Science Practices

Supporting Scientific Practices in Elementary and Middle School Classrooms

This project, based at Northwestern University, investigated how to support elementary and middle school students in the scientific practices of developing scientific explanations, arguments, and models, to learn the important ideas of science more effectively. We analyzed how learners achieve increasingly more sophisticated versions of scientific practices over time. These students worked with three-year coordinated IQWST (Investigating and Questioning Our World Through Science and Technology) curriculum units, developed in prior work, that support argumentation, explanation, and modeling across the three years.

Findings from this study inform the development of Next Generation Science Storylines.

This project was funded by the National Science Foundation grant DRL-1020316 awarded to Brian Reiser at Northwestern University.

Selected Papers

Berland, L., Schwarz, C., Krist, C., Kenyon, L., Lo, A., & Reiser, B. J. (2016). Epistemologies in practice: Making scientific practices meaningful for students. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 53(7), 1082-1112.

Krist, C., Novak, M., Tipton, K., & Brody, L. (Jan 2016). Cultivating a next-generation classroom culture. Science Scope, 39(5): 8-14.

Krist, C. (2016). How a 6th grade classroom develops epistemologies for building scientific knowledge. Proceedings of the 12th International Conference of the Learning Sciences (1). Singapore.

Krist, C., & Reiser, B. (2014). Scientific practices through students’ eyes: How sixth grade students enact and describe purposes for scientific modeling activities over time. Proceedings of the International Conference of the Learning Sciences. Boulder, CO.

Coding Rubrics and Guides

The following coding rubrics and guides were developed as part of the Scientific Practices project and were used to code student assessment items, interviews, and classroom video.

Nature of Account consideration rubric
Justification consideration rubric
Generality consideration rubric
Audience consideration rubric

Guide for Pre-Post Assessment Coding

To reference these materials: Scientific Practices Research Group. (2015). Title of relevant rubric or guide [PDF document]. Retrieved from http://www.christinakrist.org/science-practices.html.