All Science and Children resources

Journal Article

Fall catches our attention, sometimes in subtle ways. A brisk wind, a seed pod. Consider the nondescript tree that you never notice until its golden or garnet leaves flutter to the ground. For those of us who don’t like cold weather, the beauty of ...

Journal Article

Reuse That Notebook!

How many scientists throw out their notebooks at the end of each year and start over no matter how many empty pages remain? How many of them approach a new research question or experiment without using knowledge gained from the previous years? The an...

Journal Article

Nature Detectives

Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods (2008) added to a growing consensus to get children outside and experiencing nature. Using ideas from place-based education, the authors present a simple year-long project that brings science, nature, and othe...

Journal Article

Graphically Enhanced Science Notebooks

A common mode of communication in the elementary classroom is the science notebook. In this article, the authors outline the ways in which “graphically enhanced science notebooks” can help engage students in complete and robust inquiry. Central t...

Journal Article

A Laboratory of Words

Students are using the tools of scientists when keeping a science notebook. They are also keeping track of their thinking and the changes to their original ideas. To bring students’ existing ideas out for examination, the author implemented a “qu...

Journal Article

Guest Editorial: Making Meaning With Notebooks

Communication is vital to science and has a central role in inquiry—students of all ages need to have a place and a means to reflect on their ideas. Language becomes the primary avenue that students use to arrive at and communicate their scientific...

Journal Article

Editor’s Note: A Foolproof Tool

It’s difficult to think of a tool we use in science classes that provides as much for student learning as a science notebook. It supports the development of science skills, processes, and understanding as well as literacy, numeracy, and attitudes. ...

Journal Article

Nonfiction Literacy in Kindergarten

After an outdoor excursion hunting for a “special leaf” on a delightful fall day, students returned to the classroom and were instructed to capture the leaf on a blank page in their science notebooks. They were asked to document as many details a...

Journal Article

Science 101: How do oil and gas companies know where to drill?

Contrary to popular opinion, most oil is not discovered by a backwoods hunter shooting at some food when up through the ground comes bubbling crude (you younger people ask your parents what silly TV program the author is referring to). Neither is it ...