School districts face a dilemma in trying to improve science education. Study after study insists that K-8 students need to learn science through investigation and inquiry, yet classroom teachers at these levels are often unable to generate effective lessons because of their own lack of background knowledge and experience in science. This DVD set, containing about 150 investigations for K-5 children on one disc and about 70 more for grades 6-8 on the other, provides solutions.
These disks have many excellent features, both in the way they are organized and in the content they provide. Sample investigations cover topics in Earth, physical, and life sciences. They are aligned specifically to state and national standards. The activities are indexed in many ways, including by grade level, topic, and unifying concepts. The content of these CD-ROMs can be easily integrated with some of the most popular science teaching kits.
Each section provides background material on the investigation, allowing for assessment through evaluating students’ process skills. Many touch on real-world experiences of the children, and the developers are thorough in listing materials needed and outcomes to be sought. Still, these are not cookbook-style, sequential lesson plans that a teacher could immediately apply without some study and effort. Rather, there is more than enough in each activity for a teacher, even one without a great deal of science background, to plan high-quality, inquiry-based lessons and assess student performance with confidence. The developers have even gone to the extent of including sample student work as guidelines for what to expect and how to evaluate student learning.
The activities on the grade 6-8 CD-ROM are appropriately geared toward students whose math skills and ability to deal with abstract ideas are developing. For example, an ostensibly simple study of why we use salt on the road in the winter leads students into interdisciplinary paths connecting their government (through letters of inquiry to city service departments) and math studies (graphing results) to comparative studies of which salts are best for melting ice.
This program will provide an valuable service to schools in which teachers lack adequate science background, have difficulty in connecting their classroom lessons to required standards, or are not acquainted with best practices in science pedagogy. Master teachers will also find new ways in which to present familiar lessons.