Five Core Shifts Urgently Needed in Elementary Science Education

Over a decade ago, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s (National Academies) report A Framework for K–12 Science Education (the Framework) set new expectations for science education. The vision was for students to experience science by making sense of phenomena and designing solutions to problems through exploration, reflection, and discussion, and to engage in science learning that involves three dimensions: Scientific and Engineering Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Disciplinary Core Ideas.

Since the release of this framework, there have been some transformations in science education to better align science teaching and learning with its vision. But there have also been challenges preventing progress, especially in the early grades.

• Implementation guidance: Research on science education has mainly focused on middle and high school, with less attention and advice guiding science education for elementary students.
• Instructional time: With competing demands for instructional time, there is much less time given to science compared to English language arts and math.
• Professional support: Elementary educators and school leaders often do not have science backgrounds and have limited access to professional learning that builds their science content and pedagogical knowledge.

In a new report, Science and Engineering in Preschool Through Elementary Grades: The Brilliance of Children and the Strengths of Educators, the National Academies has communicated a renewed sense of urgency to prioritize coherent, high-quality science instruction in grades K–5.

The report examines research on effective approaches to early science instruction and offers five core findings to guide the improvement of elementary science education.

1. Making science education a priority in the elementary grades: Science must be taught comprehensively, frequently, and consistently throughout elementary school, with alignment and coherence across grade levels, and students should not be pulled out of science instruction for remediation in other subjects.
2. Supporting children’s learning, engagement, and proficiency with science: Science instruction should be designed around interesting and relevant phenomena, should leverage children’s natural curiosity, and should give students opportunities for decision making, sensemaking, and problem solving. School leaders and teachers should also collaborate with families and the local community to mutually support students’ opportunities for science learning.
   
   Research in Action: PhD Science® is a coherent, knowledge-building, and phenomenon-driven curriculum. With an average of 110 lessons per grade level, each 20–60-minute lesson is designed with time constraints in mind and includes pacing suggestions so that teachers can maximize instructional time.
   
   The program provides rich, authentic anchor phenomena and interconnected, supporting phenomena to help students build and apply science knowledge to explain the world around them. To develop this array of layered phenomena, PhD Science features phenomena with one or more of the following characteristics:
   
   

   • Social significance: Phenomena exhibit lasting significance in diverse cultures and content areas. Stories, art, and primary sources illustrate the multifaceted nature of these phenomena.
   • Classroom relevance: Phenomena incorporate demonstrations and investigations that involve the manipulation of variables and encourage hands-on exploration.
   • Everyday connection: Phenomena allow students to make connections to their everyday lives and personal experiences.
   • Historical connection: Phenomena encourage the study of historical applications, investigations, and explanations that reveal key shifts in human understanding about scientific concepts.

   
   Learn more about phenomena and knowledge-building in PhD Science.

3. Integrating science with other content areas: Just as scientists draw on other content areas in their work, science instruction should be integrated with other subject areas such as English language arts, mathematics, and computational thinking. Integration helps maximize instructional time for science and provides opportunities to motivate, use, and develop skills and concepts in other content domains.

   Research in Action: PhD Science was carefully designed to help students build cross-disciplinary knowledge with thoughtful inclusion of speaking and listening opportunities, mathematics and computational thinking, visual art, and history across the curriculum. PhD Science also purposefully incorporates award-winning trade texts into instruction to reinforce students’ literacy skills.
   
   As a result, students make meaningful connections across scientific concepts, grade levels, and content areas, and have many opportunities to develop math and language arts skills in new, engaging contexts.

   
   Learn more about cross-content connections in PhD Science.

4. Supporting teachers: Elementary school teachers typically teach all subject areas and all areas of science, so preservice teacher education programs and professional learning experiences must develop teachers’ beliefs, knowledge, and practice around effective science instruction. Teachers also benefit from having sufficient physical and digital resources, educative curriculum materials, and supportive school leadership.

5. Supporting transformative school and district leaders: District leaders should provide professional learning opportunities that build the capacity of principals and other school leaders to provide instructional leadership for science. This professional learning should focus on science and engineering practices and help leaders see multiple ways that science and engineering are valuable for students.
   
   
   Research in Action: One of the great strengths of PhD Science is its educative nature. Crafted by our team of teacher–writers, the Teach book of the curriculum includes five features that support teachers’ own learning and help them achieve flexible, high-quality science instruction for all students.
   
   Educators can also benefit from ongoing professional learning in many forms, including in-person and virtual professional development sessions, professional coaching, implementation services, and digital resources. Through these offerings
   

   • teachers can deepen their understanding of the curriculum’s learning design, instructional techniques, classroom management practices, and more and
   • school and district administrators can prepare to lead successful implementation and develop effective ways to understand, support, and evaluate classroom practice.

   
   Learn more about PhD Science’s educative features and professional learning opportunities.

Selecting the right curriculum with the right tools can make all the difference in realizing the vision of the Framework. PhD Science meets this call head-on and offers a program that carefully considers and embodies the Framework in every element. Now is the time to get a knowledge-building science curriculum into every elementary classroom, to inspire students to wonder about the world and empower them to make sense of it, and to lay a strong foundation for lifelong science learning.

Works Cited
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. “Science and Engineering in Preschool Through Elementary Grades: The Brilliance of Children and the Strengths of Educators.” Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/26215.