See how a second-grade classroom flexibly uses scaffolds to support the co-development of students’ scientific arguments and models. Scaffolds include zoom-in models and a variety of sentence stems that prompt for integration of evidence, reasoning, and/or causal thinking.
Scaffolds can promote students’ full participation in scientific activity, like the young students generating and supporting claims rooted inside of developing explanatory models here. This is part of dismantling barriers and gatekeepers that limit who participates in science and how.
Read more about the CER framework (claims, evidence, reasoning) and a fifth-grade example here: McNeill, K. L., & Martin, D. M. (2011). Claims, evidence, and reasoning: Demystifying data during a unit on simple machines. Science and Children, 48(8), 52-56.
Teacher Jenny teaches Science along with other...
This page compiles the contributions to the 2026 NARST symposium, drawing on the expertise of local teachers in Seattle who participated in the PASTEL research project.
To raise awareness of the class’s diverse needs and expertise, teacher Emma intentionally adopts anti-ableist and linguistically-inclusive pedagogies that showcase her commitment to building a classroom of interdependence and care. See how she does this!
This site is primarily funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) through Award #1907471 and #1315995