The teachers’ role is critical in supporting students’ science learning, with an emphasis on supporting students’ thinking versus a focus on correct answers. There are many frameworks that have been developed for teachers to help organize students’ inquiry-based/practices-based experiences. Below, we discuss two of them: the 5Es and the CER. There are examples of projects that use the 5Es in Units 5-9.

The 5E Model of Instruction

One of the ways to help in planning more hands-on, interactive science and STEM learning experiences is the 5E lesson-planning model, developed by the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS) (Bybee et al., 2006). The 5Es are engage, explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate. Science learning experiences should follow each of these Es in order, and should not rush each stage. The approach is a valuable tool for current and future teachers to understand and use when designing science and STEM learning experiences that occur over time. The framework has been evaluated in research studies and the authors have published many articles and resources to support teaching that uses this framework. Some of the articles published in the Science and Children periodical follow this 5Es framework, including some papers that our collaboration team members, researchers, teachers, and pre-service teachers, have published. As noted above, this is not the only way to frame early/elementary science and integrated STEM experiences, but research suggests that it can be effective.

Claims, Evidence, Reasoning (CER) Framework

The claims, evidence, reasoning framework, published by Zembal-Saul and coauthors (2013) is another tool that teachers can use when designing science and STEM experiences for learners. This framework suggests that teachers organize students’ experiences around claims, evidence, and their reasoning. The claim is a summary statement that describes the relationship between the factors or variables that were investigated; it is based on the analysis of the evidence. The evidence is the data that support the claim. An example for grade one might be a claim (light can’t pass through a piece of cardboard); evidence (when I put the cardboard in front of a flashlight I see a dark shadow in the shape on the wall); reasoning (the cardboard blocks the light and makes a shadow).

Students may collect multiple types of data that can be cited as evidence. Math skills and analysis are essential to this step. The reasoning links the claim and evidence to a scientific principle (e.g., light interacts differently with different materials). From our experience, the reasoning is typically the most challenging piece of the CER for students to write (or to orally explain, for younger students); however, it is also very important. It connects the investigative work of the student to the key science learning. Note that the sophistication of students’ claims, evidence, and especially their reasoning is dependent on age/developmental level/ and experience with the phenomenon/concept at hand. In addition, the focus is not on correct claims/evidence/reasoning but on supporting kids to back up their claims with evidence and explain their reasoning. Learners will become more adept at doing this over time and across many experiences. See the figures below for an example of a CER from a fifth-grade investigation of apparent brightness in stars.

There are a variety of ways for teachers to support their students in defining and describing their own CER for scientific phenomenon. These include prompts, target responses, sentence stems, and peer-to-peer interactions. Prompts should be provided for students to guide their thinking and writing about the phenomenon (or big idea) that is being studied. As a teacher, it is important to draft target responses before implementation, so that you are clear on what students should be able to communicate and can best scaffold their work. The strategies below can support learners who need additional support:

• sentence stems can be provided to help students organize their thinking and writing
• while thinking through CERs, students benefit from opportunities to discuss their thoughts with peers.
• one teacher in our collaboration has students draft responses to each section of the CER in small groups on post-it notes. She then shares the work of small groups with the whole class and together they come to a consensus on the final version of content. Each student then records the final version in their science notebook.
• Zembal-Saul et. al. (2013) include rubrics for assessing CER responses, videos of teachers using the CER framework in elementary classrooms, and other helpful resources.
• Figure 1 provides an example of CER materials from a unit designed to help students understand the relationship between star brightness and distance from the Earth. It is also possible to use claims and evidence in a more open way in which students communicate their own thinking.

Figure 1: CER Example