This book empowers teens by tapping into their interests and imaginations through opportunities to design unique science projects. Intriguing hands-on projects are closely tied to the Next Generation Science Standards. Fun projects like growing hydroponic plants and attention-grabbing topics like slime and electromagnetic trains draw students into active learning. Curiosity-sparking sidebars include high-interest topics like space exploration and satellites. Through project-based learning students develop strategies for testing, analyzing data, and using critical thinking. Readers learn to present their discoveries with peer presentations. The author, a degreed chemical engineer and professional project manager, voices genuine enthusiasm for science projects.

Controlled investigations, the classic sort of science experiment that involved controlled and dependent variables, have been the source of much scientific knowledge over the years. Learners will engage with science through controlled investigations using Project-Based Learning, or PBL, a student-centered pedagogy that involves active and inquiry-based learning. Each project asks student groups to consider an essential question to form a hypothesis and use technology, research, and experimentation to prove or disprove the hypothesis. Sidebars give learners context for what they're learning in each chapter, and a comprehensive list of useful, PBL-friendly tools is provided for reference.

Taking a cue from notable scientists such as Charles Darwin and Jane Goodall, project-based learning in field investigations invites students to explore science outside the classroom. One way to inspire readers' excitement and curiosity about science is to empower them with the tools to find real-world answers to big questions. A field investigation is a scientific research process that involves a systematic collection of data from the environment that contributes to a better understanding of science concepts in the natural world. Twelve hands-on projects with subjects correlate to the Next Generation Science Standards, including field investigations in physics, life sciences, and engineering design.

Engaging in secondary research investigations allows students to actively explore far-reaching, real-world issues without specialized equipment or spending decades generating usable data. This resource's projects establish a step-by-step process to support the design and completion of research investigations in many scientific disciplines. Students will organize, analyze, and draw conclusions from raw scientific data while researching timely, relevant topics of personal interest. With tips on how to evaluate potential bias, organize and sustain a prolonged research project, and communicate scientific findings, this book prepares students to excel in advanced coursework, and also help launch them into the world as scientifically literate, conscientious global citizens.

Throughout history, scientists such as Marie Curie and Isaac Newton recorded their hypotheses and predictions, kept track of data during experiments, and protected precious samples from the field in journals. This instructive volume covers the four main areas of science: Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science, and Engineering Design. Students will learn how to create their own science journals. They can choose from a variety of hands-on experiments, such as creating a model of the new ninth planet to designing a water filtration system, in order to broaden and deepen their learning experience and share newfound knowledge with their peers.

Increasingly, schools are requiring students to produce science portfolios to reflect their body of work in scientific study. This book introduces students to the portfolio concept and how to select and present what they wish to include. It also covers the four types of project-based learning, controlled investigations, field investigations, design investigations, and secondary-research investigations, with projects drawing on the Next Generation Science Standards. A dozen hands-on projects connect readers with real-world skills they can apply in their community. Engaging sidebars provide students with interesting additional information related to the projects.

Supervising Practices for Postgraduate Research in Art, Architecture and Design offers insights into supervisory practices in creative and design-based research by academics at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University, Australia. The book focuses on practices of supervising candidates who are undertaking postgraduate research in art, architecture, design and creative writing. It addresses a decisive shift in the academy towards an emphasis on applied practice-led research undertaken through project-based investigations. This model articulates an effective means to conduct research on knowledge both embodied in, and discovered through creative and design practices. Such knowledge can be understood in the context of broad socio-cultural changes in which creative and applied practice is defining and leading cultural, scientific, technological and creative economies. The contributors to this book investigate a range of supervisory strategies and wider concerns to do with knowledge and its formations. They focus on diverse pedagogical models and methodologies of supervising practices through applied practice-led research, exhibitions, ethics, writing, theory and practice, language and design. The authors are experienced supervisors of creative and practice-led research who have engaged in scholarly reflections on selective aspects of their supervisory practices with the aim of providing insight to others regarding what they do, and how and why they do it. The overall aim of this collection is to open up dialogue and debate around emerging modes of postgraduate research and supervisory practice in universities of the twenty-first century. This is a very astute and valuable contribution to the literature on supervision in the applied arena with a series of excellent discussions on creative practice-based research, pedagogical practices of supervision, creative writing and the creative work in process, ‘generative praxis’, distance supervision, doctoral exhibitions, supervision of designers, and a range of related issues and concerns. ‘It is a path-breaking, path-finding book that will be of great assistance to all kinds of professionals and students across a wide range of disciplines and with important lessons for all doctoral supervision. It is an exciting and accessible book and a great achievement for a group of colleagues in a leading institution.’ Michael A. Peters Emeritus Professor, University

The need for a scientifically literate population that can apply scientific ideas to solve real world problems in the 21st century has never been greater. Yet a growing disconnect exists between this need and the educational capacity to prepare them. The mission of Teaching Science in Elementary and Middle School: A Project-Based Approach, 3e is to help answer this need. Like its predecessors, this new edition is organized around the guiding principles of problem-based learning: long-term, interdisciplinary, student-centered lessons that are relevant to real-world issues and activities. This teaching approach engages all young learners--regardless of culture, race, or gender--in exploring important and meaningful questions through a process of investigation and collaboration. Throughout this dynamic process, students ask questions, make predictions, design investigations, collect and analyze data, make products, and share ideas. Changes in this new edition include the following... Stronger, more explicit connections between PBS, inquiry teaching and the National Science Education Standards (NSES). The theme of establishing the relevance of science to students' lives has been expanded. It now includes attention to discrepant events, anchoring events, and experiencing phenomena in addition to its previous focus on driving questions. To help children understand that science is about explaining phenomena, a new chapter, Making Sense of Data, now follows the one on Designing and Carrying Out Investigations. It contains a section on helping children create evidence-based scientific explanations. A new section on the challenges of special needs and gifted students. The discussion of technology in science teaching have been expanded to include such new devices as wireless handhelds, cameras, cell phones, wikis and ipods. The introductory scenarios have been reworked to insure greater relevance to elementary science teaching. An accompanying Web site will offer test items and strategies to support students in problem-solving and in planning and carrying-out investigations. This text is appropriate for anyone interested in teaching elementary or middle school science using an inquiry-oriented, problem-based framework.