Best Practices - Intermediate (3-5)

"Developing knowledge to explain and predict the world requires many experiences over a long period…. In the intermediate years more emphasis is placed on how to communicate findings.”
--National Science Education Standards

Students

learn to describe their procedures with greater detail to enable others to replicate them
use tables and graphs to summarize and interpret and predict results.
learn to constructively criticize and to learn from criticism when scientific debate is encouraged
learn through experimentation that there is no perfect design but instead a variety of alternatives and possibilities.

Teachers

arrange the classroom so that different groups tackle the same problem and discuss the merits of the design and execution of the experiment and the solution.
break many complicated scientific ideas into simpler concepts for this age. If the students understand the basic concepts they will be better equipped to internalize the facts and theories later.
Use the AAAS Atlas for Scientific Literacy concept maps will help teachers work with the diversity of students so each individual learns and remembers. Source: http://www.nsta.org