Place-Based Science Teaching and Learning

Forty classroom-ready science teaching and learning activities for elementary and middle school teachers

Grounded in theory and best-practices research, this practical text provides elementary and middle school teachers with 40 place-based activities that will help them to make science learning relevant to their students. This text provides teachers with both a rationale and a set of strategies and activities for teaching science in a local context to help students engage with science learning and come to understand the importance of science in their everyday lives.

Key Features:

• Provides the basic science background needed to maximize the activities and support both teachers and students in expanding their science content knowledge
• Cultural and social connections highlight the relationship between science and society and contextualizes the place-based science activities
• Thinking like a scientist pedagogical feature highlights key inquiry processes that are fundamental to practicing science
• Grade level modifications provide examples of suggestions for how teachers can modify the activities to make them more appropriate for lower elementary, upper elementary and middle grades students
• Interdisciplinary connections guide teachers on how to use these standards-based activities to connect science learning to the other content areas in the curriculum