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  • The Owls and the Snakes (2)

    Book Chapter |

    This book of case studies came from the final year of a three-year research collaboration among a team of teachers and project staff entitled What Influences Teachers’ Modifications of Curriculum? (National Science…

  • The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

    Book Chapter |

    This case study documents what happened in Jenny Tamper's 10th-grade biology class when she showed her students a stanza from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," and asked them to explain…

  • Free-Falling Bodies (1)

    Book Chapter |

    Ninth grade students at two different schools worked on the same conceptual questions about freely falling objects. This chapter presents the first of two case studies about what happened. In this case study, Matt Reese…

  • Free-Falling Bodies (2)

    Book Chapter |

    This case study describes what happened in David Hovan's ninth grade "Conceptual Physics" class when he asked students to answer the conceptual question set introduced in the previous chapter. He then brought the class…

  • Moving Forward

    Book Chapter |

    This book provides materials to support practices of learning to attend to student thinking, in classroom discussions and in student work. It serves to highlight some of the things to recognize in students’ thinking,…

  • The Science-Literacy Connection

    Book Chapter |

    There has been much talk about integrating science and literacy instruction in recent years. Why this focus, particularly in the elementary classroom? One very practical reason is to make time in a crowded curriculum.…

  • Beaks And Biomes: Understanding Adaptation In Migrating Organisms

    Book Chapter |

    In this chapter students conduct direct and indirect investigations to answer the question, How is the sanderling adapted to survive in two different environments? The unit focuses on the sanderling, a shorebird that…

  • My Favorite Tree

    Book Chapter |

    In this chapter, the class works to answer the question, What are the characteristics of trees? Each group of students in the class selects a type of tree to investigate, such as oak, ash, or maple, and then answers the…

  • Come Fly With Me

    Book Chapter |

    In this chapter, students work to answer the question, How does the shape of a bird’s wing affect its flight? Students first investigate how factors such as wing length and shape affect the takeoff and flight of a paper…

  • Drip Drop Detectives: Exposing The Water Cycle

    Book Chapter |

    Throughout the inquiry, in this chapter, students play the role of scientists who are investigating the question, How can a drop of water travel around the world? Students examine the water cycle: evaporation,…

  • Let’s Dig! Exploring Fossils

    Book Chapter |

    This chapter invites students to assume the role of paleontologists in a simulated dig in order to answer the question, What can we learn from studying fossils? Correspondence with a mysterious (fictional)…

  • Patterns In The Sky

    Book Chapter |

    The question students will answer through this chapter is, What can we discover by observing objects in the sky? Three separate but related investigations reveal patterns in the sky. The inquiry begins with an…

  • Inquiry And The Learning Cycle

    Book Chapter |

    Inquiry instruction combines the teaching of scientific content with the development of scientific practices. Inquiry-based instruction has five essential features that occur along an inquiry continuum. In this chapter…

  • Authentic And Relevant Literacy Experiences In Inquiry

    Book Chapter |

    In this chapter, the authors explain the layout of the units in the book. The authors integrated inquiry and literacy in learning cycle units in authentic and relevant ways. Through these units students have…

  • Nonfiction Text Sets

    Book Chapter |

    The rewards of creating nonfiction text sets are great for both teachers and students. Teachers the authors have worked with say that this approach has increased their understanding of nonfiction text and enhanced their…

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