studies of classroom practice and research-based curricula reviewed by Brilliance and Strengths committee members, as well as from the other sources described above. Cases are labeled with the heading “Ready, Set, Investigate!” or “Get Set, Design.” Each of these extended cases is followed by an “inspiration board” where key insights from the case are discussed.
All of the teachers, administrators, students, and parents cited in this guide are referred to by pseudonyms. Education researchers, however, are referred to by their real names and affiliations.
These cases and examples are meant to spotlight particular aspects of preschool and elementary level practice that other educators can learn from. They are not meant to be “perfect” illustrations of instruction, but, rather, to portray how educators in real environments are implementing a new vision of instruction in which children explore the natural world and solve problems much as scientists and engineers do. In addition, each case is a snapshot from a broader sequence of lessons and units; many aspects of that bigger picture have been omitted. As you read and think about these examples, please be respectful of the educators who have bravely opened their thinking, practices, and classrooms to researchers, curriculum developers, and colleagues so that other educators can learn.
Who can use this guide?
Practitioners who work with children in preschool through grade 5 or who support teachers at this level can find useful information in the pages that follow. This audience includes teachers, instructional coaches, principals, and other administrators. Curriculum developers, teacher educators, and others involved in science and engineering education may also find helpful ideas in this guide.
How is the guide organized?
Chapter 1 gives a broad picture of the possibilities and promise of new approaches to teaching science and engineering in preschool through grade 5. It introduces the principles that underlie these approaches and the key elements of effective instruction. The chapter also emphasizes the benefits of these approaches for children and the assets that preschool and elementary educators bring to this work.
Chapter 2 illustrates the competencies that even very young children have for learning science and engineering. It shows how learning is a dynamic cultural and social process that occurs in many different contexts. The chapter also discusses ways to bring out the proficiencies of all children by infusing attention to equity and justice into your instruction and creating a caring classroom community.
Chapter 3 explains the fundamentals of instruction anchored in investigating scientific phenomena and designing solutions to engineering problems. It introduces “sensemaking”—the active process children use to figure out how the natural and
designed worlds work and to solve problems. It goes on to describe features of meaningful science phenomena and engineering design problems for learning.
Chapter 4 explores how you can deepen students’ sensemaking. The chapter discusses key aspects of sensemaking, including strategies to guide children as they plan investigations and design tasks, analyze and interpret data, develop and use models, construct explanations, and argue from evidence.
Chapter 5 looks at the critical role of children’s talk and other forms of discourse in helping teachers elicit and refine students’ ideas and advance their sensemaking. It begins with strategies for creating a positive environment so that children feel comfortable, safe, and willing to interact and learn with their peers.
Chapter 6 discusses approaches to assessments that are compatible with instruction anchored in investigation and design.
Chapter 7 describes how instruction in science and engineering can be intentionally integrated with teaching of other content areas, such as language arts and mathematics, in ways that reinforce learning, make efficient use of classroom time, and maintain the integrity of targeted learning goals.
Have a go!
The strategies and examples in the guide are offered to inspire you as a teacher, leader, or other education professional involved in science and engineering education. They are intended to show some possibilities and build confidence about taking steps in these directions, rather than to lay out models to be implemented in their entirety all at once.
So dip into the chapters that follow. Use this guide to prompt different ways of thinking about your students and your practice. Start by implementing something that intrigues and excites you. Within the broad elements of these new approaches, you can then adapt to your own strengths and those of your students.
Share this guide with colleagues. Discuss it at team meetings. Try out something you may have been hesitant to do, secure in the knowledge that others have also tried and successfully gone down this path. Above all, trust that the assets that have brought you this far as an educator will carry you into new territory.
