In a Community School located in a First Nation in Northern Ontario, grade 3 students draw on their connection with the land and their own background knowledge through a Land-Exploration-Based Approach to learn about structures and their functions. This method allowed students to become primary investigators in their own learning. In preparation for a summative engineering task, students first engaged in various activities to promote both cultural and scientific understanding. An outdoor Snowshoe Discovery Walk provided the opportunity for students to independently identify various structures found in nature along with the co-creation of working classroom definitions. A comparison of natural and human-built structures found in their surroundings was implemented to further develop foundational learning. In the classroom, students engaged in learning about and constructing beaver dams to cultivate essential engineering and design skills. The culminating activity was introduced through the integration of Indigenous stories to foster cultural relevance in students as they partook in designing and testing an animal shelter of their choosing. This holistic approach to teaching effectively engaged students, promoted curiosity, and built on their knowledge of structures and functions all while developing collaboration and problem-solving skills. Next steps are directed at solution improvement in the design process.

How are exploring snowy spaces, starring in children's books, and making science discoveries inextricably linked? Access to and representation in all three of these experiences have historically been inequitable. In this 5E lesson, we address these realities and students' real-life experiences to prepare demographically diverse pre-service elementary teachers to teach science in culturally inclusive ways through 3-dimensional learning about phase change that integrates English Language Arts in the context of Snowy Day, though the bulk of instruction described in the article is equally suitable for facilitation with second grade students as well.

All students deserve access to field-based learning experiences where they can conduct investigations and collect data to answer their questions about the world. These opportunities are particularly important in the context of complex climate-related water issues that will increasingly dominate their futures. Unfortunately, these experiences are rare in Title 1 New Orleans schools due to a number of constraining factors that include time, money, administrative support, and experience. We designed the Puddles to Floods Summer Science Institute to remove these barriers by structuring the program as a 4-week summer school and teacher professional development intensive. We scaffolded field-based investigations to give teachers and their third and fourth grade students multiple opportunities to explore the phenomenon at the heart of the unit: Why did the same amount of rainfall cause their urban schoolyard to flood but not a more natural setting nearby? The program supported students in developing sophisticated and transferable understandings of the causes of flooding, an issue of central relevance to their lives in New Orleans, where urban stormwater flooding shapes daily life. By the end of the program, students identified as scientists and problem solvers who were capable of driving their own learning in the classroom and beyond.