Join
Read Science & Children, NSTA’s award-winning, peer-reviewed practitioner journal for elementary-level science teachers, sign up for new article alerts, and more!
Get Full Access With an NSTA Membership
Science & Children
Featured Issue
Creating Meaningful Cross-Curricular Experiences
March/April 2026
Volume 63, Issue 2
One way to help compensate for the lack of learning time in elementary classrooms is to focus on cross-curricular experiences. Providing opportunities to quantify our scientific measurements in math class or use a reading assignment as the elaborate portion of a 5E science lesson helps students make meaning of their science experiences.
Open Access Articles:
- Centering Children’s Voices While Learning in Places: Field-Based Science Wondering That Cultivates Inquiry
- How Hot Is Our Yard? Studying the urban heat island effect on elementary schoolyards
- Pesticide Safe Zones: Building on the cultural wealth of Latine teacher candidates for climate justice teaching
Latest Issues
Archives
Recent Issues
Journal
Science and Children—July/August 2023
Volume 60, Number 6 July/August 2023 We’ve all wondered how a seemingly fragile spiderweb can be both delicate and unbreakable, or how a small frog can effortlessly cling to a glass window. When we slow down to observe nature and see what i...
Journal
Science and Children—May/June 2023
Volume 60, Number 5 May/June 2023 Environmental Science: Natural Disasters Opening just about any newspaper or tuning into a local newscast will inevitably reveal a story about a recent disaster or the possibility of an impending one....
Journal
Science and Children—March/April 2023
Volume 60, Number 4 Ten Years of NGSS: Lessons Learned In the 10 years since the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) were released, 44 states have implemented standards influenced by A Framework for K–12 Science Education and/or the NG...
Journal
Science and Children—January/February 2023
Volume 60, Number 3 Energy In this issue of Science and Children, we address energy by examining how it can be a starting point for deeper learning, help build student-generated testable questions, foster scientific explanations, and allow st...
Journal
Science and Children—November/December 2022
November/December 2022 Volume 60, Number 2 Earth's Place in the Universe Younger elementary students begin to wonder and ask questions about where they live, beyond their homes or neighborhoods. These early learners start to see their worl...
Journal
Science and Children—September/October 2022
Volume 60, Number 1 Joyful Science This school year, let’s find ways to make learning joyful. When I think of joyful learning, I do not think only about the development of lifelong learners ready to ask questions, who actively dive into an ...
Journal
Science and Children—March/April 2022
March/April 2022 Volume 59, Number 4 Water in Our World: Where is there a time when water isn’t essential? Water plays an indispensable role in our very existence, and its properties are almost magical in its abilit...
Journal
Science and Children—January/February 2022
Volume 59, Number 3 Design Thinking is a mindset that values perspectives and embraces failure. Students are encouraged to iterate and think flexibly, promoting innovation through outside-the-box thinking. Creativity and ingenuity are invaluable...
Journal
Science and Children—September/October 2021
Volume 59, Number 1 September/October 2021 In this issue of Science and Children, we focus on how teachers plan for and implement three-dimensional lessons for a wide variety of topics for all grades....
Journal
Science and Children—November/December 2021
Volume 59, Number 2 In this issue of Science and Children, we explore ways to support science learning and language acquisition for all students. Whether through questioning, assistive technology, scientific modeling, or guided exploration,...
Journal
Science and Children—July/August 2021
July/August 2021 Volume 58, Number 6 In our ever-increasingly connected world, accessible through the convenience of travel and extensive improvements in digital communication, we routinely interact with people across the globe in business ve...
Journal
Science and Children—November/December 2020
Volume 58, Number 2 Earth and Space Science for Young Learners ...
Journal
Science and Children—January 2020
Volume 57, Number 5 This month we take a look at ideas for exploring science and engineering at home. Helping families create a culture of curiosity and wonder with thoughtful suggestions for explorations, connections to literature, ideas for ex...
Journal
Science and Children—November/December 2019
When we listen to student conversations, we have a window into their thinking, and knowing what students think can help determine their needs and advance them toward deeper understandings. This month, we take a look at cultivating classroom conversat...
Journal
Science and Children—October 2019
Preschool and early childhood elementary students are constantly faced with inherent problems to solve in their daily lives. In this issue of Science & Children, find out how you can engage young learners in engineering design....
Journal
Science and Children—September 2019
Learning is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Yet differentiation can feel overwhelming and insurmountable in terms of how to address each child’s need separately. With the strategies found in this issue of Science and Children, educators will be a...
Journal
Science and Children—August 2019
Teachers often rely on making connections to other subject areas to enhance or enrich science learning experiences. The features and columns found in this issue of Science and Children offer ideas for cross-curricular integration of learning....
Journal
Science and Children—July 2019
When formative assessment is part of pedagogy, teaching and learning canbecome more meaningful, differentiated, and authentic. This month’s issue of Science and Children focuses on formative assessment and how the information gathered from students...
Journal
Science and Children—April/May 2019
Even the most exquisitely designed science kit will fall short. The articles in this month’s issue of Science and Children transcend cookbook-type teaching approaches and strategies by providing students with wholesome, fully balanced learning sit...
Journal
Science and Children—March 2019
The kid-friendly topic of Motion and Stability allows students to make predictions, carry out investigations, and make claims supported by evidence. So, let’s get the marbles rolling and bring on the pushing and pulling in the classroom as we learn...
Journal
Science and Children—February 2019
In classrooms today, elementary teachers work tirelessly to fit STEM into an already jammed, packed day. This month’s focus on STEM offers ideas for incorporating all four elements of STEM and provides support and guidance in creating STEM lessons ...
Journal
Science and Children—January 2019
The concept of problem-based learning has been vigorously applied in the classroom and touted as a panacea to the traditional curriculum. This month, we take on PBL in all its iterations to share practical and applicable teaching methods and learnin...