“I have to do a science project.” These words can produce a feeling of dread for students and parents, with visions of Styrofoam planets or tri-folds for science fairs. But this month’s issue of The Science Teacher describes projects as an integral part of a science class, not as add-ons to be completed at home or for extra credit.
The editor notes that “in a well-designed project, students engage in extended inquiry by addressing complex, authentic questions and creating a meaningful product or artifact.” The teacher serves as a facilitator, resource, and coach. The process also involves the three Cs: critical thinking, communication, and collaboration.
Should project-based science be limited to just the “better” students? I’ve found that some of the “better” students were used to doing well in science by memorizing and following directions. They were intimidated by open-ended activities or projects because there was no correct answer or outcome. Some of the more reluctant students blossomed when they were pursuing topics of interest to them and could express their creativity. All students would benefit from some guidance, scaffolding, and modeling when starting these projects. Simply telling students to “do a project” without any guidelines, examples, and rubrics would be frustrating to both students and teachers.
So, use this issue of The Science Teacher for guidance if you want to try this approach. The article Project-Based Science Instruction: A Primer provides a definition, a rationale and a description of this process, with a sample project plan. Planning for Success and Problem-Based Learning Tools have practical tips and advice, the best advice being to start simple and to allow for some mistakes the first time! The Driving Question Board shows how to guide students through the process of asking a driving question for the project (a necessary step, since students are more accustomed to answering a teacher’s question rather than asking their own).
Other resources include Project-Based Science from the University of Michigan that describes five characteristics of project-based science, checklists from Project-Based Learning, and Project-Based Science Teaching with some examples of projects to get a class started. Part of the process is finding background information on topics. SciLinks can be of assistance here. For example, three articles in this issue describe projects related to geckos, herpetology, and invasive species. The SciLinks codes TST110801 (Herpetology) and TST110802 (Invasive Species) are examples. Don’t forget that students can have passwords to SciLinks, too. And check back through previous issues of The Science Teacher (as well as Science Scope and Science and Children for more examples of projects and potential questions or topics that you could adopt or adapt for your students.
Part of the process of project-based science is the creation of a tangible product by the students to demonstrate their learning. Written reports are certainly one type of product, but let the students use their imagination (and the technology available to them).
But what about all of the material we feel obligated to “cover” and the class time that would be spent on projects? I would certainly look at the state standards and district curriculum for guidance on topics that students could learn about as they worked on projects. My state’s standards have a whole section on the processes of science. The concepts here could be reinforced through project-based science.

If you could have the science lab of your dreams for preK through 2 students, what would it include? What are the minimum required materials, what are the commonly found materials, and what is on your wish list? Would it be in your classroom or a separate lab in the school? Would you have group tables or individual desks? Does your state have offer guidelines? (Thanks to the NSTA elementary level list serve for these questions. The list serves are wonderful vehicles for information exchange.)
Peggy

Every year my students come to class with the idea that it’s colder in the winter because the earth is farther away from the sun. Where did they get this idea?
—Lauren, Aurora, Illinois
Along with notebooks and pencils, students bring some common misconceptions to science class. It’s hard to tell where students learn these misconceptions: from their friends, parents, television, movies, or other media. (I wonder, could the Flintstones be the source of the misconception that humans and dinosaurs lived at the same time?) Perhaps they hear only part of an explanation and invent the rest.
Your students are not unusual — the misconception about the seasons is pervasive. Years ago, there was a study of college graduates who also could not describe the reasons for the seasons (described in the video A Private Universe).
Many textbooks show the earth’s orbit as an exaggerated ellipse, and students know that if they sit closer to a heater they feel warmer. And so, the earth must be closer in its orbit to the sun in the summer when it’s warm (or so they think). They may not realize that their ideas are incorrect, and simply telling the students that their ideas are wrong won’t help them learn the correct ones. Even if students recognize that the earth’s axis is tilted, they may not see the connection between this tilt, the seasons, and the length of daylight time we have. For some additional resources (including visuals) for teaching this concept, go to NSTA’s SciLinks and use “season” as a keyword to get a list of related websites.
If learning involves building on our current understanding, then finding out what students know, don’t know, or think they know is important at the start of a unit. A written pretest might help, but students may have just memorized some facts or definitions without really understanding a concept. I’d recommend the types of activities in Uncovering Student Ideas in Science, by Page Keeley, Francis Eberle, and Lynn Farrin (published by NSTA Press ). The book has formative assessment “probes” to use prior to and during instruction. They are designed to have students apply what they know (or think they know) to a situation. For each probe there is a summary of the topic, a detailed description of what can be learned from the students’ responses, teaching suggestions, and a list of resources on the topic. These probes are in the form of questions or activities that could also serve as engaging activities (or “hooks”) at the beginning of a unit. There are three volumes in the series, each with 25 probes covering a wide variety of topics.
Every year that I taught life science, I had to contend with three big misconceptions: insects are not really animals, the blood in our veins is blue, and plants use minerals from the soil as food. Textbooks often show diagrams of the circulatory system with the veins colored blue, and commercials on television talk about fertilizer as “plant food.” But I still haven’t figured out the source of the insect misconception.

Two particularly inquisitive and bright former preK students (siblings) unexpectedly attended a workshop I gave for early childhood teachers about bringing local butterflies into the classroom for observation. Instead of distracting from the planned workshop, they added to it and made me look good! It was gratifying to have them model how to ask questions, and to comment on what they had learned, one and three years ago, respectively. They recalled the words “pupa” and “chrysalis” and remembered how they saw a red liquid (miconium) after the butterflies emerged from their chrysalides and that it wasn’t blood. It was inspiring to see how observing part of the butterfly life cycle made a great impression.
I hope that all students remember as much from that experience. Repeat the life cycle observations with other species of butterflies or Tenebrio beetles (mealworms) and children will observe insect metamorphosis, and relationship between animal and food source, more than once.
To enable all students to make observations, teachers adapt activities to the needs of the students. Have a bright light source in the classroom to help children with low vision see details. Put caterpillars or other small animals in small containers such as medicine bottles so children with fine motor control difficulty can hold them without accidently squishing them. Some teachers set aside a time for drawing or otherwise documenting an observation of nature each day. What do you do in your classroom to make sure that all students get to carefully observe?
Peggy