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Background: Internationally, there is a growing concern for developing STEM education to prepare students for a scientifically and technologically advanced society. Despite educational bodies lobbying for an increased focus on STEM, there is limited research on how engineering might be incorporated especially in the elementary school curriculum. A framework of five comprehensive core engineering design processes (problem scoping, idea generation, design and construction, design evaluation, redesign), adapted from the literature on design thinking in young children, served as a basis for the study. We report on a qualitative study of fourth-grade students' developments in working an aerospace problem, which took place during the first year of a 3-year longitudinal study. Students applied design processes together with their mathematics and science knowledge to the design and redesign of a 3-D model plane. Results: The study shows that through an aerospace engineering problem, students could complete initial designs and redesigns of a model plane at varying levels of sophistication. Three levels of increasing sophistication in students' sketches were identified in their designs and redesigns. The second level was the most prevalent involving drawings or templates of planes together with an indication of how to fold the materials as well as measurements linked to the plane's construction. The third level incorporated written instructions and calculations. Students' engagement with each of the framework's design processes revealed problem scoping components in their initial designs and redesigns. Furthermore, students' recommendations for improving their launching techniques revealed an ability to apply their mathematics knowledge in conjunction with their science learning on the forces of flight. Students' addition of context was evident together with an awareness of constraints and a consideration of what was feasible in their design creation. Interestingly, students' application of disciplinary knowledge occurred more frequently in the last two phases of the engineering framework (i.e., design evaluation and redesign), highlighting the need for students to reach these final phases to enable the science and mathematics ideas to emerge.

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The role of emotion during learning encounters in science teacher education is underresearched and under-theorized. In this case study, we explore the emotional climates (ECs), that is, the collective states of emotional arousal, of a preservice secondary science education class to illuminate practice for producing and reproducing high quality learning experiences for preservice science teachers. Theories related to the sociology of emotions informed our analyses from data sources such as preservice teachers' perceptions of the EC of their class, emotional facial expressions, classroom conversations, and cogenerative dialogue. The major outcome from our analyses was that even though preservice teachers reported high positive EC during the professor's science demonstrations, they also valued the professor's in the moment reflections on her teaching that were associated with low EC ratings. We co-relate EC data and preservice teachers' comments during cogenerative dialogue to expand our understanding of high quality experiences and EC in science teacher education. Our study also contributes refinements to research perspectives on EC.Despite a longstanding interest in research on the effectiveness of science-teacher education programs (e.g., James, 1971), few studies have investigated the synergy between emotions, emotional climate (EC), and the quality of science teacher education in university classes. Briefly, EC refers to the collective experience of emotional arousal that develops among groups of people. James' (1971) work provides one example of early interest on the role of general affective states (i.e., attitudes) in preservice science teacher education. Her study explored whether three different supervisory models used in conjunction with practicum had any effect on preservice science teachers' attitudes toward a desirable teaching strategy (i.e., an inductive-indirect teaching technique). Relationships between teacher attitudes and the teaching technique were established through statistical analyses of pre-and post-test data from questionnaires. The group of teachers who received traditional visits from a university supervisor supplemented by self-evaluation sessions using video data of their teaching showed the largest change toward the desired teaching

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Curriculum developers and researchers have promoted context-based programs to arrest waning student interest and participation in the enabling sciences at high school and university. Context-based programs aim for student connections between scientific discourse and real-world contexts to elevate curricular relevance without diminishing conceptual understanding. This interpretive study explored the learning transactions in one 11 th grade context-based chemistry classroom where the context was the local creek. The dialectic of agencystructure was used as a lens to examine how the practices in classroom interactions afforded students the agency for learning. The results suggest that firstly, fluid transitions were evident in the student-student interactions involving successful students; and secondly, fluid transitions linking concepts to context were evident in the students' successful reports. The study reveals that the structures of writing and collaborating in groups enabled students' agential and fluent movement between the field of the real-world creek and the field of the formal chemistry classroom. Furthermore, characteristics of academically successful students in context-based chemistry are highlighted. Research, teaching and future directions for context-based science teaching are discussed.

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Science activities that evoke positive emotional responses make a difference to students' emotional experience of science. In this study, we explored 8 th Grade students' discrete emotions expressed during science activities in a unit on Energy. Multiple data sources including classroom videos, interviews and emotion diaries completed at the end of each lesson were analyzed to identify individual student's emotions. Results from two representative students are presented as case studies. Using a theoretical perspective drawn from theories of emotions founded in sociology, two assertions emerged. Firstly, during the demonstration activity students experienced the emotions of wonder and surprise; secondly, during a laboratory activity students experienced the intense positive emotions of happiness/joy. Characteristics of these activities that contributed to students' positive experiences are highlighted. The study found that choosing activities that evoked strong positive emotional experiences, focused students' attention on the phenomenon they were learning, and the activities were recalled positively. Furthermore, such positive experiences may contribute to students' interest and engagement in science and longerterm memorability. Finally, implications for science teachers and pre-service teacher education are suggested.