Close-up of Bacteria
 

Improving Science for Students

The 21st Century Center for Research and Development in Cognition and Science Instruction is a five-year national grant funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences to further the goal of fostering science literacy in young people so they are able to compete in a 21st Century global economy. The Center's work focuses on applying the lens of cognitive science to existing middle school science curricula in an effort to improve student learning of science.

The Center's team of cognitive scientists is applying theoretical principles to systematically modify two popular middle school science programs and to prepare related teacher professional development materials. These methods for improving student learning will be evaluated through rigorously designed scientific studies.

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November 2011: Science Stories

11/4/2011

Stories in science are plentiful, don’t be fooled by stereotype. Maybe it’s the pill bugs your class is observing or the webcam video that allows your students to watch birds feeding their young! In the November issue of Science and Children, we explored how to teach science as a story, using inquiry investigations and dynamic questions and processes. In this edition of Science Class, we take it one step further. Click on the November 2011 cover to view the Table of Contents to read a free article (“Webcam Stories”) from the issue. Here is a collection of additional online resources we’ve compiled that relate to Science Stories:

In the News: Science Stories
Too busy to sift through the news in search of interesting stories? Click on the link to read current news stories, collected for you by NSTA staff members, that are related to this theme.

On the Web: Science Stories
With so much on the web, it's hard to know what's really useful. In this section, you'll find web-related opportunities related to this theme.

From the S&C Archives: Science Stories
Readers tell us again and again how timeless our journal articles are. So in this section, we've compiled theme-related articles from the Science and Children archives.

Books, Books, Books: Science Stories
Tired of your textbook? Click on this link for a list of some of the elementary-level books we've found related to this theme.