The National Science Education Standards (NSES) produced by the National Academy of Sciences in 1966 emphasized “science as inquiry,” urging that students carry out appropriately designed experiments starting in elementary school. A large variety of such curricula now exist, produced both by commercial and non-profit enterprises such as OpenSciEd. The NSES highlighted examples of outstanding science lessons, three of which are reproduced below.
Teaching how experimental evidence is obtained through class activities that require few resources in elementary school.
Click here for an overview of a lesson in which children investigate earthworms in their school yard.
Click here and here for curriculum details.
Teaching how experimental evidence is obtained through class activities that require few resources in middle school.
Click here for an overview of a lesson in which students investigate pendulums in class, constructed with string, tape, and washers.
Click here for curriculum details.
Teaching how experimental evidence is obtained through class activities that require few resources in high school.
Click here for a lesson in which students examine how our understanding of photosynthesis has increased over the course of the past 5 centuries.