What happens when science and literacy meet in the primary classroom?
Here’s the scenario: Elemen-tary school teachers in kindergarten through second grade tend to be focused on teaching reading, language arts, and math to their young students. Many of the teachers have not taught science in years, and they are terrified of the idea of teaching science. So, often children in the early primary grades have limited contact with science curriculum. A new program at Iowa State, “When Science and Literacy Meet in the Primary Classroom (K-3),” aims to solve that problem, at least for the students of 20 elementary school teachers in Iowa. The project is being funded through the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust. Lori Norton-Meier, assistant professor of literacy education in Iowa State’s College of Human Sciences, directs the project, which brings the 20 elementary teachers to the ISU campus for eight days of training during the summer, sends them back to the classroom, and then brings them back the next two summers for additional training – for a total of three ye
