Pre-Service Elementary Teachers’ Use of Science Notebooks

This qualitative study is researching how pre-service elementary teachers understand and use the instructional tool called science notebooks. Science notebooks are a place for students to keep track of their experiments, results, and ideas, similar to how real scientists might. They also allow teachers to implement writing across the curriculum and assess their students’ science understanding. Few studies have been done to find out how pre-service teachers understand and utilize science notebooks for their own teaching practice. The data collected in this study include pre-service teachers’ lesson plans, teaching reflections, and personal science notebooks, elementary student science work, and focus group interviews. The CART Summer Grant is enabling the analysis of the collected data and dissemination of the findings of this study