Becoming an Elementary Teacher of Nature of Science: Lessons Learned for Teaching Elementary Science

As a former elementary science teacher, Valarie wanted to return to a third grade classroom as a teacher to learn how to integrate nature of science (NOS) concepts into the science program for children at a “failing” school. With some success in her endeavor, she now is able to teach other teachers successful ways to integrate NOS into elementary classrooms. As a full-time teacher of third graders in the fall semester, and a returning science coteacher during the following spring semester, Dr. Akerson was able to evidence through pre/post interview data that instructional experiences improved her students’ conception of the tentative nature of science. More broadly, she gained insights about children and schools that she could not have fully understood as an outside researcher.