Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a natural process whereby microorganisms break down organic material in the absence of oxygen. Biodigesters (sealed tanks where AD occurs) are complex ecological systems where different microorganisms work together to produce biogas (a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide). They are used to produce energy and fertilizers from organic wastes, such as food waste, crop residues, and animal manure. This article describes the use of a simple model biodigester, built from low-cost materials (water bottles), as a way to introduce students to physical and conceptual models while learning about resource recovery, waste management and sustainability. We piloted our curriculum with pre-service teachers at a [US University], in a middle school [US city] and a high school in [Sub-Saharan African city, country]. Students learned about AD, developed research questions, and built a model biodigester as a tool for scientific inquiry. They collected and analyzed data (e.g., daily biogas and methane production), and they interpreted their results to answer their research questions and make recommendations for local biodigester construction. This article provides an overview of the curriculum and how it can be used in science classrooms to engage students in science and engineering practices.

This two-part article will describe four powerful key ideas embedded in the Framework and the NGSS and ways in which early educators might leverage them with consideration to the unique characteristics of young children and developmentally-appropriate practice (DAP).

Early Years Column.

This article explores a lesson on structure and function in an inclusive first grade classroom. The class is co-taught by a general and special education teacher. The lesson describes how the teachers co-teach through team teaching to plan for possible barriers and use universal design principles to ensure their lesson is accessible to all students.

Teaching Through Trade Books

Teacher-facilitated whole-class conversations can help elementary students apply the full power of the NGSS science and engineering practices to an engineering design process. In this article we describe and provide examples for five kinds of Design Talks. Each type of Design Talk centers on a different framing question and is facilitated by specific prompts that help students voice their ideas and make connections to others’ ideas. Problem-Scoping Talks provide opportunities for students to identify and scope design problems (NGSS Practice 1) with multiple technical, material, and social considerations. Idea Generation Talks help a whole class collectively generate many design ideas (Practice 6). Design-in-Progress Talks help students express ideas about why a design performed as it did and consider what its performance means for their next iteration (NGSS Practices 2 and 4). Design Synthesis Talks support students to reason across these designs and synthesize common themes (Practices 2 and 4). Impact Talks invite students to consider questions like, “should we design this?”, and “who might this solution benefit and who might it harm?” (Practices 1 and 8). Teachers can implement Design Talks to invite and leverage different student strengths in engineering design, with particular attention to issues of equity and care.

School districts across the United States are actively exploring avenues to aid elementary-aged Gifted and Talented (GT) students in conducting student-driven research, value science within their local community, develop students’ science practices and soft skill acquisition. This “Methods and Strategies” describes how a district-wide program integrated novel emerging technologies to improve elementary GT students’ abilities to research a topic of their own interest, in conjunction with a science professional within their community related to that topic, and present their findings at a public symposium. We discuss how use of emerging technologies afforded students a new way to access scientific content via 3D visualization and provided a virtual platform to present their ideas. We share a case of GT students who researched and presented on local bee conservation. Guided by Science and Engineering Practices (grades 3-5) and emerging technologies, participating students developed strategies to conserve bees and presented their findings to members of the local scientist and lay communities. We provide a rubric to support formative assessment of students’ science practices and soft skills during a symposium event for generative feedback. We provide guidance for other community-science and GT programs to enhance students’ research and presentation experiences through emerging technology integration.

No abstract required.

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