Teaching Children Science: Discovery Methods for Elementary and Middle Grades

What specific strategies and techniques will help foster discovery learning? The new edition of Teaching Children Science: Discovery Methods for the Elementary and Middle Grades provides the answers to that question.

This truncated volume is composed of the first nine chapters from Teaching Children Science: A Discovery Approach, Seventh Edition. Like the larger text on which it is based, it takes a constructivist approach to learning and it is written with the same engaging writing style. This brief book of strategies and techniques will help pre-service teachers learn to plan meaningful lessons and units and manage an inquiry-based classroom. The authors suggest productive ways to use the Internet and other technologies in the classroom to enhance learning. Integrating science across the curriculum is also discussed as well as the NSE Standards. Like the larger book, it covers the strategies and techniques for teachers to incorporate cooperative learning, questioning, and active listening in their classrooms.

Readers of this book will become teachers who can create classrooms where children look forward to science time as a wonderful opportunity to learn!

Joseph Abruscato is a former public school science teacher who is presently teaching science methods and curriculum development to pre-service teachers at the University of Vermont. All of his students are engaged in school practicum work that includes the planning and teaching of science units and lessons. He has also authored or co-authored a variety of materials for teachers and students including Teaching Children Science: Discovery Methods for the Elementary and Middle Grades, Third Edition and The Whole Cosmos Catalog of Science Activities.

Dr. Donald DeRosa has worked in the field of science education for twenty years as a classroom teacher; teacher educator; and director of CityLab, a biotechnology-learning laboratory for teachers and students at the Boston University School of Medicine. He is a member of the Department of Curriculum and Teaching where he teaches courses in elementary science education. His research interests focus on the development of effective methods to teach scientific thinking. In addition to conducting workshops on biotechnology education and inquiry-based science teaching for in-service teachers, Dr. DeRosa has co-authored several curriculum supplements in biotechnology and has consulted in the development of biotechnology programs throughout the United States and Europe.