WHAT ARE THE ACTIVITIES THAT FOCUS ON TEACHING SCIENCE TO ELEMENTARY AND MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS?
As mentioned earlier, these curriculum projects involve scientists and science educators, schools, and publishers. Some materials are ready for trial and formative evaluation, others are still in production. These projects share some characteristics in that the curriculum materials are designed to help children develop an understanding of key concepts, hands-on activities are emphasized along with the development of problem-solving skills, science concepts are related to social and environmental concerns, and science is integrated with the rest of the elementary curriculum–especially writing, mathematics, and reading. Several of the elementary school science projects make use of media. Super Science, funded by NSF and Scholastic, Inc. consists of two classroom magazines: one for grades 1-3 (red edition) and the other for grades 4-6 (blue edition). These magazines are accompanied by computer disk resources containing activities that blend science with math, reading, and social studies.
